She arranged the backpack to look exactly as it had been. She left the classroom within 2 minutes. Everything went exactly as Emily had planned. The school day continued after lunch. Zara returned to her classroom and picked up her backpack from the back of her chair without noticing anything different about it.
She had no idea what Emily had done. She went through her afternoon classes normally, thinking about her campaign, thinking about a student forum she was planning to organize, thinking about the things students had told her they cared about. Emily sat through her afternoon classes knowing exactly what she had done. She was waiting. She was patient.
She knew that when school ended, everything would fall into place. The final bell rang at 3:15 p.m. Students began gathering their things and heading toward the exits. Teachers dismissed their classes. The hallways filled with students moving toward the parking lot of the bus stops. It was during this moment of chaos and movement I when everyone was distracted and thinking about getting home that Emily made her move.
Emily started screaming in the middle of the hallway. She screamed loud enough that students near her stopped and turned to look. She screamed that her phone was missing. She screamed that someone had stolen her phone. She was looking through her backpack frantically, pulling things out, acting confused and upset.
Other students gathered around her asking what was wrong. Teachers came over to see what the commotion was about. Emily told them that her phone was gone and that she couldn't remember exactly when she last had it with her, but she was certain it had to be somewhere in the school. She was certain someone had taken it from her. A teacher suggested that they call Emily's phone to locate it using the ringtone.
Emily agreed immediately. The school office called her number. The phone rang out loud and clear, and the ringing was coming from inside Zara's backpack. Zara was standing in the hallway with her backpack on her shoulder when the phone started ringing from inside it. She heard it at the same time everyone else did.
Her face went confused for a moment. She didn't understand what was happening. Emily pointed at her. Emily started screaming that Zara had stolen her phone. Emily added racist comments about her character, about whether people like her could be trusted, about whether she was really the kind of person the school should have as student body president.
Zara tried to defend herself. She said she didn't know how Emily's phone got into her backpack. She said she definitely didn't take it. She said there had to be some mistake. But then Emily screamed again.
She screamed that her expensive wireless earbuds were missing, too. Emily pointed at Zara again and said that she must have taken those as well. Emily demanded to know where the earbuds were. Zara defended herself again. She said she didn't take the earbuds.
She said she didn't know anything about any of this. Emily demanded to search Zara's backpack. She reached for it. Zara pulled back. She refused to let Emily touch her backpack.