Sunday night, 11:02 PM. Priya has been studying for three hours. Her phone is next to her biology notes. She is applying for the Greenfield Scholarship — one of the most competitive awards at her school. Only one student gets it each year.
ok why is my phone still buzzing at 11pm 😭
lol same. is it the scholarship group chat again?
yeah. ms chen added some new people i think
ooh who??
wait
mia
JADE is in the group chat now???
no way. JADE jade?? as in top-of-every-class jade??
yes. she applied for the greenfield scholarship too. i didn't know that
ok breathe. she's competition but you're good too. don't panic
i know i know. it's just... she wins everything mia. EVERYTHING
not this time 😤 now stop looking at the group chat and go study
ok ok fine. going back to bio notes. night 🙏
Priya puts her phone down and tries to study. But fifteen minutes later, her phone lights up again. It is the scholarship group chat. A lot of new messages are loading — but they don't look like scholarship messages.
mia. MIA wake up
something weird is happening with the group chat
i thought you were sleeping 😭 what happened
ok so the scholarship group chat is loading a ton of old messages. but they're not FROM the scholarship group. they're from jade's own private chat with her friends. like... her whole conversation is just appearing in there??
wait what?? how is that possible
idk!! maybe ms chen accidentally merged two chats when she added people?? but mia. i can see everything jade wrote to her friends tonight
like... what kind of things??
she sent a voice note. to her friend. i can hear it in the scholarship chat right now
The voice note appears in the scholarship chat. It is from Jade. It was not meant for anyone here. Priya presses play with shaking hands.
okay so... I need to tell you something but like, you can't say anything to anyone, okay? I already sent in my scholarship application. But the thing is — I put Mr. Davis as my reference. And he doesn't know yet. I haven't actually asked him. I just... used his name. I know, I know. But if I tell him now he might say no and I can't — I really can't lose this one. So just... please don't mention it. To anyone. Especially not Priya.
mia
she used a teacher's name without asking him
for the scholarship application. that's against the rules mia. that's actually against the rules
wait wait wait. are you serious right now
i'm sending you a screenshot
oh my god. OH MY GOD
she literally said your name. she's worried about YOU finding out
i know. i know!! and now i know. this is so messed up
what do i do?? do i tell someone? do i pretend i didn't hear it??
okay okay calm down. first — don't do anything yet. this is big. like, really big. if jade used mr davis's name and he doesn't know... that could get her disqualified. but priya — you have to be careful. because if you report it and it looks like you're doing it to win, that's bad too. just... don't tell anyone else tonight. sit on it. we'll think in the morning.
ok. ok you're right. i'll wait.
also the group chat is quiet now. i think it fixed itself. the merged messages are gone
good. so jade probably doesn't know you saw anything
yeah. she doesn't know
Priya puts her phone on her desk. She stares at the ceiling. The scholarship deadline is in four days. She has the screenshot. She has the voice note in her memory. And somewhere across town, Jade has no idea that the wrong person heard everything.
Except — in her panic, Priya sent the screenshot to the wrong chat. Not just to Mia. To the Greenfield Scholarship Support group. The one Jade is now in.
Priya.