Chapter 2 - The Second Video
Headmaster Hale watched the 7:12 a.m. video three times.
Dean Evelyn Voss watched once.
Then she stopped looking at the screen.
Maya sat across from them in the headmaster’s office with Jordan beside her.
Sandra Collins had been called away from the emergency department and was driving to Hawthorne.
Taylor sat near the window.
She had stopped pretending not to be frightened.
Hale folded his hands.
“Taylor, why were you inside Financial Aid this morning?”
Taylor looked at Dean Voss.
Voss answered first.
“She was assisting me.”
“With what?”
“A student leadership matter.”
Hale’s expression remained still.
“What student leadership matter requires access to confidential scholarship records?”
“It didn’t.”
“Then why did you take her into the office?”
Voss hesitated.
Taylor turned.
“You said Headmaster Hale approved it.”
Maya looked between them.
Voss’s jaw tightened.
“I said student leadership had authorization to help assemble donor-event packets.”
“You said I could see the scholarship list.”
Silence.
Hale leaned forward.
“The scholarship list?”
Taylor seemed to realize too late what she had admitted.
Dean Voss said sharply, “Taylor.”
Taylor stared at her.
For the first time, Maya saw something strange between them.
Not friendship.
Not simple authority.
A shared secret.
Hale looked at Taylor.
“What list?”
Taylor’s voice became quieter.
“The renewal list.”
Maya felt Jordan shift beside her.
Hale asked, “Why did you want to see it?”
“I didn’t.”
Voss interrupted.
“This is becoming unnecessarily dramatic.”
Maya almost laughed.
Her lunch was still smashed across a staircase.
Her renewal letter was missing.
Dramatic seemed appropriate.
Headmaster Hale’s voice hardened.
“Dean Voss, I asked Taylor.”
Taylor swallowed.
“She told me which students were being reviewed.”
Maya stared.
“Reviewed for what?”
No answer.
Maya spoke again.
“For what?”
Taylor looked at her.
“Conduct.”
Maya’s stomach dropped.
“I’ve never had a conduct violation.”
Taylor looked away.
Jordan said, “Until today?”
Everyone turned.
Jordan held up their phone.
“The report this morning.”
Taylor’s face changed.
Hale looked at Jordan.
“What report?”
“You told me someone had reported Taylor.”
“I did.”
“No. I mean something else.”
Jordan opened the anonymous message again.
“The person who sent this said Maya’s renewal letter mattered.”
Hale turned to Voss.
“Is Maya Collins under scholarship conduct review?”
Voss remained silent for half a second too long.
“Yes.”
Maya stopped breathing.
“For what?”
“An academic integrity concern.”
“What?”
“You were reported for unauthorized collaboration on your European history research paper.”
Maya stood.
“That’s not true.”
Hale motioned gently.
“Sit, Maya.”
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“I wrote that paper myself.”
Voss maintained her professional tone.
“A similarity report identified substantial overlap with another student submission.”
Jordan said, “Whose?”
“That information is confidential.”
Maya stared at Voss.
“When was this reported?”
“Yesterday.”
Jordan looked at the anonymous message.
Then at Hale.
“Can we see the timestamp?”
Voss’s eyes narrowed.
“This is an internal academic matter.”
Hale said, “I want the timestamp.”
Voss opened her laptop.
Her fingers moved.
Then stopped.
Hale waited.
“Well?”
“6:48 this morning.”
Maya looked at Taylor.
Taylor had entered Financial Aid twenty-four minutes later.
Taylor shook her head.
“I didn’t file it.”
Maya laughed bitterly.
“You expect me to believe you?”
“I didn’t.”
“You threw my bag down a staircase.”
“That doesn’t mean I—”
“You called me charity.”
Taylor’s face flushed.
“I know what I did.”
“Apparently not.”
The office door opened.
Sandra Collins entered still wearing navy scrubs.
She crossed the room without greeting anyone and went directly to Maya.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Sandra looked at the small bruise beginning near Maya’s elbow.
“Did you fall?”
“No. My bag did.”
Sandra closed her eyes briefly.
Then looked at Taylor.
Taylor dropped her gaze.
Sandra sat beside Maya.
“Explain.”
Headmaster Hale did.
The stairway.
The missing renewal letter.
The integrity accusation.
The video showing Taylor and Dean Voss entering Financial Aid.
Sandra listened without interruption.
When he finished, she looked at Voss.
“Why does a student have access to scholarship information?”
Voss straightened.
“She did not have access to files.”
Taylor said quietly, “I did.”
Everyone turned.
Voss whispered, “Taylor.”
“You showed me the list.”
“Enough.”
“No.”
Taylor’s voice cracked.
“You told me those students were problems.”
Maya stared.
“Those students?”
Taylor covered her mouth.
Hale’s face changed.
“How many names?”
Taylor looked terrified.
“Seven.”
Sandra asked, “Was Maya one of them?”
“Yes.”
Maya felt suddenly numb.
“Who else?”
Voss stood.
“This conversation is over.”
Hale’s voice stopped her.
“No, Dean Voss.”
She turned.
“It is not.”
For years, Evelyn Voss had controlled discipline at Hawthorne.
Students feared her.
Parents respected her.
Donors trusted her.
But Headmaster Hale was looking at her now as if seeing someone unfamiliar.
“Give me your office keys.”
Voss stared.
“Excuse me?”
“Until we determine what occurred this morning, you are relieved of access to student records.”
“You cannot possibly be serious.”
“I am.”
Voss looked at Taylor.
That glance lasted only a second.
Maya saw it.
So did Jordan.
Taylor looked away.
Voss placed her keys on the desk.
Then Hale asked the question no one had answered.
“Where is Maya’s scholarship renewal letter?”
Taylor whispered, “I don’t know.”
Voss said nothing.
Sandra rose.
“If that letter was removed from my daughter’s bag—”
“It wasn’t,” Taylor said quickly.
Maya looked at her.
“How do you know?”
Taylor froze.
Jordan slowly raised their phone.
“Good question.”
Taylor closed her eyes.
Then whispered, “Because it was already gone before the staircase.”
Maya’s heart pounded.
“How do you know that?”
Taylor looked toward Voss.
Then back at Maya.
May you like
“Because Dean Voss showed it to me this morning.”
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