by Jamie Knight
Did someone report us? We did have a weirdly long staring match, but that was after our tests had been handed in. Maybe that’s why the teacher thought something was up. I knew that staring back at her was a dumb thing to do, but I did it anyway, because I can be a fucking idiot on occasion.
“I mean, I didn’t,” Savannah adds and then glances at me.
The dean sits back in her chair and looks at me as well.
If Savannah’s going to defend herself, I know I’d better be ready to plead my case.
I might be facing a losing battle, but I’m going to go down swinging.
Chapter Nine - Robert
“I didn’t cheat,” I pipe in.
I frown at them both.
I’m not about to get blamed for all of this.
Savannah looks at me with confusion all over her face and then back at the dean. I would like to know what is going through her head. How can she act so innocent? I suppose she’s had years of experience.
“Look.” The dean opens up a manila folder on her desk and slides two exams over to us. “The two of you have the same exact test answers. The short answers are verbatim. There’s virtually no difference between your tests, other than the handwriting and the names at the top. I highly doubt this was just a coincidence. If you can explain it to me, I’d love to hear it. Otherwise, I’ll stick to my theory.”
I grab both tests and scan them. Savannah leans to the side, to look over my shoulder. I try not to pull the tests out of her sight like I wish I could.
If the answers are exactly the same, then Savannah must have copied mine. Because I know for damn sure that I didn’t copy hers.
I glare at her and she glares right back at me.
“Whoever cheated just needs to confess,” the dean continues. “This will make moving forward a lot easier and we can get everything squared away.”
“I told you I didn’t cheat!” Savannah squeals.
She sounds very distressed and I think she must notice her sudden change in volume because she shrinks in her chair and looks a bit embarrassed.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to— I studied hard for that test and I knew my stuff and everything I wrote down were my own answers. I didn’t cheat.”
I glare at her and point to myself.
“Well, I didn’t cheat. I wrote my own answers, which means you copied me. It’s the only logical conclusion.”
I hear Savannah gasp.
“That is not what happened! I would never— that’s not what happened!”
The rage is pure on Savannah’s face and I’m feeling the same exact thing.
Why is she so insistent on lying?
Since I know I didn’t cheat, the only other conclusion I can come to is that she did. I’m not about to go down for this. I didn’t do all this hard work just to get the short end of the stick. I have a scholarship and I can’t afford to lose it.
“It’s the only thing that could have happened!” I snap back at her.
It looks like she’s on the verge of tears— and maybe I would care, if she wasn’t telling all these lies.
“Okay, enough!” the dean hisses.
I’d never had a professor or administrator snap at me like this and it shuts us both up. The dean looks between the two of us and takes a deep breath. She looks exhausted and puts both her hands to her temples.
I do feel bad for just yelling like that. It’s not her fault that Savannah’s lying, and I know that losing my temper isn’t going to solve anything. I need to stay rational. If I do, then maybe the dean will be more likely to realize I’m the one telling the truth.
“So, neither one of you wants to confess?” Dean Stapleton asks, after closing her eyes for a second.
“I didn’t cheat,” I respond.
“Well, I didn’t cheat,” Savannah echoes.
The dean looks between the two of us once again. She frowns deeper.
“And that’s your final answer? For both of you?”
Savannah and I look at one another for a second. Her mouth is a hard line and she looks back at the dean.
“It’s the truth,” she says.
“No, I am telling the truth,” I insist.
Maybe there will have to be an investigation by the school. It’ll be easy to prove that I’m the one who is telling the truth.
The dean sighs.
“Okay, then. Since neither of you want to confess, I’m afraid I’ll have to expel you both. Effective immediately, the two of you are no longer students here.”
I was not expecting her to say that. In fact, I’m so shocked I can’t think of anything to say in response.
The dean’s words are like a kick to the chest. I’ve never had a panic attack, but I feel like I’m getting close to having my first one. It’s a little hard to breath.
I haven’t done anything wrong and now my entire world is crashing down. This has been my dream for so long and, now, it’s all falling away. I’m going to lose my scholarship and I don’t know if I’ll be able to get another one. Not that I’ll need it, since I’ve just been expelled from school.
With cheating on my record, it’ll be a mess. I’ll have to get back into medical school, but how will I even pay for it?
Getting a loan would be a bitch— I don’t have the greatest credit and student loans are the worst, but that might be my only option. I don’t want to give up on this dream of mine.
I find myself glued to my chair, hands gripping the arm rests so hard I might break them. I’m practically panting with shock.
“The two of you can leave now.”
Dean Stapleton is giving Savannah a hard stare. She clearly wants us out of her hair.
I open my mouth to protest, but she holds up one hand and stops me.
“No arguments. I gave one of you your chance to confess and save the other. You both denied it and said that was your final answer. Now, there’s nothing more to go into. Leave or I will call security.”
I get up and leave the office in a daze, totally devastated. I’m trying to run through every possible new plan— what to do next, how to get out of this alive, the most I can do for the least amount of money.
And this isn’t even my fault. The person I have to blame is Savannah King.
