Let Them Dare novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Assembly

The last senior assembly was at ten on Wednesday morning, and the gym was loud before I reached the stage.

The principal had given me eight minutes and a microphone, and she had given Pia the laptop cable.

It was the last all-school assembly of the year, so the bleachers were full, and every face was turned to a girl in a worn cardigan who had been a joke for a day and a half.

Dane sat in the front row, between two friends.

His father stood against the back wall with his arms folded.

I tapped the microphone, and the squeal went through the room.

"Hi," I said. "I'm Selah Flanagan. Some of you know me from a video."

A few people laughed, and I let them.

"I'm not going to sing."

More laughter, warmer this time.

"Last March I reported a student for stealing an answer key. Her name is Delaney Shore." The laughing stopped. "She was suspended for ten days. She lost her captaincy and her scholarship. She didn't take the key. I reported her anyway, and I didn't check."

Nobody moved.

Delaney sat in the third row with the swim team around her, still as a post.

"I'm telling you because today I'm asking the school to take it off her record," I said. "And because I know how I found out I was wrong."

I nodded at Pia.

The screen behind me lit up.

It showed my lock screen with a banner across it.

The room read it, and I watched them do it.

I watched a boy in the top row move his lips on the last word and go pale.

"That was sent to my phone the night before I made the report," I said. "He unsent it. He told me it was a joke about a video game. I believed him, because I wanted to."

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