Chapter 16: Hall Speakers

Lena didn't say a word to Chelsea.

She walked to the podium at the end of the atrium.

The judges had a cable there, plugged into the room speakers for the slideshow.

"May I?" she asked the woman in the gray blazer.

The judge looked at Toby's red dot, then at Chelsea's folder, then at Lena.

"Go ahead," she said.

Lena plugged in her phone and turned the volume up as far as it would go.

"This is for the people who think someone made it on a computer," she said, into the microphone.

Chelsea's voice filled the atrium.

It came off the high ceiling and the glass walls.

It was so much bigger than the bright voice she'd been using that half the room flinched.

Nobody at the folding tables moved.

A father with a camera lowered it.

I watched Chelsea's face.

She had stopped smiling by the second line.

By the fifth, she was reaching for Toby's tripod.

Toby had stepped away from it with both hands in the air.

The recording ended on Toby's laugh.

Lena unplugged her phone. The silence was so complete I heard the tripod creak.

"That was recorded on May 30," I said, loud enough for the back of the room. "The day of my exam. The file will show it."

"Chelsea's screenshots are dated March 3. She had the app three months before she asked me to throw away my school."

"That's a lie," Chelsea said. Her voice cracked. "That's a lie. He edited it!"

"Then have the file checked," Lena said. "I'll pay for it."

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