Chapter 15: The Admissions Office

The dean of admissions had a glass office on the third floor of the administration building.

From her window I could see the quad where I had never once walked.

Past it was the highway where the bus had stopped.

My mother sat on my left in her good cardigan, holding her purse in both hands.

Drew sat on my right, and he kept a full chair width between us.

Across the table sat the Satterlees.

Keeley wore a navy dress with her hair pinned over the cut on her head.

Her mother had brought a lawyer in a gray suit.

He set a laptop on the table and opened it.

"Thank you for coming on short notice," the dean said. "I have watched the video Mrs. Satterlee sent."

"I would like everyone to see it together."

The lawyer pressed a key.

It was dark, and then the gate lamp came on, and the screen showed me from the side.

I was standing at the flower bed with my hand out.

Keeley was in the frame, and she was on the ground.

My hand was on her shoulder.

In the clip, I looked down at her, and Keeley said, clearly, "Please stop."

"She pushed me, and she held me down," Keeley said now, across the table. "I was scared."

My mother's purse creaked in her hands.

"That's not what happened," I said.

"Miss Haverty," the dean said. "Please wait."

She turned to Drew.

"You are Mr. Colburn. You filmed that night."

"Yes, ma'am."

"May I see your file?"

He set his phone on the table and slid it across.

A young man from the dean's staff plugged it into a second laptop.

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