Chapter 3

I went downstairs and found Lauren in the living room, just as she was about to leave.

I stepped into her path.

She frowned, already impatient. "What now?"

Looking straight into her eyes, I reminded her, "Lauren, you promised me. You said you'd keep Henry under control."

A contemptuous laugh escaped her.

"Ethan, are you forgetting the other half of that deal? You need to stay out of trouble."

With that, she shoved me aside and walked out without looking back.

Stay out of trouble? What exactly did that mean to her?

Was I supposed to do what I'd done in my previous life, when they cornered me in a bathroom, soaked me from head to toe with freezing water, and expected me to suffer through it in silence?

Was that her definition of behaving?

…

The next day, shortly after morning break, several boys surrounded me and forced me into the school's equipment room.

The door slammed shut behind me, followed by the click of the lock. Then, Henry's malicious voice came from the other side of the door, "Why don't you stay in there and think about what you did wrong?"

The darkness was all too familiar, and so was the room.

In my previous life, they'd locked me in there for an entire day. Terrified and starving, I'd eventually broken down and begged them to let me out.

This time, I didn't cry or call for help.

Instead, I pulled out the phone I'd prepared in advance and dialed 911.

"Hello, officers. I'm a student, and some of my classmates deliberately locked me inside the school's equipment room. I'm scared, and they won't let me out."

I put the call on speaker and turned the volume all the way up, making sure everyone outside could hear.

Sure enough, panicked footsteps sounded in the hallway, followed by Henry's furious yell.

"Ethan, are you insane? You actually called the cops?"

The police arrived quickly.

When they finally unlocked the door and swung it open, I was sitting on the floor with my knees tucked tightly against my chest, my body trembling slightly with fear.

Henry and the other boys were taken to the school office, their faces pale with panic.

For once, I thought he might actually face consequences.

But just as the officers were preparing to take our statements, Lauren walked into the office. She went straight to them with an apologetic smile.

"Officer, there's been a misunderstanding. They're brothers. They were just messing around. Henry has always been a little too rough around the edges because we spoil him, and Ethan is incredibly introverted, so he took a simple prank way too seriously."

"Messing around?"

I looked up at her in disbelief.

Lauren didn't even glance at me.

"The SATs put a lot of pressure on kids," she continued. "They were fooling around to blow off some steam—that's all. I'm sorry you had to come out here over this."

Through her smooth manipulation of the narrative, a vicious instance of high school bullying was instantly reduced to a harmless prank.

The police left, and the crowd of curious students scattered down the hallway.

I knew exactly what they were thinking. In their eyes, I was just a sensitive, dramatic loser who couldn't handle a joke and ran to the cops over nothing.

When I got home that evening, I didn't even have a chance to speak.

The moment Mom walked through the door, Henry threw himself into her arms and started sobbing so hard that he could barely get the words out.

"Mom, Ethan actually called the cops on me today! Everyone at school saw it. How am I supposed to face anyone after this?"

"What?" Mom shrieked, violently shoving me backward before jabbing a finger in my face.

"Ethan, after everything we've done for you, this is how you repay us? Henry was just playing a harmless prank on you, and you tried to destroy his future!"

I stared at the scene in front of me, almost amazed by how completely they'd managed to turn the truth on its head.

Just then, Lauren glided down the staircase, her voice dropping to an icy chill. "Ethan, I warned you not to lay a finger on Henry."

"So this is my fault?" I asked.

"Of course, it is!"