Elena's POV
"Miss Hayes," Dean Katherine's voice chimes in that kind of way people use when they're about to ruin your life. "Several students have filed formal complaints regarding the incident in the quad yesterday. They report feeling unsafe around you."
"Unsafe?" I repeat, my eyebrows rising in alert.
"Your accusations against Tobias Blackwell were quite serious." The man on her left speaks up. Vice Dean something, I don't care right now! All I know is that my future is crumbling right in front of me. "Sexual assault is not something we take lightly at Ashford Academy."
"I know," I say. "That's why I was trying to…" I mumble
"However," Dean Katherine cuts me off. "Mr. Tobias Blackwell has provided security footage from the freshers part showing on the grounds throughout the night. He has witnesses confirming he never left until early this morning . And Miss Chen, your friend, has confirmed he was with her for most of the evening."
Maya. Of course Maya confirmed his alibi. I think about her phone screen. Phase one complete.
"I was drugged," I say, and I hate that this is my only excuse. What does he even say of me? Just a few days in this school and I am drugged and in all this mess? It doesn't tell on a scholarship student, but I have to continue with my excuse if I am going to secure my spot in this school . "Someone put something in my drink. I was barely conscious. These boys were trying to…"
"We have reviewed the security footage from the student union," the woman on the right interrupts. "You appeared intoxicated, yes, but you were walking and talking. You left with your friend Miss Chen. There's no evidence of assault or drugging."
My stomach turns over. "That's not what happened. those guys were going to…"
"Miss Hayes." Dean Katherine's voice sharpens. "I need to show you something."
She turns her laptop around.
The video starts playing and I recognize the hotel room immediately. I am in the video.
I watch myself climb onto a man's lap. Watch my hands pull at his shirt. Watch myself lean in to kiss him, grinding against him, begging in a breathy voice
"Please, I want this. I want you."
The man's face is angled away from the camera. Could be either twin. The audio has been edited. I can tell because I remember him saying I was drugged, that this wasn't right. But in this version, there's just me. Desperate. Willing. Practically attacking him. I know will happen next
"Turn it off," I turn away sharply.
Dean Katherine closes the laptop. "This video has been circulating among the student body since your confrontation with Mr. Tobias. We've asked students to delete it, but as you can imagine, once something like this is online… it never goes away."
"I was drugged," I say again, but my voice has no strength left. I feel water gathering in my eyes "The video is edited. He said I was drugged. He kept saying it but someone cut that part out."
The administrators exchange looks. The kind of looks that say they don't believe me
"The university has a reputation to maintain," Vice Dean says. "We cannot have students who make false accusations against their peers, particularly students from prominent families. We cannot have morally decayed students like you here. It creates a hostile environment."
"A hostile environment." I laugh, and it comes out bitter. They are not listening to me! "I was almost sexually assaulted at the party and I'm creating a hostile environment."
"Miss Hayes." Dean Katherine's voice goes cold. "We have given you every opportunity to succeed here. The Ashford Merit Scholarship is prestigious and highly competitive. It comes with certain expectations of conduct and character."
She slides a paper across the desk toward me.
"Effective immediately, you are expelled from Ashford Academy. You have forty-eight hours to vacate your dorm room. Your scholarship is revoked."
The words hit me but I don't feel them. I'm numb. I pick up the paper and read the official language. I sign
"Is there anything else?" I ask.
Dean Katherine takes the paper from me. "You can go now."
I stand up, but I stagger. My legs feel detached from my body. I manage to walk to the door and stop with my hand on the handle.
"You're all bought," I say without turning around. "It is the rich against the poor here. You should stop giving out scholarships when you are going to take them right back anyway!"
No one responds.
I walk out.
***
Security escorts me back to my dorm like I'm a criminal. Students stop and stare. Some whisper, some laugh out loudly.
I am the girl from the sex tape. The girl who accused a Blackwell. The scholarship slut!
My dorm room door is already open when we arrive. Maya is inside, packing my things back into my suitcase
She looks up when I enter. She looks like she has been crying. "Elena, oh my god. I just heard. This is insane. We're going to fight this. I'll talk to Tobias, maybe he can convince his family to…"
"Get out."
Maya stops mid-sentence. "What?"
"Get out of my room." My voice is flat. More like dead.
"Elena…"
"Phase one complete." I face her fully. "That's what your phone said. Remember? In my dorm room after I was expelled the first time. I saw your screen for like two seconds before you hid it."
I see an expression appear in her face. Too fast for me to catch. Then it's gone, replaced by confused hurt.
"I don't know what you're talking about…" Maya moves close to me
"You suddenly come here, force me to take you to that party, meet Tobias and get a scholarship overnight! Did they put you up to this!?"
"Elena…?"
"I said get out."
Officer Patterson clears his throat behind me. "Miss Chen, you should probably leave. Let Miss Hayes pack in peace."
