Chapter 2

After sending the video to myself, I made my way to the dean's office.

Dean Harold Finch, watched the video, and his face darkened.

Ten minutes later, Eleanor was called in.

Ten minutes after that, Ethan and Sophie arrived.

As soon as Sophie walked in, she started crying. "Mr. Finch, I didn't mean to. I didn't know that was Vera's manual—"

I cut her off. "If you didn't know, then why didn't you give it back to me?"

Her crying faltered.

Ethan's face darkened. "Mr. Finch, it's a little misunderstanding between classmates."

I stared at him. "You erased my name, put Sophie's name instead, made me get punished and got me accused of lying. And you call that a little misunderstanding?"

The office fell silent.

Eleanor's face turned red. She never imagined her star student would get totally called out by the video.

Harold slammed his hand on the desk. "Ethan, Sophie, write a letter of reflection. This violation will go into your permanent records."

Sophie started crying harder.

Ethan fixed his gaze on me, his eyes filled with barely contained anger as if I were the one who'd done something wrong.

As we walked out of the office, he blocked my way. "Vera, did you have to blow things up like this?"

I shot back, "Wasn't it you who made things look bad?"

He froze for a second.

I grabbed the manual from Sophie's arms and, right in front of them, tore out the second page with her name on it. The sound of the paper tearing was crisp.

I said, "From now on, no one's ever going to take my things again."

When the news leaked, the whole school was in an uproar.

Ethan was the top student in the grade, the heart of the academic competition team, and teachers saw him as Ivy League material.

Sophie was the arts festival host, excelled in her classes, and was popular with everyone.

The two of them getting written up was rarer than me getting detention after school.

Sophie spent the whole morning crying at her desk. People kept coming over to comfort her.

"Sophie, don't be upset. Vera went overboard," someone said.

"Come on, it's a lab manual. Did it have to be such a big deal?" someone else chimed in.

I sat at my desk, working through practice problems, not bothering to look up.

That was until Ethan walked over and set a cup of latte down in front of me. "Vera, Sophie's been crying all morning. Go talk to her."

I stared at the latte. It was Sophie's favorite.

I never drank lattes because they would mess up my stomach.

But he never remembered.

I pushed the latte back to him. "Go find whoever made her cry, not me."

Ethan lowered his voice. "You weren't like this before."

I finally looked up. "What was I like before?"

He paused.

I finished for him, "Back then, I was easy to push around, always did what I was told. Whenever you wanted me to back down, I did."

Ethan's expression shifted.

I smiled. "Well, you're out of luck. I'm not that person anymore."

He stared at me, as if seeing me for the first time.

After school that afternoon, Sophie stopped me.

Her eyes were still red, but her voice was soft. "Vera, can we make up? I didn't mean to."

I didn't say anything.

She reached out for me. "I know you're upset with me, but you know I've always been scared of getting scolded by teachers. I was so scared at the time."

"So you let me take the blame for you?" I asked.

She bit her lip. "But you've always been the strong one, right?"

I almost laughed out loud.

It turned out that the injustices I'd been forced to bear, she called strength.

As I was about to leave, Sophie suddenly raised her voice. "Vera, is it because of Ethan that you hate me?"

Everyone around us turned to look.

Here she went again, playing the same old game. She always managed to turn every conflict into me being jealous of her.

I looked at her, calm as ever. "Sophie, do you think everyone's like you, always grabbing other people's stuff?"

Her face instantly lost all color.

A soft snicker came from somewhere in the crowd.

I turned around and spotted a guy in a black jacket slouched at the end of the hallway, holding a competition problem set.

He watched me with a relaxed, almost careless smile. "Vera, the teacher sent me to find you."

I froze. "Me?"

He walked over, his voice quiet but loud enough for everyone to hear. "The city physics lab competition needs a partner. I'm picking you."