to guarantee fairness in this year's national college entrance exam,
the exam centers had upgraded all their detection equipment,
zeroing in on the electronic cheating devices that had been running rampant in recent years. Every single one would be flagged.
And the penalties had jumped, too. Before, getting caught just meant your scores were wiped. This year, anyone caught would be permanently banned from taking the exam again.
Last time, I'd talked myself hoarse before I finally convinced them to drop their stupid plan.
But at the class dinner after the exam,
they kept filling my glass until I couldn't stand, then hauled me up to the school rooftop.
Ethan Henson, my childhood friend, clamped his hands around my throat. Nothing but hatred in his eyes.
"Miriam Winfield, this is all your fault!"
"You said we'd get caught if we brought the devices in, but Molls said the class next door used them, and over a dozen of those students got into Westbridge!"
"You destroyed the futures of fifty-six people! You deserve to die!"
The classmates I'd spent three years helping, tutoring, sacrificing my own time for—they turned on me in an instant.
Fists and feet from every direction, and when I tried to break free I went over the edge of the rooftop. My fingers caught the lip of the building and I hung there, screaming for them to pull me up.
Fifty-six classmates. Not a single hand reached for mine.
Every one of them stood a few steps back, watching me dangle, laughing like it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.
My grip gave out. I dropped from the school rooftop and died on impact.
When the authorities questioned them, they swore in unison that I'd jumped.
My parents lost their only daughter in middle age. After that, they stopped eating, stopped sleeping, drifted through their days like ghosts until there was nothing left of them. They killed themselves at home.
Meanwhile, my classmates went on to college like nothing happened, enjoying their lives.
The memory of how my last life ended left cold sweat prickling down my back.
Maybe Molly noticed the color draining from my face,
because she turned to me, lip trembling, voice dripping with hurt.
"Miriam, what's that face supposed to mean? You don't want to buy the cheating devices with the rest of us? You wouldn't go tell a teacher about this, would you?"
Every pair of eyes in the classroom swung toward me.