Chapter 1

That evening, I was on a video call with my mom when the conversation somehow turned to Lucas Shaw, a popular actor.

"He's gorgeous, and he can actually act," I said with a laugh. "At this rate, I'm going to end up becoming a fan."

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I realized my roommate, Tammy Reed, had appeared behind me at some point.

"What?" I asked, startled. "Is something wrong?"

She was staring at me strangely. "Since when do you like Lucas Shaw too?"

I blinked in confusion.

Tammy gave a short, knowing laugh, as if she'd just caught me red-handed. Then she turned to our other two roommates and shot them a pointed look. "See? She's copying me again."

The other two immediately started laughing.

Mom's confused voice came through my phone. "What's going on, Maren? What are your roommates talking about?"

I had absolutely no idea either. "Nothing, Mom. I'll talk to you later. Go get some sleep."

I put my phone down and had barely turned around when Tammy rolled her eyes at me and walked straight out of the room.

"What was that about?" I asked my other two roommates.

They exchanged a look, then studied me with oddly complicated expressions. After an awkward pause, one of them finally spoke. "Maybe you should go apologize to Tammy."

Now I was even more confused.

The next day, all my classes were pretty easy.

Still, easy didn't mean no work.

Partway through one of my lectures, the professor announced a group assignment and told us to form teams of four to six.

Naturally, I went to my roommates first, but they shut me down immediately.

"Sorry, our group's full."

"And we'd rather not work with someone like you anyway."

I frowned and wondered what they meant.

Just then, a girl sitting nearby tapped me on the shoulder with a friendly smile. "Hey, we're actually one person short. Why don't you join us?"

My face lit up. "Sure!"

I happily joined their group.

We got to work discussing the assignment. Everyone in the group was aiming for a high grade, so we tossed around idea after idea, only to shoot each one down.

Eventually, two of the group members started bickering under their breath.

I sighed dramatically, "Ah, a battle for the throne. A tale as old as time."

My groupmates froze. A second later, the whole group burst out laughing.

The commotion caught my roommates' attention, and they turned to look at us. "Wait, didn't Tammy say that before?"

Tammy gave a dismissive snort. "Here she goes again. Can't come up with anything herself, so she just copies everyone else."

It finally clicked. Tammy seriously thought I was copying her.

Since when did quoting a meme everyone online was using count as copying someone?