First, her dad messes with the first stable and decent job my dad had and, now, she’s fucked up my med school plan. It’s almost as if the Kings were put on this planet to fuck with me. Every effect they’ve had on my life has been negative.
Savannah is behind me as we walk out of the dean’s office. I’m so mad at her right now. The mere sight of her face is aggravating me. I don’t know what I’m going to do, how I’m going to confront her.
Why couldn’t she just admit to cheating? Then we wouldn’t have both been expelled. I’d still have my scholarship and she could easily get into another school.
She has the money, the means, the influence.
Her dad could have probably written some kind of letter and poof! She would have been off to another school with barely a scratch in the record that is her always-privileged, happy-bubble life.
Honestly, I just can’t believe she wouldn’t tell the fucking truth!
The more I think about it, the angrier I get.
Is she really that spoiled and unaware that she would let me go down for her mistake? That she’d let everything I’d worked for just be destroyed because she was too proud to admit that she had cheated?
I have so many words for her and none of them are nice. In fact, they are more than not nice.
I’ve held back for so long, but, today, she will learn just how much I hate her. No one can mess with me or mine and expect me to take it sitting down.
I feel so gross that I was having sexual fantasies about a woman who could so cavalierly take me down. I’ve always known she was awful, but I had never realized just how awful she is until this.
All gloves are off now.
If she’s going to completely disregard me, then why should I be decent toward
s her? Honestly, fuck that, and fuck her.
Chapter Ten - Savannah
As Robert and I are leaving the dean’s office, I don’t know exactly what I feel, but it’s a jumble of many different emotions, that’s for sure. My dad is going to be so happy I’m kicked out of med school, since he never wanted me to go here, anyway.
It dawns on me that the main emotion I’m feeling is anger. I’m so pissed! At my dad and at Robert. How could Robert cheat off of me during the exam? And how could he let me go down for his stupid, stupid decision afterwards? What the fuck is wrong with him?
I always knew he didn’t like me. But I never thought he would do me this dirty. I start to wonder if he set me up somehow. That wouldn’t make sense, since he’s been expelled too, but my mind is playing tricks on me as I try to figure out how this could possibly have happened.
I can’t believe that just a couple hours ago I was thinking about how cute he is. Now all I can think about is how dumb his face looks right now. Honestly, I’m thinking about how much I want to punch that face.
As we get outside into the waiting area and the dean’s door closes on us, I’m even angrier. I see Robert in front of me, just looking down like he’s judging me— like he has the right to judge me. Who does he think he is?
Not realizing what I’m doing, I reach up and put my hands on his hard chest. I push him. I push him so hard that he hits the wall and then I just keep him there, holding him against it. I want to pound my fists on his chest and scream into his face. I want him to know the depths of my emotions. I want him to know how much he’s hurt me.
“You cheated off my exam! How could you do that? Why did you do it?”
His brown eyes narrow and he frowns down at my hands, but I don’t let him go.
If I’m going to get anything out of this, it’s a “why.” A reason, damn it. I won’t just let Robert get away with this. I won’t let him.
“Why did you cheat off my exam?” he snaps.
Why is he still acting innocent? I know that I didn’t cheat, so the only other explanation is that he cheated off of me. The dean isn’t listening anymore, and he should just come clean. Even if he did tell me, it’s not like I could back in there. I can’t confess for him.
“I didn’t cheat!” I hiss. “I know I didn’t cheat! I’ve never cheated in my life and I would not start now. I work hard in school. I always have.”
I’ve always been proud of my work ethic. Even if I had been unprepared— which would have to be due to an emergency that had come up because I never go into an exam unprepared— I would still just try to do my best. It would make me feel icky to compromise my morals by cheating like that.
“Well, I didn’t cheat. I know what I wrote down on the test were my own answers,” he snaps. “You’re jeopardizing my entire future for your own fucked up reasons. I literally can’t believe you.”
My hands start to grip into his t-shirt. My is heart pounding. He keeps attacking me and I don’t know what else I can say.
While I’m not saying anything, Robert pulls my hands off him. I back up a little, not wanting to grab him again. I probably shouldn’t have grabbed him in the first place.
I put my hands down by my side and bunch them into fists. I need to keep my emotions in check. I can’t start going crazy because that won’t help at all.
Robert glares at me and pokes a finger in my direction.
“Why don’t you just confess?” he demanded. “You’re rich. You can easily get into another med school. This is my one and only chance. I’ve lost my scholarship and there’s no way I’m going to be able to get another one if I’m expelled from one school for cheating. This is literally a killing blow to my life.”
I know he’s on a scholarship, which is why I don’t understand why he would do something like this. He had to have known the consequences. Why even take the risk?
“I’m not going confess because I didn’t do anything,” I spit back at him. “I know about your scholarship. I don’t get why you would risk it all just to cheat off me. Especially because you did such a bad job. Everyone knows that if you copy someone, you change the wording.”
