Chapter 6 - The Empty Dorm Room
Ms. Patel had spent four years telling me to aim higher than people expected.
At her office the next morning, she didn't tell me to calm down.
She cleared her desk and said, "Tell me what you know, not what you suspect."
I laid out the withdrawal message, the loan application, and the lender's notice.
Leah joined us by video call from Northvale.
"The scholarship office has paused the reassignment," she said.
"But your award is still marked declined. There's a review process."
"How long?"
"I can't promise a date."
I hated that answer because it was honest.
Ms. Patel checked her attendance records.
At 9:14 the previous morning, I'd been in the high school engineering lab using the industrial printer for my summer flood-mapping project.
She had signed me in and watched me work.
"That doesn't identify who accessed the portal," Leah said.
"It gives us a clear reason to investigate."
She explained that the system had sent a security notice to my email and a recovery text to the number on file.
I had never seen either.
My old student email was still signed into a family tablet kept in Mom's catering office.
I'd forgotten that tablet existed.
"Could somebody use it to reset my password?" I asked.
"Potentially," Leah said.
"Our security team can determine what happened. Don't try to access anyone else's device."
She also told me that my housing request had been canceled after the scholarship withdrawal.
"The housing office released your room," she said.
"We're trying to preserve a place for you if your admission is restored."
I stared at the bulletin board covered in college pennants.
For three years, I'd pictured putting my father's notebook on a desk in a dorm room.
Someone had erased that picture while I was printing a drainage map.
After the call, Ms. Patel handed me tissues.
I didn't take one.
"Zarya," she said, "there's something else we need to discuss."
She turned her monitor toward me.
May you like
An additional instruction had been attached to my file: Do not contact the student directly about her decision.
It was signed with my name.
