Cerita Pendek & Novel Inspirational Campus

With spring break approaching, a post offering a cash reward went viral on our campus message board. [Offering $500 for a travel itinerary that will help me spend $20,000 in seven days.] The poster had even added a note. [I need to spend most of it, because if I don’t, then my parents, my brother, and my childhood best friend Ethan will think that I didn’t enjoy myself.] Someone in the comments asked why all four of them were funding her vacation. She posted four screenshots of bank transfers. [Because they didn’t check with each other first, and each sent me $5,000.] The comments were full of people telling her how lucky she was. I recognized that profile picture immediately. The person behind the post was my younger sister. As it happened, the $500 she was offering for a travel itinerary was exactly what I would earn working seven days at the convenience store over spring break. I smiled bitterly. My family always had a system to divide up the responsibility for supporting us. My parents, my brother, and our childhood friend were split into two pairs. One pair would cover my sister’s allowance and give her a credit card linked to their account. The other would do the same for me. They said it would keep things fair and make sure that neither of us would be overlooked. However, after the semester started, I realized that I had received neither an allowance nor a card. When I asked Dad, he frowned. “Didn’t your mom send you the money?” I went to Mom next. “Wasn’t your dad supposed to take care of you?” she asked. With no one else to turn to, I asked my brother if he could add me to his credit card account. He looked surprised. “Hasn’t Ethan already done that?” When I tracked Ethan down, he said, “Your brother already got you a card.” At first, I thought they had simply gotten their wires crossed. Only then did I realize the truth. There had been no mix-up. Every single one of them had chosen my sister first. After a moment of thought, I left a comment under her post. [I’m her older sister. Anyone got a survival guide for getting through a week of spring break on $32?]

On yearbook photo day, I went over and stood next to my boyfriend, Blake Whitmore. Madison Vance, the cheer captain and sorority president, showed up late, and the crowd parted for her without being asked. A path opened straight to Blake, who stood dead center. "What took you so long? You just turned every head in the place." Blake smiled softly and pulled her into the spot beside him. I was pushed out of the frame. Tyler Brooks, my friend since childhood, caught my arm. "Claire, don't fight Madison for the spot. She's the main character today." Then he traded places with me and took the spot next to her. The crowd started whooping. The fraternity president stood on one side and the vice president on the other, with Madison safely between them. When the group shot was done, the whooping started up again. Blake and Madison had won Cutest Couple in this year's yearbook by a landslide. A hairline crack opened inside my chest, and the cold seeped through it. I was the one dating Blake. Everyone had voted for them anyway. Out on the lawn, the photographer guided the two of them through one close pose after another. Then he called out to us. "Mr. President, where's your fraternity pin? Put it on your queen!" My hand went to the Greek-letter pin over my heart. Blake looked over at me and jogged toward me. "Babe, let me borrow it. Don't be stingy." He took my wrist and moved my hand aside, then removed the pin he'd fastened there himself three years ago. People around us started murmuring. "Oh, that's her. Claire. Blake's girlfriend." "I never even noticed her... She really doesn't stand out." Something in me went hollow, and my hands closed into fists. Your moment of glory has nothing to do with me. So from now on, my life has nothing to do with you.

In this baseball-obsessed city, Leo Adams was the home run king who never missed. Every time he stepped up to bat, he'd start with the same gesture. Two fingers tapping his right wrist, then a steady point in my direction. The whole city spent two months trying to figure out who it was meant for. No one ever did. No one knew it was meant for me, a team doctor still on probation. And no one knew about the stream of comments only I could see, always drifting across my vision and calling the outcome of the next swing before anyone else. Bottom of the ninth, down by one, bases loaded, two outs. Forty thousand people were on their feet, screaming his name. The comments suddenly flashed blood-red, all at once, with a single message. One more swing would destroy his right wrist on the spot. So just before he raised his hand to make that gesture, I stood up and reversed our signal.

