The heavy thud of Harper’s body hitting the linoleum echoed down the hallway, silencing the laughter that had previously filled the corridor. For three long seconds, the only sound was the low hum of the fluorescent lights and the ragged breathing of the two girls on the floor.
Maya remained crouched, the shattered iPad held delicately in her hands. The glass dug into her palms, but she didn’t care. She stared down at Chloe, whose arrogant smirk had been entirely wiped away, replaced by wide, terrified eyes. Chloe pushed herself backward against the metal lockers, her designer shoes slipping on the polished floor.
“You’re gonna have to pay for the iPad,” Maya repeated, her voice eerily calm.
Around them, a sea of smartphone lenses was pointed directly at the scene. Dozens of students stood frozen. No one had ever stood up to Chloe Sterling. No one had ever touched her. And certainly, no one had ever taken her and her best friend down in a matter of seconds.
“You... you’re crazy!” Chloe finally stammered, rubbing her shoulder where it had hit the locker. “I’ll have you arrested! My dad will ruin you!”
“What is going on here?!”
The sharp, authoritative voice of Principal Davis sliced through the tension. The crowd of students instantly parted like the Red Sea, lowering their phones and looking at the ground. Davis, a tall man with a severe face and a perpetually tightened tie, marched into the center of the circle. He took one look at Chloe and Harper on the floor, and then at Maya, who was still in her fighting stance, holding the broken tablet.
“She attacked us!” Chloe shrieked, instantly shifting from a bully to a flawless, tearful victim. She pointed a trembling finger at Maya. “She just went crazy, Mr. Davis! She threw me against the lockers!”
Harper nodded frantically, clutching her back. “She knows karate or something! We were just walking to class!”
Principal Davis’s face flushed dark red. He turned his furious gaze on Maya. As a scholarship student, Maya was already on thin ice. The school didn't want kids from her neighborhood mixing with the children of the elite donors; they only let her in to satisfy a diversity quota.
“Maya Lin,” Davis barked, his voice dripping with disgust. “My office. Right now.”
“Mr. Davis,” Maya started, her voice steady but quiet. “They took my property and destroyed it. The surveillance cameras right there—” She pointed to the black dome on the ceiling “—will show her snatching it from me.”
“I don't care about your tablet right now!” Davis snapped, gesturing wildly toward the girls on the floor. “You assaulted two students! In my hallway! Get to the office before I call the police.”
Maya looked down at the tablet. The heavy-duty case was cracked, the screen completely ruined. It was the tablet her father had used for his engineering drafts before he passed away. It was the only thing she had left of him.