Chapter 3

The next day was the school anniversary celebration.

The second I walked onto campus that morning, I could feel eyes following me from every direction—some were pitiful, while others were contemptuous. Some even clutched their backpacks tighter when they saw me, as if I wasn't just stealing guys' underwear but also stealing stationery on the side, too.

I found out why soon enough.

Amber had posted the underwear photo on the campus forum. On top of that, she had also posted photos of me leaving the Ferrers' house in the morning, getting into a car wearing Cody's jacket, and entering his bedroom in the middle of the night.

She'd thoughtfully put all the photos in a nine-picture grid and captioned it, "From bringing him breakfast to sneaking into his bedroom at night… just how pathetic can a stalker get?"

The comments section was a gold mine.

Some suggested Cody check his bedroom for hidden cameras. Some suspected I was secretly collecting his hair. And others claimed that I was trying to clone Cody.

I was genuinely in awe. With how great their imaginations were, how was the average literature grade at our school not going up?

The pictures themselves were all real. But the house I was leaving in the first picture was my own house. The jacket in the second picture was one Cody had tossed to me after he outgrew it. And in the third, Mom had sent me into his room to yank the blankets off him. Cody had set 17 alarms that morning, and yet none of them had managed to wake him up.

As for the underwear photo, I had taken it while I was taking in the laundry from the balcony. Cody had thrown a white button-down shirt and a pair of red socks into the washing machine together, which successfully produced a shirt the color of radioactive Barbie.

I had posted the picture on my social media with the caption, "His Highness is incapable of taking care of himself. I recommend sending him back to the factory for a total reset."

Amber had cropped out the text and the racks of laundry across the balcony, leaving only me and that pair of underwear.

I had to give her credit. The media industry had suffered a devastating loss by not having her run a clickbait account.

I went to the office to ask Ms. Wayland to take the post down. She, however, was busy organizing the hosts' script for that evening's celebration and didn't even bother looking up.

"We'll deal with it after the event tonight."

"The post has already spread all over school," I argued.

"Amber is hosting tonight and accepting an award for being an outstanding student," she answered. "If you go looking for her now, it'll only affect her state of mind."

I looked down at the insults plastered across the campus forum. Apparently, Amber's state of mind was something to be protected, while my reputation was public property and fair game for anyone to trash.

I reached out to take my confiscated phone, but Ms. Wayland just slammed the drawer shut.

"It's not time for you to have it back. Rachel, if you'd just been careful about maintaining an appropriate distance from male students, would anyone have gotten the wrong idea?"

I didn't know what to say to that. It turned out my biggest mistake was that I hadn't been keeping a six-foot safety distance from my brother since birth.

When I left the office, Amber was already waiting outside, holding a stack of flyers. My face was printed on them, and underneath it, in huge red letters, was "Say No to Campus Stalkers. Say No to Stalking and Harassment!"

"A lot of parents are coming to school today," she said, shoving the flyers into my arms. "Hand these out yourself. Consider it an apology to Cody."

I threw them right back at her. "No."

She didn't get mad. "Fine. Then you don't get to attend the event."

She gave Matt a look. In the next second, they each grabbed one of my arms and dragged me into the backstage area of the auditorium.

There, Amber opened the door to a room stuffed with old curtains and fuzzy props.

"You can stay in here until the event is over. That way, you won't be able to run onto the stage and pretend to play the victim again."

I was shoved inside, and the door slammed shut right in my face. A second later, I heard the heavy click of a lock outside.

I lunged forward and pounded on the door. "Amber Belknap! This is unlawful imprisonment!"

Matt scoffed from the other side. "Save the threats. We'll let you out when the event's over."

I wanted to keep yelling, but my nose suddenly started itching. The room was covered in a thick layer of dust. Ever since I was a kid, I'd had a severe dust allergy.

Within ten minutes, my eyes were already swollen, and my chest was getting tighter.

I banged on the door with everything I had. "Open the door! I'm having an allergic reaction!"

There was silence on the other side for about two seconds before Amber's voice drifted through the door.

"Stop pretending. Cody isn't even back yet, so there's no one here to watch you play the victim."

The click of her high heels faded into the distance.

Music began playing in the auditorium. The emcee excitedly announced that the competition team had just finished their event and was already on their way back to campus.

I slowly slid down against the door and sat on the floor.

If they didn't let me out soon, the first thing Cody would have to do after returning to school wouldn't be hosting the celebration.

It would be going to the hospital to identify his one and only sister's body.