I stand in the middle of the grand staircase of Royce Hall and stare out across the campus. At the immaculate green grass and beautiful buildings that once populated my dreams.
This is the very step that started it all.
This is where I slipped and fell and woke up in another world. Another life.
This is where my journey began and this is where it must end.
I think about all the things I did to get here and all the things I did to stay here. And then I think about what I have to do to leave here.
I could ignore everything Fitz told me and turn myself in to the dean. Or I could simply drop out without hurting anyone else.
Either way, I’m not coming back here tomorrow.
I turn and start back up the steps, but I’m halted when the front doors of Royce Hall burst open and Sequoia rushes out in a flurry of tears.
“Sequoia,” I call out her name, and she stops at the top of the stairs, staring down at me like a frozen rabbit stares down at the fox that’s about to consume it. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
I assume she’s going to say something like “I got an A minus on a test” or “They ran out of coffee in the student union,” because let’s face it, pretty much anything can set that girl off.
But she doesn’t. She just continues to stare at me, tears streaking her face. And then she starts crying even harder. “I’m sorry!” she blubbers. “I’m so sorry, Kennedy. I didn’t have a choice.”
I climb up the stairs to reach her, my eyebrows knit in confusion. “Slow down. What are you talking about? What did you do?”
“I did what I had to do!” she yells, startling me. “They already started docking our grades. Just like they said. I was about to lose my A. I couldn’t … I…” Her words get swallowed by her shudders. “I…” she tries again, wiping her face. “I’m so sorry.”
With that, she hurries down the stairs and disappears into the parking lot. A moment later, my phone vibrates in my bag and I pull it out to see Dean Lewis’s name on the caller ID.
I don’t even bother answering it. I already know what it’s regarding. Sequoia made the choice for me. She turned me in. She must have assumed it was me behind the cheating scandal after I came to her house blubbering that night.
She must have seen it as a chance to win the race.
Or at least a chance to keep herself from losing.
I turn and walk slowly into the building, trudging down the administration hallway until I find myself back where I started: in the little waiting area in front of Dean Lewis’s office. Where I first met Dylan. Where he first told me about the zombies. Where I refused to believe him.
Turns out he was more right than I could ever imagine.
The door to the office is closed, so I take a seat in the same chair and drop my head in my hands. This is it. This is what I wanted. It’s just not the way I thought it would go down.
Twenty minutes later, the door finally opens and I stand, ready to face the music. But my whole body freezes when Dylan walks out of the office. He catches my eye and winks at me.
“What’s going on?” I demand.
But he doesn’t respond, and a second later Dean Lewis pops her head out. “Hello, Kennedy. Please come in.”
I gape at her and then back at Dylan, trying to put pieces together, trying to make sense of this.
“What’s going on?” I repeat to Dylan.
“You made your choice,” he says, that devilish smirk returning. “Now I’ve made mine.”
“Please come inside, Kennedy,” Dean Lewis repeats, her voice leaving no room for argument.
I take one last look at Dylan before stepping into the office. Dean Lewis closes the door behind me and takes a seat. She gestures for me to do the same. I sit in the chair across from her.
The last time I was in here was when I begged for my spot. Now it appears I’ll be begging again.
“Dylan had nothing to do with this!” I rush to say. “I don’t know what he told you, or what Sequoia told you, but he’s innocent.”
Dean Lewis cocks her head to the side and studies me. “Interesting.”
“What?” I ask, panicked. “What’s interesting?”
“He said the same thing about you.”
I frown in confusion. “About me?”
She sighs. “He said you had nothing to do with it. That he acted alone. That he hacked the teachers’ server, stole the tests, and sold them to students. He even gave us the email address he used—which no longer exists—and he told us which books he hid the money in.”
I think I’m going to faint. I struggle to take deep breaths.
“He can’t do that! He can’t take the blame for this! It was me! I did it all!”
She squints at me, like she’s trying to figure out what to believe. “Sequoia named you both.”
“What?!” I roar. How could she possibly name us both? Why would she even associate Dylan with this?
But then I suddenly hear my own words in my head. The words I said to her that night I stood there crying on her doorstep.
“I was with Dylan. In the library. And then Peabody’s and we were trying to figure out the whole test-stealing thing and then—”
I was sobbing. I was rambling. I wasn’t making any sense.
But apparently that didn’t matter. Sequoia made her own sense of it.
“No,” I say, flustered. “She’s wrong. I did this. You have to believe me. I hacked the teachers’ server. I set up that email address. I sold the tests. Alone.”
“Can you prove it?”
Yes! I think automatically, my hopes lifting. But a second later they come crashing back down to earth when I realize that I can’t. I can’t prove it. Because I destroyed the evidence. I deleted the email account. I burned my notes. I mailed the cash to Southwest High. All I have now is my personal essay, but it doesn’t prove anything. It’ll be my word against his.
“No,” I say, sinking down in my chair.
Dean Lewis rubs her eyes, looking distressed. “I’m sorry, Kennedy. I just don’t believe you. If you and Mr. Parker are having some kind of fling and you’re trying to protect him, I would strongly advise against it.”
“I’m not trying to protect him,” I mutter. “I’m trying to tell you the truth.”
Dean Lewis sighs deeply, looking torn. “You’re a promising student, bound for great things, Kennedy. You’re one of the best we have. I won’t let you throw your future away for a boy.”
“Fine,” I say, launching out of my chair. I reach into my bag and pull out my beautiful navy blue Windsor Academy laptop and place it on Dean Lewis’s desk. “Then I’m dropping out.”