Maya looks between us, her eyes welling up with fresh tears. "Fine. But I'm not giving up on you. You are my best friend! I cannot let you think I set you up! That is not fair!"
She leaves, taking her designer handbag and her perfect concerned face with her. Rubbish.
Officer Patterson gives me privacy to pack. I stuff my life into my suitcases and a backpack in under an hour. I don't own much. Never have.
The burner phone sits on my desk. I pick it up and read the message one more time.
You failed the task. Punishment incoming.
I open my window and throw the phone as hard as I can. There is a projectile in the air and it disappears into the bushes three stories below.
Then I grab my bags and leave Ashford Academy.
The motel I found online costs forty-nine dollars a night. I can afford six nights, maybe seven if I don't eat much.
The room stinks so bad, I have to wash everywhere. What was I expecting? It had so many bad reviews online. The bed sags in the middle. The TV only gets three channels and one of them is just static.
I sit on the edge of the bed and stare at the wall. I feel my life going down. Where do I go from here? What university will accept someone like me who was expelled. My life is over!
My phone keeps buzzing. So missed calls from Maya. Twenty-three text messages.
"Elena please call me"
"I'm so worried about you"
"Where are you staying?"
"Let me come. Let me help"
"I love you, you know that right?"
I turn my phone off.
***
Day three in the motel. I've applied to six jobs online. Anything at all, but no one's called back.
I eat granola bars from the vending machine, instant noodles too, and try not to think about what happens when my money runs out. I have nowhere to go. No family. No backup plan. If only Marcus could see me now, he would laugh in my face so much
My mother's face flashes through my mind. Seline Hayes. She died when I was fifteen. I miss her
Three weeks after her funeral, my step father, Marcus, told me to pack my things. Said the house and her property was his now, everything was his, and I needed to leave. He kicked me out like garbage. Once I thought he loved me, especially when he changed his last name to my mum's to make her think he loved her. But he was just waiting for her to die so he could take everything. He stole my inheritance, my mother's legacy, and there was nothing I could do about it because I was a minor with no proof of anything.
From there I lived in the trailer park until child services found me. Then foster homes. Then I turned eighteen and aged out of the system. I went back to the trailer park, nights wondering if I'd ever stop being hungry and cold and alone. Well alone until I met Maya
The Ashford scholarship was supposed to change everything.
I laugh at that now, alone in this motel room that smells like failure.
Day eight. I'm down to my last thirty dollars.
I have started going from place to place looking for jobs, but when they find out that I was expelled, they turn their backs on me.
My phone rings. Unknown number. I almost don't answer, but something makes me pick up.
"Miss Hayes?" It's Dean Katherine's voice.
I sit up straight on the motel bed. "Yes?"
"There's been a reconsideration of your case. We would like you to return to campus tomorrow to discuss reinstatement."
My heart stops. Then starts again too fast. "What changed?"
"We can discuss that tomorrow. Can you be in my office at ten AM?"
"I… yes. Yes, I'll be there."
"Excellent. I look forward to seeing you then."
She hangs up.
I stare at my phone for a full minute. Then I start laughing. Then crying. Then both at the same time until I can't breathe and have to put my head between my knees.
Someone changed their mind. Someone with enough power to overturn an expulsion. Someone who wants me back at Ashford.
I should be relieved. Grateful. Happy.
Instead, I'm terrified.
Because no one does something like this for free!
My new dorm is in Jefferson Hall, the oldest building on campus. Smaller rooms. Worse location. But it's something.
I drop my bags on the thin mattress and notice a piece of paper on the desk. Wasn't there when I walked in. I pick it up.
It's a printed schedule for debate club. First meeting tonight at seven PM in Katherine Hall.
Suddenly I hear a familiar vibration. I turn back sharply to see a burner phone sitting at a table opposite me.
I freeze. I know what this means. This phone has always found me. I got rid of it that morning in the hotel, it found its way to my locker, same task in it. I took it out of my locker, broke it into pieces and threw it in the recycle bin, only to have it handed back to me brand new by a girl in my class. I remember how the phone had warned me never to discard it
Now it is sitting across the room, brand new. Someone is taunting me, but who? I walk up to the phone, slowly. My hand is shaking, my heart is racing. When I get in front of it I pause, weighing my options. Then I pick it up
Welcome back Elena. I told you I'd always find you. Now let's play.
New task: Join debate club. Challenge Thomas Blackwell and make him look foolish in front of everyone. Time limit: 72 hours. Failure: permanent expulsion. No second chances this time.
My hands start shaking.
I run to the bathroom. Flush it down the toilet. Wat
ch it disappear in a rush of water.
Then I go back to my room and tear the place
apart looking for cameras, for bugs, for any explanation of how someone is doing this.
I find nothing.