I stood up and craned my neck to look inside—all fifty-six of my classmates, every single one, with Molly and Ethan dead center. The parents who'd been gathered near the school gate were already surging toward them, and the proctor's face was ashen.
He turned to the parents crowding around him and spoke in a voice that cut through the noise.
"Parents of Senior Class 11, are you here? Come forward."
"Here!"
"Sir, what happened? They're supposed to be taking the exam! Why were our children pulled out?!"
"Exactly! If this ruins their national college entrance exam, can you take responsibility for that?!"
"Responsibility?!"
The proctor's expression darkened even further.
"Your children brought electronic cheating devices into the exam room! They don't even answer for themselves—and you want *me* to answer for them?!"
He turned to face Molly and Ethan, standing in the middle of the group.
"Do you know this year's new exam regulation?!"
"Anyone caught cheating during the national college entrance exam is permanently banned from taking the exam again! Your futures are destroyed by your own stupidity!"
The moment his words landed, the crowd erupted.
Every parent from our class went white.
"Cheating devices?"
Austin Henson lunged forward and grabbed the proctor's arm.
"Sir, you've got this wrong! My kid's always been honest—three years he's been grinding, up before dawn, studying past midnight. How could he bring a cheating device in there?!"
"That's right!"
Claudia Mason's eyes were already brimming with tears.
"Sir, this has to be a mistake. My daughter's grades are fine—her father and I sell from a stall at the morning market. Where would we get the money to buy her something like that?"
"It was Miriam Winfield!"
From the crowd, Molly pointed straight at me, tears glistening in her eyes, her teeth clenched.
"She made us all buy them! She said she wanted Westbridge University and she didn't think she could make it, so she wanted to cheat her way in!"
"That's right!"
Ethan fixed his eyes on me, voice cracking high and ugly.
"Miriam Winfield's the class president! She said use the devices for this exam—we couldn't say no! We were forced! You want to punish someone, punish her!"
Before the last word was out, the parents came at me like a mob that had lost all reason.
"You little bitch!"
"You're rotten to the core and you had to drag our Molls down with you?! Do you have any idea how hard her father and I worked to get her this far?!"
Claudia swung her arm and slapped me across the face.
She was on me before I could flinch—her palm cracked against my cheek full-force and my face was already swelling before the sting even hit.
My mother threw herself in front of me the second she saw what happened.
She looked at Claudia, face full of panic.
"Mrs. Mason, you must have it wrong. Our Miriam didn't—"
"Didn't what?!"
Claudia cut her off, voice like a blade.
She reached out and grabbed my mother by the hair.
"Of course you're going to say she didn't do it, right?!"
"You're her mother—you're exactly the same kind of trash she is. Of course you can't admit it!"
"A little wretch like yours pulls something like this? She learned it from you! You worthless piece of filth!"
Claudia raised her arm and slapped my mother across the face.
My mother was small and thin. She couldn't take a hit like that.
Claudia dragged her straight down to the ground.
The other parents swarmed toward my mother like they'd all gone feral, and my father threw himself over her, shielding her with everything he had.
