She Called Me a Cheat, But the Principal Begged Me to Enroll Chapter 09

She Called Me a Cheat, But the Principal Begged Me to Enroll Chapter 09

After the assembly, Madison still had no idea how 

badly the internet had turned on her. 

She thought the matter had been handled. 

The moment she stepped down, she went right. 

back to her arrogant self. 

“Ava, I said what needed to be said, and I 

apologized. Stop dragging this out.” 

“Don’t think I’ll be afraid of you from now on. I am 

still your conduct advisor. From now on, every form, every request, every little rule you break still 

goes through me.” 

I smiled. 

Principal Harris had already notified HR to 

suspend Madison’s student–facing authority and 

transfer her to the remote South Suburban 

satellite campus as a non–teaching administrator. 

She still thought she could keep being my advisor. 

Ridiculous. 

I did not speak. I only nodded respectfully. 

Madison was delighted. 

“So what if you are first overall? You still lost to 

1. me. Also, behave yourself around male classmates. Don’t think running fast and drawing 

well gives you the right to act superior.” 

Her voice droned at my ear, thin and irritating. 

After a full day of chaos, all I could think was that if this had been a normal school day, I would have finished one large sketch, two color drafts, and an interval training session by now. 

Forget it. 

I would get up early tomorrow and make it up. 

The next day, I was working in the studio when Madison rushed into the classroom. 

She dropped to her knees in front of me, then scrambled up and grabbed my arm. 

She was almost out of control. 

I jumped, startled, and the proportions in my 

sketch went crooked. 

“Ava, I was wrong. I know I was wrong. Come with 

1. me. We need to find Principal Harris.” 

“Please speak to him for me. Ask him not to transfer me to the South Suburban satellite 

campus. That position has no student–affairs authority. My pay will drop a level, and the commute is two hours.” 

“HR has already put me on the official review list. If 

I go there, the entire Boston private–school circuit will know I’m finished.” 

This time, the tears were real. 

After seeing the official transfer order, she was 

scared. 

She finally understood she had offended the 

wrong person. 

She rushed to explain again. 

“Brandon set you up. Brandon caused this. Let me 

take you to him and get justice.” 

“I only need you to plead with the principal for me. 

As long as you speak for me, Principal Harris 

won’t send me to South Suburban.” 

She was strong enough to drag me out of my 

seat. 

The teacher leading the class showed no mercy. 

“Ms. Blake, what are you doing here? Do you have any idea how valuable these students‘ time is?” 

“Besides, this is the student Principal Harris personally recruited. Can you afford to waste her 

time?” 

Madison completely lost control. 

She slapped herself as she shouted. 

“I was awful. I was blind. Ava Carter, please help 

1. me. I’m begging you.” 

“You don’t want to watch my career get destroyed, 

do you?” 

I looked up from my sketch. 

The nerve of her. 

With a few words, she had turned her ruined 

career into my responsibility. 

I pulled my arm free and said coldly, “Ms. Blake, 

this is the school’s decision and Principal Harris’s decision. You know I am only a student. I can’t 

reverse that.” 

“And you said it yourself. The person who caused this should answer for it. I suggest you find the person who started this and pushed you into it.” 

“I have already promised Principal Harris that I will continue studying here. If you force me again, I will go back to my old school.” 

“I wonder whether Principal Harris would still stop at transferring you to South Suburban if I left.” 

As we spoke, Madison’s face had swollen from her own slaps. Both cheeks were red and puffy. 

Slowly, a little sense returned to her. 

She muttered, “Ava, you must not go back to your old school. If you do, I’m afraid I’ll lose my job 

entirely.” 

“Okay, okay. I won’t force you anymore. Please don’t make any rash decisions.” 

She patted my shoulder, muttered to herself, then 

rushed toward the athletic field. 

“Brandon, get over here.” 

“I trusted you, Brandon, and you stabbed me in the 

back.” 

Brandon was dribbling a basketball. 

He glanced at her casually. 

“Ms. Blake, how exactly did I stab you in the 

back?” 

“You were the one who decided to defend me. I 

didn’t force you to search Ava’s bag. I didn’t force you to stick a sign on her chest and make her run laps. I didn’t force you to freeze her results.” 

“And now you’re turning around and blaming me?” 

A crowd gathered around the field at once. 

Everyone stopped to watch them tear into each 

other. 

Madison lost all the flirtatious sweetness she 

usually showed Brandon and lunged to scratch his face. 

“You bastard. If you hadn’t hinted at it, would I 

have let you lead me around by the nose?” 

“And that boys‘ spare timing chip. Did you put it in 

Ava’s running bag?” 

Brandon gave her a light shove. 

Madison stumbled and fell to the ground. 

“Ms. Blake,” Brandon said, “you should pack early and report to the South Suburban satellite 

campus.” 

By that afternoon, the board had pulled footage. from the gym, the stairwell, and the equipment 

room. 

There was no room left for Brandon to smile his way out of it. 

The camera showed everything clearly. After the race ended, Brandon took the boys‘ spare timing chip from the equipment room. When he passed me in the stairwell, he slipped the chip into the side pocket of my running bag. 

His goal was simple. 

He could not stand being ranked below a poor transfer student from out of state. He could not 

accept the Annual All–Around Excellence 

Scholarship landing in my hands. He could not 

accept that after his parents had donated so much money, they still could not buy him a shiny college application record. 

The school canceled Brandon’s eligibility for the Annual All–Around Excellence Scholarship and removed him as team captain. 

He was suspended from competition, placed on disciplinary probation, and the integrity violation was added to his internal college–application file. 

His college recommendation letters were 

withdrawn. 

His parents rushed to the school overnight, but 

they could not even get through the door to 

Principal Harris’s office. 

Madison was sent to the South Suburban satellite 

campus. 

She lost all student–affairs authority and could only handle archived forms and old system data 

no one else wanted to touch. 

She spent every day in tears and became a joke 

throughout the entire Boston private–school 

circuit. 

As for me, I kept running, kept drawing, and filled 

every day to the brim. 

At five in the morning, I ran along the river in the 

cold fog. During the day, I drew in the studio until 

my fingers went numb. At night, I video–called my 

mother and read the community hospital’s 

instructions to my father. 

Later, just as I had hoped, I received an admission 

offer from the Rhode Island School of Design. 

I also received a scholarship offer from Columbia 

University’s art program. 

The entire school cheered for me. 

Principal Harris personally announced that the 

school foundation would award me the Annual Art 

Achievement Award. 

The twenty–thousand–dollar prize was not handed 

to me as a check. 

It went directly into my college tuition account. 

I stood under the auditorium lights in my old 

running shoes, the same washed–out pair faded 

almost white. 

This time, no one dared say my results came from cheating. 

For once, the road ahead belonged to me.