Chapter 2 - Mia’s Envelope
Principal Mercer separated them immediately.
Anna sat with Ben in a conference room beside the main office.
Kayla remained with the dean.
Mia waited somewhere else.
For ten minutes, Anna stared at her wet hands.
Ben finally spoke.
“I’m sorry.”
Anna looked at him.
“For what?”
“For not getting up sooner.”
“You recorded it.”
“I watched first.”
Anna remembered the laughter.
The students looking away.
“You did something.”
Ben looked uncertain.
“Are you mad I recorded you?”
Anna had not considered that.
The humiliation had been captured.
Her face.
The soaked books.
Kayla’s words.
Somewhere, a digital version of the worst five minutes of Anna’s school year now existed.
“Did you send it to anyone besides Principal Mercer?”
“No.”
“Don’t.”
“I won’t.”
Anna nodded.
“Then I’m not mad.”
Principal Mercer entered twenty minutes later with counselor Dr. Priya Shah.
Mercer sat across from Anna.
“Your mother is on her way.”
Anna’s stomach tightened.
“My mom’s working.”
“We told her you weren’t injured.”
“She’ll still leave.”
Mercer seemed to understand the problem.
For a wealthy family, leaving work might mean moving a meeting.
For Anna’s mother, Elena, it meant losing wages.
Possibly angering her supervisor.
“I’m sorry,” Mercer said.
Anna almost replied automatically, It’s okay.
It wasn’t.
Mercer continued.
“I need to ask what happened, in your words.”
Anna told him.
She did not exaggerate.
She had dropped nothing before Kayla approached.
Kayla said her backpack looked like “a thrift-store tragedy.”
Anna told her to leave her alone.
Kayla stepped in front of her.
Anna tried to walk around.
Then Kayla knocked the books into the fountain.
“Has Kayla targeted you before?”
Anna hesitated.
“Yes.”
“How often?”
“I don’t know.”
“More than once?”
“Yes.”
Dr. Shah asked softly, “Why haven’t you reported it?”
Anna looked at the floor.
“Because she doesn’t usually do anything.”
Mercer frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“She talks.”
“About?”
Anna gave a humorless laugh.
“Money.”
Her shoes.
Her backpack.
The lunch she brought from home.
The fact that Elena drove a thirteen-year-old Toyota.
Once, Kayla asked whether Anna’s house had “actual bedrooms or just rooms people slept in.”
Another time she asked whether scholarship students were allowed at the winter formal without paying.
“Did teachers hear any of this?”
“Sometimes.”
“What happened?”
“Kayla says she’s joking.”
“And?”
“People believe her.”
The door opened.
Elena rushed inside wearing navy medical scrubs beneath a winter coat.
She crossed the room and grabbed Anna.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Did she touch you?”
“She grabbed my backpack.”
Elena pulled back.
“Your arm?”
“Fine.”
“Show me.”
“Mom.”
“Anna.”
She showed her.
No marks.
Elena closed her eyes in relief.
Then saw the plastic bags on the floor containing the soaked library books.
Her face changed.
“How much?”
Anna knew exactly what she meant.
Replacement cost.
“I don’t know.”
Mercer intervened.
“Mrs. Torres, Anna will not be charged.”
Elena looked at him.
“Why not?”
“Because she didn’t damage them.”
Anna had never heard a school administrator say something that simple with such certainty.
Elena’s shoulders lowered slightly.
“Thank you.”
Mercer continued.
“Kayla’s family will be responsible if the library determines replacement is necessary.”
Anna looked at him.
Elena squeezed her hand.
Then Mercer explained there was another complaint.
He could not share all details yet.
But Mia Reynolds had come to school that morning with evidence concerning Kayla.
“What kind?” Elena asked.
“We’re determining that.”
Anna said, “Kayla looked terrified.”
Mercer did not react.
“Mia’s allegation involves repeated harassment of several students.”
“Several?” Elena asked.
“Yes.”
“Anna?”
“We don’t know yet.”
That sounded strange.
Then Dr. Shah asked Anna:
“Have you heard of an account called Front Gate?”
Anna’s stomach dropped.
Ben looked at her.
Mercer noticed.
“You know it?”
Everyone at Westbridge knew Front Gate.
It was an anonymous social-media account that posted gossip about students.
Who cheated.
Who broke up.
Whose parents were divorcing.
Who wore fake designer clothes.
Most posts were stupid.
Some were cruel.
Anna had appeared twice.
The first post showed a blurry photograph of her getting out of Elena’s Toyota.
WHEN YOUR SCHOLARSHIP COVERS TUITION BUT NOT A DECENT CAR.
The second was worse.
A photo of Anna carrying grocery bags into an apartment building.
WESTBRIDGE’S FAVORITE POVERTY TOURIST RETURNS HOME.
Anna had never known who took the picture.
Elena’s face went pale.
“What account?”
Anna told her.
“You never showed me.”
“I didn’t want you upset.”
“Anna.”
“I’m sorry.”
Mercer exchanged a glance with Dr. Shah.
“Mia claims Kayla operated Front Gate.”
Ben whispered, “Whoa.”
Anna felt suddenly cold.
“Does she have proof?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“We’re verifying it.”
Anna thought about every rumor.
Every anonymous insult.
Every detail that somehow seemed to appear online.
Then she remembered something.
The second post about her had included a comment:
FULL-RIDE QUEEN.
Very few students knew Anna had a full scholarship rather than partial aid.
Officially, financial-aid information was confidential.
Elena seemed to reach the same conclusion.
“How would Kayla know what kind of scholarship Anna has?”
Mercer went still.
Anna noticed.
“Mr. Mercer?”
The principal looked toward Dr. Shah.
Then back at Elena.
“That,” he said carefully, “is one of the questions we’re now asking.”
A knock came at the door.
The school’s director of advancement stepped inside holding a printed screenshot.
She looked shaken.
“Daniel, we have a problem.”
Mercer stood.
“What?”
She placed the page on the table.
It was a screenshot from Front Gate.
A list of six students.
Beside each name was a label.
FULL AID.
PARTIAL AID.
NO AID.
Anna’s name was first.
Elena stared at the paper.
“That information came from this school.”
Nobody contradicted her.
And suddenly the fountain incident was no longer only about a bully.
Someone had gained access to private financial information.
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And Kayla had apparently used it as a weapon.
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