She Called Me a Cheat, But the Principal Begged Me to Enroll Chapter 02
I had never been weak.
I liked running. I had liked it since I was a kid.
When I could not draw, I ran laps around the block until my head cleared. When my mother woke in the middle of the night from pain, I ran to the twenty-four-hour pharmacy. When my father could not see the road clearly, I ran to the community center and stood in line for aid in his place.
Running had never been something I did to show off.
It was how I caught my breath inside a life that never gave me much air.
But Madison had just kicked me in the calf, and the heel of her shoe had dug hard into my skin. When I started running, I still limped a little.
Upstairs, Madison watched me with open contempt.
“She barely took a few steps, and now she’s pretending to limp.”
“That’s why Brandon is Brandon. Strong, athletic, talented at art. The whole package.”
I ran a few more steps and steadied myself.
Then I lifted my phone and opened the emergency contact app Principal Harris had approved for me. The phone had been approved so I could check the home monitoring system and contact my parents or school administrators in an emergency.
Convenient.
I started an emergency livestream through the school app, aimed the camera at myself, and shouted.
“I cheated in the race!”
“Ms. Madison Blake was right to punish me!”
“Strip every result I have. I deserve it!”
Madison’s office was on a higher floor, so she could not hear me clearly.
But people on the first and second floors were already looking out.
Dean Miller hurried over with a frown.
“What is going on with this student?”
Madison dropped the arrogance she had shown me and turned to him with a sugary smile.
“Dean Miller, this student cheated in the inter-school five-mile race. She was caught red-handed and still refused to admit it. Standard team discipline. I’m having her run laps.”
She took out the spare timing chip that had somehow ended up in my running bag.
“The race had just ended when I called her into my office. I found this evidence in her bag. This chip is spare equipment. She should not have been able to get it. It was checked out from the equipment room before the race, and after the race, it showed up in her bag.”
“I suspect she tampered with the timing equipment to generate a false result.”
Dean Miller was about to be promoted to vice principal.
Recently, the board had been reviewing Riverton’s admissions data and athletic integrity records. He feared scandals more than anything, especially scandals that could stain the school’s reputation.
Brandon’s parents were also long-term donors to the arts center.
Dean Miller’s frown deepened.
“This school has zero tolerance for competition fraud. Open a disciplinary investigation. Now.”
“If this is true, all results must be canceled. If necessary, terminate her scholarship-recruit status.”
Madison curled her lip.
“Dean Miller, we don’t need to waste time and staff on an investigation. I found the chip in her bag. Plenty of teachers in the office saw it.”
“The Annual All-Around Excellence Scholarship will be awarded soon. If a good kid like Brandon loses it to a manipulative girl like Ava Carter, that would be the real disgrace.”
Dean Miller shook his head.
“Punishing a student is still serious. We need to follow procedure. We cannot be careless.”
Madison looked offended by that. Her eyes narrowed, and her chest rose and fell with anger. Then she muttered under her breath.
“What is it about that broke little transfer girl? Dean Miller just met her, and he’s already taking her side.”
Dean Miller asked my name, then hesitated.
“Her last name is Carter?”
“Ms. Blake, I did hear Principal Harris personally recruited a new transfer student from out of state. An art-scholarship recruit whose portfolio was strong enough to compete for national awards.”
“Could that be her?”
Madison looked like she had heard the funniest joke in the world. She handed him my file.
“Impossible. She only raised her overall score by cheating in the race. The principal is busy. He would never waste time and energy on someone like her.”
Dean Miller flipped through the file. When he saw the need-based aid application, his expression relaxed.
The same mocking smile crept onto his face.
“Right. A kid from a family like that is not exactly principal-recruit material. Not worth his time.”
Cold air knifed down my throat.
I kept my eyes on the livestream data.
The red words on my chest, the wound on my face, and the sight of me being forced to run lap after lap around the track were all caught on camera.
Comments started rolling in.
Bold move, livestreaming your own punishment after cheating.
Hasn’t she been running for a while? It’s freezing out there.
Even if she made a mistake, this punishment is too much.
Doesn’t Riverton use bibs and official chips? Just pull the numbers.
How would a boys’ spare chip even affect a women’s open result?
A student. A public punishment. A cheating accusation. Canceled results.
The livestream had every ingredient the internet loved to tear apart.
Dean Miller checked his phone and saw the livestream.
His face hardened.
What scared him most was not whether I had cheated.
It was the thought of this going online before the board meeting.
“She can afford a smartphone? Who approved her aid?”
