Chapter 9 - The Student Before Emily
Olivia Reed returned to Lincoln Ridge for one meeting.
Seventeen now.
Confident.
Still angry.
Emily met her.
“You were first?”
“For a while.”
“What happened?”
“Mrs. Harrison changed a project grade.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“My mom suspected.”
Olivia looked at the classroom door.
“I just thought I wasn’t as good as Mason.”
That sentence hit Emily hardest.
A changed number can become a changed identity.
Olivia stopped applying to competitive programs for a year.
“I thought maybe I couldn’t handle them.”
Emily whispered:
“I’m sorry.”
Olivia smiled sadly.
“You didn’t do it.”
Audit restored Olivia’s old record.
Too late to alter past opportunities.
But the district issued a formal correction letter.
She framed it.
May you like
Not because paper repaired everything.
Because it proved she had not imagined the unfairness.
