Chapter 6 - The Signature
Daniel wanted Mason removed from school immediately.
Mason refused.
“I’m not leaving.”
“This isn’t about courage.”
“I know.”
“You’re fifteen.”
“I know that too.”
Daniel paced the kitchen.
“You think staying proves something?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Mason looked at him.
“Because Maya left.”
Daniel stopped.
“Ethan left.”
Mason’s voice remained quiet.
“And nothing changed.”
Daniel had no answer.
Mason continued.
“If I leave, she’ll say I couldn’t handle discipline.”
“She’s suspended.”
“For now.”
Daniel looked at his son and recognized something uncomfortable.
He had spent two days imagining himself as Mason’s protector.
But protection without listening could become another form of control.
“All right,” Daniel said.
Mason blinked.
“All right?”
“You stay.”
Mason’s shoulders relaxed slightly.
“But you’re not doing this alone.”
“Deal.”
At school, rumors had exploded.
Some students called Mason brave.
Others accused him of trying to ruin a teacher’s career.
Anonymous accounts posted that Mrs. Holloway had “high standards.”
One post claimed Mason had fabricated everything because he failed to earn a summer certificate.
Caleb showed him.
“Don’t read comments.”
“You’re showing me comments.”
“Good point.”
Then Mason noticed the account that posted the longest defense of Holloway.
ExcellenceMatters214.
It contained details only someone close to the program would know.
Times.
Grant categories.
Mason’s alleged attendance.
Caleb frowned.
“This is weird.”
“What?”
“It says you missed twenty-three scheduled sessions.”
“So?”
“You weren’t enrolled.”
Exactly.
Someone was using internal attendance data to attack him publicly.
Mason took screenshots.
Detective Bell took interest.
The account had been created months earlier.
That mattered.
“It means this wasn’t invented because of Mason,” Bell explained.
Daniel frowned.
“Then what was it for?”
Bell looked at Caleb.
“Maybe other students.”
They searched old posts.
There were attacks against Maya.
Against Ethan.
Against a girl named Serena Walsh who had filed a complaint.
The pattern was always the same.
A student questioned Mrs. Holloway.
Within days, an anonymous account accused that student of lying, laziness, cheating, or emotional instability.
Mason stared at the screen.
“She didn’t just punish people at school.”
Bell nodded.
“She may have shaped the story outside school too.”
“Can you prove it was her?”
“Not yet.”
Bell requested platform records through legal channels.
Meanwhile district auditors began examining Northstar.
Their first discovery was simple.
Northstar had no employees.
Patrick Holloway owned it.
Mrs. Holloway was listed as an unpaid educational adviser.
Yet the company had been paid more than $190,000 by the district over three years.
Daniel read the preliminary report twice.
“For what?”
“Curriculum development,” Bell said.
“What curriculum?”
“That’s what we’re looking for.”
The district had received binders labeled Northstar Leadership Framework.
Mason recognized the pages.
“They’re worksheets.”
Bell looked at him.
“What?”
“We used some of these in class.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Mason flipped through one.
Goal setting.
Reflection questions.
Community leadership.
He pointed to tiny text at the bottom.
“Look.”
Copyright.
Not Northstar.
The worksheets came from a nonprofit educational resource library.
Free materials.
Bell’s eyebrows lifted.
“Interesting.”
Daniel understood.
“Northstar billed the district for developing something available online for free?”
“That’s what it looks like.”
Mason turned another page.
Then stopped.
A handwritten note appeared in the margin.
Need minimum 90% participation for renewal.
Below that:
Use equivalencies where necessary.
Bell took the binder.
“Whose handwriting?”
Mason knew.
“Holloway’s.”
The grant required ninety percent participation.
Real participation had been far lower.
So attendance was inflated.
Signatures were copied.
Students who refused to cooperate became threats.
Daniel’s anger turned cold.
“This is why she hated Mason.”
Bell nodded.
“He wasn’t just a kid who skipped summer school.”
“He threatened the renewal.”
“Possibly.”
Mason stared at the note.
Mrs. Holloway had shouted that the class wasn’t recognized because of him.
Now he understood what “recognized” meant.
Not pride.
Not achievement.
Money.
The following morning brought another development.
Bell called.
“We identified where the copied signatures came from.”
Daniel already knew Mason’s came from the emergency sheet.
But Bell had examined eleven other suspicious signatures.
“All copied from school records?”
“Most.”
“What does that tell you?”
Bell paused.
“That whoever did this had access to district files.”
Patrick certainly did.
Mrs. Holloway had classroom files.
But one group of signatures came from documents neither should normally access.
Special education accommodation forms.
Daniel became still.
“Who had permission?”
May you like
Bell gave him a name.
Principal Aaron Feldman.
