Chapter 15 - The Copycat
Natalie stopped breathing.
For one second, she was back in the restroom.
Ashley behind her.
Sierra at the door.
Paper falling.
Then training replaced panic.
Do not touch it.
Photograph.
Call an adult.
Natalie texted Counselor Cho.
Within three minutes, security arrived.
The hallway camera footage was preserved before the day ended.
The student was identified by lunch.
Fourteen-year-old Mason Greer.
He had never spoken to Natalie.
He had seen the viral video.
He thought the note would be funny.
“I didn’t threaten her,” he told administrators.
Natalie heard later.
“I was making a joke.”
The phrase infuriated her.
His disciplinary meeting included Natalie only because she agreed to attend.
Mason stared at the table.
He looked terrified.
Natalie asked:
“What part was funny?”
He shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
“You used the exact words Ashley said while I was trapped.”
“I know.”
“So you knew what they meant.”
He started crying.
Natalie felt no satisfaction.
She thought about how easy it would be to demand expulsion.
How powerful that might feel.
Then she remembered what she had said about permanent labels.
“I don’t want him expelled.”
Mason looked up.
His mother cried harder.
Natalie continued.
“But I don’t want nothing to happen either.”
Counselor Cho nodded.
Mason received suspension, mandatory digital-citizenship counseling, and restorative service.
He wrote a formal apology.
Natalie accepted it.
The incident forced Westbrook to confront the viral video again.
Rosa blamed herself.
“I created it.”
Natalie shook her head.
“You recorded evidence.”
“It became entertainment.”
“Not because of you.”
“I still hate it.”
“So do I.”
They sat beside the cleaning cart.
Natalie looked at Rosa.
“Would you record again?”
Rosa thought.
“If someone was trapped and I needed proof?”
“Yes.”
“So would I.”
That mattered.
The lesson was not don’t record.
It was record responsibly.
Later, Natalie told Ashley about the copycat.
Ashley went silent.
Then:
I’m sorry.
Natalie sighed.
You didn’t do this.
He copied me.
That’s not the same as you doing it again.
Ashley:
Still feels like it.
Natalie stared.
Then wrote:
You’re responsible for the original. Not every stupid person who reuses it forever.
Ashley replied:
Dr. Singh?
Natalie laughed.
Me again.
Their strange relationship had become almost funny.
Not friendship.
Not yet.
Maybe never.
That was okay.
The copycat incident also taught Natalie something about her own healing.
She had panicked.
But she had acted.
The fear had returned without taking control.
Dr. Singh called that progress.
Natalie called it annoying.
By winter, college decisions arrived.
Natalie accepted the Harrington scholarship at State University.
She planned to study public policy and possibly law.
Rachel pretended not to be terrified by tuition until remembering the scholarship covered nearly everything.
Rosa demanded she attend a school close enough to visit.
“It’s ninety minutes.”
“Too far.”
“You survived moving from Mexico to Arizona at nineteen.”
“That was different.”
“How?”
“I was nineteen and foolish.”
Natalie laughed.
Sierra was accepted to nursing school.
Ashley planned to attend Michigan State.
Caroline and David remained married, though both attended counseling.
Daniel Harper completed part of his license suspension and began working at a nonprofit administrative role unrelated to student discipline.
Life moved forward.
Then, two weeks before graduation, Ashley asked Natalie for something she had never asked before.
A meeting.
In person.
At Westbrook.
Natalie almost refused.
Then Ashley added:
Mrs. Martinez said she’d be there.
Natalie immediately called Rosa.
“You arranged this?”
“No.”
“Did she ask you?”
“Yes.”
“What does she want?”
“To apologize where it happened.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
The restroom.
Again.
She did not know whether she wanted that.
Dr. Singh asked one question:
“Would going be for Ashley or for you?”
Natalie thought for a long time.
“Both.”
“Is that okay with you?”
Natalie nodded.
“Yes.”
May you like
So she agreed.
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