Watching Them Burn: My Rebirth Story novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Sponsor

"They can't do this," I said.

Luka slid the phone back into his pocket.

"They can. My tuition aid comes from the aquatic department, and the aquatic department is half funded by the Abercrombie Family Foundation."

"What does the letter want?"

"A hearing. Tuesday at nine. For conduct unbecoming a student athlete, namely assaulting Dane Abercrombie at the pool."

"You never touched him."

"I know that."

"He false-started. Everyone saw."

"Everyone saw," he said. "That doesn't matter if the dean decides they didn't."

He sat down heavily on the pool steps.

I sat next to him.

For a minute he looked at the dark water through the glass doors.

"Two years ago I won that final," he said. "Three weeks later the donor scholarship I'd been promised went to a swimmer from an Abercrombie-sponsored club. No reason. I've been paying my own way with lifeguarding ever since."

"They took it from you."

"His father did. I never proved it."

"You're proving it Tuesday."

He looked at me.

"With what?"

"With a video."

I took out my phone.

The boy who had been filming the race on Wednesday night had tagged me in his post by mistake.

It had ninety thousand views.

I played it for him with the sound up.

You could hear the horn.

You could see Dane's feet leave the block half a second before it.

You could hear me say, Lane four, out of the water, and Dane yell that I had done it on purpose.

You could see Luka standing completely still on his block, with his hands at his sides, the whole time.

Luka watched it twice.

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