Chapter 2 - THE SCHOLARSHIP THAT COULD DISAPPEAR IN ONE MEETING
Ariana attended Hawthorne Academy because her mother could not afford even one semester there.
The annual tuition exceeded what Dana Cole earned as a public-school librarian.
Hawthorne covered eighty-six percent.
Dana paid the rest in monthly installments that still hurt.
Ariana knew exactly what the scholarship meant.
It meant she could not afford mistakes.
Other students could have bad weeks.
Ariana had a file.
Other students could argue with teachers.
Ariana had funding.
Other students could get caught at parties and call their parents.
Ariana could lose the school that had become the bridge to everything she wanted next.
That was why Victoria’s burgundy folder frightened her more than the destroyed project.
Inside Ms. Parker’s office, Victoria sat with her arms crossed.
Ariana sat across from her.
Ms. Parker placed the folder between them.
“Victoria, who gave this to you?”
“I told you. It was in my dad’s office.”
“Did he give it to you?”
Victoria hesitated.
“No.”
“So you took confidential school-related documents from a private office.”
“My family pays for half this place.”
Ms. Parker’s face hardened.
“That is not an answer.”
Victoria looked toward Ariana.
“She’s acting like I stole nuclear codes.”
Ariana said nothing.
Ms. Parker opened the folder.
“This contains a recommendation that Ariana’s financial-aid package be suspended pending a conduct review.”
Ariana felt cold.
“Suspended?”
“The recommendation has not been approved.”
“When was it written?”
Ms. Parker checked.
“Three weeks ago.”
Ariana looked at Victoria.
“What conduct?”
Ms. Parker continued reading.
“Repeated hostility toward students. Academic integrity concerns. Physical intimidation.”
Ariana laughed in disbelief.
“I’ve never been disciplined for violence.”
Victoria muttered:
“Until today.”
Ms. Parker looked at her.
“I watched what happened today.”
Victoria went quiet.
The academic-integrity allegation disturbed Ariana even more.
She had never cheated.
Not once.
She had spent four years making sure no teacher could wonder whether a scholarship student belonged.
“What evidence is there?”
Ms. Parker turned several pages.
Then stopped.
One allegation claimed Ariana physically threatened another student outside the west gym on October 14.
Ariana immediately knew something was wrong.
“I wasn’t here.”
Victoria rolled her eyes.
“Convenient.”
“I was in Worcester.”
Ms. Parker looked up.
“For what?”
“State Taekwondo qualifiers.”
Ariana pulled out her phone.
Photos.
Tournament registration.
Her coach.
Her mother.
A medal timestamped that afternoon.
Ms. Parker stared at the folder again.
The report was not merely unfair.
At least one allegation was demonstrably impossible.
Then she noticed something else.
The wording describing Ariana as “physically escalating” appeared in a memorandum dated two weeks before the hallway incident.
Before Ariana had ever touched Victoria.
Someone had already decided what kind of person Ariana was going to become.
Ms. Parker picked up her office phone.
“Cancel the scholarship committee meeting scheduled for Thursday.”
Victoria straightened.
“You can’t.”
Ms. Parker looked at her.
“I just did.”
“My father—”
“Is not the scholarship committee.”
Victoria’s mouth closed.
Ms. Parker turned to Ariana.
“Call your mother.”
Ariana’s stomach dropped.
“Why?”
“Because until I understand where this folder came from, nothing about your aid package moves without independent review.”
Ariana should have felt relieved.
Instead she looked at the gold Hale crest.
May you like
Someone had created a file powerful enough to threaten her education.
And Victoria had known about it before Ariana did.
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