Chapter 3: The Aftermath
By noon, the entire campus was talking about the incident. Local news crews had arrived, their cameras set up on the lawn, and reporters were interviewing students and parents who had witnessed the fountain incident. Lila was sitting in the school’s administrative office, giving a formal statement to the police, when Mia ran in, her face glowing with excitement. “The IT department just confirmed that the server logs match the email you sent them! Jake’s IP address was logged in the Dean’s office wing that night!”
Lila let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. For the first time all week, she felt like she could breathe. “That’s good,” she said, smiling. “Now we can prove he did it.”
But the relief didn’t last long. That afternoon, Margaret Hale filed a lawsuit against Lila, claiming defamation and harassment, saying Lila had fabricated the footage to ruin Jake’s reputation. “My son is a hardworking student who has done nothing wrong,” Margaret told reporters outside the courthouse. “Lila Marlow is a bitter, jealous girl who can’t handle the fact that my son is better than her.”
Lila’s parents picked her up from school that night, and her mom hugged her tight, her eyes red. “We’ll fight this, baby,” her dad said, patting her shoulder. “We have the evidence, and we’re not going to let them bully you.”
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But the stress was starting to get to Lila. She’d lost 10 pounds in the past week, and she was having trouble sleeping, replaying the moment Margaret pushed her into the fountain over and over in her head. She’d always thought Westbrook was a place where hard work paid off, but now she realized that even the most exclusive schools had their share of entitled parents and cheaters.
That night, she sat down at her desk and pulled out the USB drive with the security footage, staring at the photo of Jake breaking into the Dean’s office. She thought about all the hours she’d spent studying, all the times she’d stayed up late helping her classmates with their homework, all the times she’d turned down parties to study for exams. She’d worked her entire life to get into Brown, and she wasn’t going to let Jake and Margaret ruin it.