Not doing that is the easiest way to get caught. You’re basically guaranteed to be found out if you just do a word-for-word. I always thought Robert was a smart guy, but if he’s not only a cheater, but this dumb of a cheater at that, then I must have been wrong.
“Well, I wouldn’t know, would I, Savannah?” he yells so loudly that I almost jump back. “I wouldn’t know because I’ve never cheated! I’ve done all my work my whole life. I’ve always had to earn everything the hard way.
“Not like you. You’re just a spoiled little rich girl who has always gotten her way and, now that you can’t, you’re taking me down with you, and even giving me your tips on how to not get caught cheating, after you get us both in trouble for it. It’s pathetic and I hope you know that.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to respond. Instead, he turns around and leaves. I stand there, speechless, watching him walk away, my heart pounding. He doesn’t turn around to look at me. He just angrily stomps down the hallway.
Once Robert leaves my line of sight, I rub my hands down my face. I didn’t think it would get that passionate. I mean, I came out the gate with a lot of energy, but— I don’t know. That really surprised me.
Also, I never knew he thought that way about me. I don’t think him calling me a ‘spoiled little rich girl’ just came out of the blue. He’s been sitting on that, for sure. It just bubbled up to the surface when everything else happened.
I always figured people would hate me if they knew how wealthy my family was. That’s why I didn’t want my dad picking me up in a limo and stuff like that. But he clearly doesn’t like to let me hide it. And there is just so much hate. It’s not my fault that I was born into this, that I’m apart of my family.
But I suppose that even that sounds like a privileged thing to think. Oh, poor rich girl, claiming victim because I was born into wealth, when I would rather be born into abject poverty.
So, I don’t mean it like that, not even inside my head. I just feel like people shouldn’t judge me based on things that are pretty much beyond my control, unless I want to renounce my entire family and move to a completely different place all by myself or something. Aside from that, it’s not like there’s much I can do about where I come from.
I walk outside and stalk across campus, still thinking about this entire messed up situation. I’m not sure if I should try talking to Robert again. Maybe if he calms down in a little bit, I could try again, and get him to confess, but, now, I need to figure out what to do with myself.
As I’m slowly making way across campus, I run into Nicole. She runs up to me with a smile.
“Savannah! Hey! I thought you were going to spend the day at home?”
I shrug.
“Um, yeah, but I got called into the dean’s office, so I had to come back.”
I point in the direction I just came from, realizing that I probably look like a zombie as I do it. I still feel a little shell shocked from the whole thing.
“Is everything all right?”
I shake my head.
“No. Robert and I got accused of cheating. Apparently, the tests we turned in were exactly the same.”
Nicole looks down at the ground and furrows her brow. After a second, she looks back up at me.
“That’s so weird. What did the dean say? What happened?”
“Well, they don’t know who cheated and Robert wouldn’t confess, so we both got expelled. Afterwards, when we left the dean’s office, he yelled at me and got mad because I wouldn’t tell the dean that I was the one who cheated. He told me I was a ‘spoiled little rich girl.’”
It would almost be funny if the ramifications weren’t so big. I mean, how does not lying about the fact that I didn’t cheat make me a spoiled little rich girl?
Maybe he just feels entitled. Yeah, he worked for his scholarship, but I also earned my p
lace here.
You don’t just coast though med school and, if you do, then no one will respect you and I’m working hard to earn that respect. It’s not always easy to get people to take me seriously, which is why I’ve put so much effort into all of this.
“He really called you that?”
Nicole sounds confused.
My feelings exactly.
“Yeah, I was surprised, too. I never knew that’s how he felt about me. Maybe he just said all those things because he was mad.”
I couldn’t be sure. Maybe he admitted it because he was angry, but I think that’s the way he really feels about me.
I understand that things have been harder for him in life and that I got a step up simply because of the circumstances of my birth, but I’m trying to be a good person. I want to be a good person, anyway. Despite whatever he might think about me.
“I’m sure you’re right. He was probably just upset…”
Nicole frowns and bounces nervously on her heels as she trails off.
“You know what I still don’t understand?” I ask her.
I pull a strand of my hair over my shoulder and wrap it around my finger.
Nicole shakes her head.
“Why Robert would cheat when he had so much on the line? He had to have known he would lose his scholarship if he got caught. One bad grade would have sucked, but he could have gotten past it.”
And now we’re in this huge clusterfuck. Robert did get one thing right when he was yelling at me, though. After this, I could technically go to pretty much whatever med school I wanted. I just have to get my father to pull the right strings.
The only problem is that I don’t know if he’d be willing to do that. I’m sure he would believe me if I told him I didn’t cheat, but there’s a chance he wouldn’t.
And it’s not like he’s been supportive of me going to med school, anyway, so the fact that I got kicked out would probably be a godsend in his eyes. Without my dad’s support, I don’t know if it would be possible for me to get into another university as quickly as I’d like to.
“I need to go see my dad,” I tell Nicole. “Sorry if it felt like I was just unloading on you. I’m still trying to process everything that just happened and— I don’t know. There’s a lot I’ve got to go and figure out.”