Chapter 2

Hearing the edge in my voice, she gave up the act and yanked off her mask.

"Ruth Sullivan, save the sarcasm!"

"Yeah, I reported you. So what?"

"I just can't stand it. Why should you get to use an iPhone, drink Starbucks, wear two-hundred-dollar shoes, and still collect a need-based grant? If everyone was like you, how would the students who actually need it survive in college?"

"What I did was the right thing!"

She made it sound so noble that the room broke into applause for her.

I almost wanted to laugh.

A week ago, I'd heard her out on the balcony with my own ears, on the phone asking a friend for advice.

"Babe, I blew through my allowance this month and I want to catch a movie. How do I scrape some cash together?"

"You mean the need-based grant? There's five thousand? Perfect!"

After that, she'd quietly taken my aid application form and copied it word for word.

When I caught her, she'd handed it back with some excuse about checking it over for me.

And now, in her mouth, it had somehow become a fight for justice.

The irony was almost too much.

With the crowd behind her, Lauren stuck her chest out even higher.

"Ruth Sullivan, didn't you say you had proof? Proof that you're clean?"

"Then explain it. Why do you have an iPhone, wear two-hundred-dollar shoes, and drink coffee that costs five, six bucks a cup?"

"Fine."

I didn't hesitate. I pulled the iPhone out of my pocket.

And I held it up in front of everyone.

"First, let me set the record straight. This was never the latest 17. It's an old iPhone 8."

"And it's secondhand."

"My brother works at the electronics mall. He picked it up used for three hundred, fixed it up, and gave it to me. I have the transfer record and the receipt."

The second I finished, Lauren jumped on it.

"Liar. Liar!"

She jabbed a finger at me.

"That day in the dorm, I saw it clear as anything. The phone on your desk was the newest 17."

She swiped her phone open to the photo album.

"Everybody look. Is this an iPhone 17 or not?"

The picture had been zoomed in on purpose, and the students and teachers up front could all see it.

The crowd erupted again, everyone accusing me of lying.

Even Ms. Joyner's face went cold.

"Miss Sullivan, honesty matters. Seeing as this is your first offense, we'll only put a major demerit on your record this time. But if you keep lying, that becomes a character issue, and if it's serious enough..."

"Ms. Joyner, I'm not lying!"

"The phone in that photo isn't mine!"

Lauren frowned.

"What's that supposed to mean? Are you actually trying to weasel out of it?"

My eyes sharpened all at once.

"Weasel out of what?"

"That is not my phone. It's Aria Parsons's."

"That day, her new phone had just come in, and she accidentally got some water on the desk near it, so she set it on my desk for a minute. I've never owned that phone."

"If you don't believe me, I'll let Aria tell you herself!"

The words had barely left me when Aria's hand shot up in the crowd.

"I can vouch for that. Ruth wasn't lying. That really is my phone!"

Afraid people wouldn't believe her, she pulled off the phone case right there.

And showed off the exact same model as the one in the photo.

Instantly people crowded in for a closer look.

And found that it really was identical.

Right down to the dent in the bottom right corner from where it had been dropped.

Just like that, the room's opinion of me shifted.

"Ruth Sullivan wasn't lying. What she said was actually true!"

"Yeah, that phone really isn't hers!"

Hearing all this, Lauren's eyes went red with panic.

"Cover-up! This is nothing but a cover-up!"

"Don't listen to her. The whole class, the whole dorm, who doesn't know you're the closest with Ruth Sullivan? How do we know you aren't just trying to cover for her, so—"

"I am not!"

Aria cut her off, face like ice.

"Lauren, I'm a person with principles. There's no way I'd lie just because we're friends!"

She pointed at the dent in the bottom right corner.

"I dropped it that day when I was carrying books with the class rep. The rep saw it happen."

"And in your photo, the phone has a dent in that exact same spot. The two dents line up down to the millimeter."

"That's proof enough that it's my phone!"

"Besides, I have no reason to lie."

Lauren wouldn't let it go.

"You say you've got no reason, so what, that settles it? This whole thing is just your word, you—"

"My father is the dean of this school."

That one line from Aria dropped the whole room into silence.

She raised three fingers and swore.

"On my father the dean's good name, I swear everything I've said is true."

Once she'd sworn it on the dean's name.

What was there left for anyone to doubt.

Even the teachers' faces started to soften toward me.

Lauren's expression turned as ugly as it could get.

Her teeth grinding hard enough to hear.

Her next words came out like she was forcing them through those teeth.

"Fine. I admit I got the phone wrong!"

"But what about the five, six-dollar coffee? The two-hundred-dollar shoes? Is that something a student on a need-based grant can afford?"