Chapter2

I couldn’t move an inch.

Staring up at their self-righteous, infuriating faces, my mind involuntarily drifted back to a long time ago.

When we were young, the three of us had been inseparable.

Our families were Silicon Valley elites who shared deep generational ties.

We grew up in the same exclusive neighborhoods.

Growing up, everyone always admired our family status and our relationship as childhood sweethearts.

Back then, Kieran was the calm one, always rationalizing our childish plans. Blaise was the sunny, athletic golden boy who would do anything just to make me laugh.

Sitting under a starry sky years ago, they had sworn that no matter what happened, they would always believe in and protect me.

But all of those beautiful memories screeched to a halt during our senior year of high school.

Mari joined our class as a low-income transfer student.

She set her sights on me right from the start and took the initiative to get close.

Seeing she had hardly any friends, I introduced her to the boys. Little did I know, everything would change after that.

She knew perfectly well how to play on boys' protective instincts.

By putting on a pitiful act, she drew all their attention and affection to herself.

I could only watch helplessly as the protection that had always been mine shifted entirely to her.

Whenever I showed even a hint of discontent, Mari would burst into tears and say she did not deserve to have friends.

The boys would always side with her, accusing me of picking on the poor, vulnerable girl just because I came from a well-off family.

The memory faded away. A firm grip on my shoulders pulled me back to the present.

"Stop struggling, Sera. You need to look at the bigger picture; we're doing this for your own good!"

"Blaise, Kieran, please don't be so forceful with Sera," Mari whimpered nearby. Yet, her body language told a different story as she eagerly sidled closer to my laptop. "If she doesn't want to sacrifice her Stanford dreams for me, just let it go. It's my fault for expecting too much..."

"Mari, you're just too forgiving. You can't let her selfish individualism dictate our dynamic," Kieran stated smoothly. "Go ahead, Mari. Override her application. Today, the four of us are committing to community college. It's the only way to keep the group intact."

A gleam of vicious triumph flashed in Mari’s eyes, though she quickly masked it with a sigh. "Are you absolutely sure? Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell are going to be furious..."

"Who cares about her parents! If there’s any fallout, I'll take the heat!" Blaise roared, his hero complex fully activated.

"Don't you dare touch my MacBook!" I shrieked, lunging forward with everything I had.

But Blaise and Kieran functioned as a literal human shield. They seamlessly blocked my path as Mari slipped behind them and settled into my chair.

I watched as she effortlessly navigated my MacBook and rewrote my entire future in seconds.

"All done." Mari stood up, flashing a sweet smile.

"Are you out of your minds?!" I spat. "Do you have any idea what you just did to my life?!"

"Stop acting like a hysterical victim, Sera," Blaise snapped, finally releasing his iron grip. "We just didn't want you to be left behind. How can you misjudge her?"

Kieran adjusted his cuffs. "The application is submitted. Let go of your ego and accept it," he said coldly, turning to the others. "Come on. Let's head to Santana Row to celebrate."

The three of them strutted out of the computer lab, practically glowing with the satisfaction of a job well done.

The second they disappeared down the hallway, I yanked my laptop toward me. I hammered the refresh button, desperately trying to un-submit the forms, but a glaring red banner mocked me: Zero revision attempts remaining.

I didn't waste another second. I shoved the computer into my bag, bolted out of the school, and hurried home.

The moment I burst through the door, I dropped my bag and unloaded the entire infuriating ordeal onto my parents.

"This is absolute lawlessness!" my father roared, throwing his reading glasses onto the marble kitchen island. "Have those two boys lost their damn minds?! Sacrificing your future for the very same girl whose family we’ve been quietly sponsoring since middle school?!"

My mother rushed forward, wrapping her arms tightly around my shaking shoulders. "Oh, Sera, sweetheart. How could they betray you like this..."

"I'm fine, Mom," I said, forcing my voice to stay level. "Right now, the priority is reversing the application. I'm worried it's permanently locked."

"Don't you worry about a damn thing. I've got this," my father comforted me, already pressing his phone to his ear.

For an ordinary student, a locked application is truly a dead end. But for a family with our resources, proving it was maliciously altered with solid network evidence meant that restoring everything only took a single phone call.

In less than forty-five minutes, the education administration confirmed my application was altered on purpose and re-enabled the editing function for me.

Sitting in my father's home office, I opened my laptop once more.

With deliberate, triumphant keystrokes, I manually selected Stanford University.

I hit submit.

When the bright green Application Successfully Submitted banner lit up my screen, I let out a long exhale.

The massive boulder crushing my chest was finally gone.

I was safe, but I knew with absolute certainty: Blaise, Kieran, and Mari had just permanently sealed their own miserable fates.