When the wedding invitation from my high school classmate Ella Reese arrived, a video of her and her friends shoving the two-hundred-pound girl I used to be into a mud pit was already going viral. Her caption read, "Those were the days. Sophie Aubert, you absolutely have to be my bridesmaid." Our former classmates flooded the comments with jeers. "Ella's so generous. She'd actually invite a plagiarist? Will Sophie even fit into a bridesmaid dress? Making one for her would take enough fabric for three people." "It's been seven years. By now, they'd probably need a crane just to get her into the venue!" "Didn't she write Jack a love letter back then? He'll probably be so scared he'll cry." The groom, Jack Smith, replied in the comments, "If she actually has the nerve to show up, I'll dance with her in front of everyone. Call it an apology for throwing her into the fountain back then." The comment section exploded with people cheering him on. I calmly took a sip of unsweetened black coffee. They thought I was still the fat girl with no choice but to hide in a corner and cry. They had no idea I was now a fitness influencer with millions of followers, much less that the luxury estate they had rented for the wedding belonged to me. I replied in the comments, "No need for a bridesmaid dress. I'll be there on time." This time, I would tear down her perfect facade myself and give Ella a wedding she would never forget.

Thor and I grew up together—we were the definition of childhood sweethearts. We'd promised to attend the same university, graduate, and marry right after senior year. Everyone envied us. They said we were a perfect match, destined for a lifetime together. And I believed that too. I truly thought I'd spend the rest of my life with him. Until the final semester of our senior year in high school, when a new transfer student named Lina joined our class. At first, the two barely spoke. But as they grew familiar, their bond deepened in ways I could no longer ignore. He started staying after school to tutor her, bringing her breakfast every morning. When she was upset, he'd take her for a drive along the coast. If she craved Italian steak, he'd have fresh cuts flown in. Even during her period, he'd quietly prepare everything she needed. I was furious. I confronted him, argued with him, and even threatened to break up. The first time I said it, he thought I was joking and coaxed me out of my anger. The second time, he dismissed it as another tantrum and tried different ways to please me. The third time, he broke down—standing outside my house in the pouring rain all night, half kneeling before me, begging for forgiveness. Again and again, I tried to leave, and every time, he refused to let me go. Yet with each reconciliation, something in him shifted. He started taking me for granted, assuming I would always come back. His patience wore thin. His apologies turned perfunctory. Even when he came to make peace, there was no sincerity left in his voice. So I said it for the hundredth time, and that was the last. That was the moment I finally gave up on him.

My best friend, Emily Waters, was a born social butterfly. After my childhood friend, Lucas Mercer, got to know her, he no longer wanted to practice magic with me. He thought I was dull and awkward, always a beat behind in everything. Whenever the three of us ate together, the two of them would run off to play skyball and tell me to find them at the field when I was done. At diving practice, I couldn't keep up with them. Halfway through, my spell failed, and I almost drowned. Only when I called for help did I realize they'd already made it back to shore. Finally, there was the day we filled out our academy applications together. I was still going through the list when Lucas spoke up. "You're too slow. I've gotta go help Emily grab floor seats for the traveling circus, so I'm heading out. Bye-bye. "Oh, right. We're both choosing Aldridge, the best elemental magic academy there is. Don't pick the wrong one, you little dummy." Emily giggled. "Don't talk about my Wendy like that. She's so slow, there's no way she'd pick the wrong one." They were laughing so hard that they drowned out my voice. I mumbled, "You'll never have to wait for me again." I had applied to Starglow Academy of Potions, a school devoted to potion-making. Only the very best potion makers could apply, and for our safety, the academy was cut off from the rest of the world.

On graduation day, my childhood friend, Liam Carter, handed me a college application. "Apply to Williams College with me, and I'll be your boyfriend." Williams College was tucked away in the mountains, far from home. If I went there, I would rarely get the chance to visit my family. But I took the application without a second thought and signed my name. The day I received my acceptance letter, I happened to see the messages on Liam's phone. They were from my parents, my brother, and Liam. [Has Audrey agreed to go to Williams College?] [Of course! She got her acceptance letter today!] [Now that we've sent her far away, Vera can finally stay with us in peace.] [Liam, you must have had a hard time keeping up the act. At least you won't actually have to go live in the mountains with her.] I stood there and read the messages from the people closest to me over and over again. They had no idea that when I signed that day, I had not only signed the application to Williams College. I had also signed a confidentiality agreement for a research program. In just three days, I would leave for the research institute. I would cut off all contact with the outside world and leave them behind for good. When I finally left, they all regretted it.