“You report versions of everything all year.”
“I reported screenshots.”
“You got me suspended.”
“You got suspended.”
Sloane laughed sharply.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“You never take responsibility for anything.”
Maya stared at her.
“For your messages?”
“For what happened to me because of you.”
Jalen stepped forward again.
“Sloane.”
She turned on him.
“And you.”
Jalen raised his eyebrows.
“What about me?”
“You’re always there making her look like some perfect little victim.”
Maya’s expression hardened.
“I never asked to be a victim.”
“You love the attention.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Sloane looked toward the students holding phones.
“You always have an audience.”
Maya almost laughed.
“You walked over here.”
That sentence hit harder than Sloane expected.
Several witnesses nodded.
Sloane saw them.
The conversation was slipping away from her.
Then her eyes moved toward the bouquet.
Something changed.
Maybe she had planned nothing before that second.
Maybe humiliation had already become the goal.
Nobody could know with certainty.
What happened next was clear.
Sloane stepped forward and grabbed the bouquet near the stems.
Maya reacted instantly.
“Let go.”
Jalen reached toward it but stopped when Maya pulled back.
Sloane yanked.
The paper wrap tore slightly.
Orange petals shook loose.
Maya tried holding on.
“Sloane!”
One Student Council girl shouted her name too.
Sloane pulled harder.
The bouquet came free.
Maya stared.
For one second Sloane held the entire arrangement.
Then she dropped it onto the grass.
Everyone froze.
The flowers landed unevenly.
Several stems snapped.
Maya looked down.
Sloane looked at her.
Then, with a small smile that would later appear in dozens of freeze frames, Sloane raised one white sneaker.
She stepped directly onto the orange flowers.
The arrangement collapsed beneath her foot.
Maya did not move.
Sloane shifted her weight.
Petals crushed into the grass.
Someone behind them gasped.
Another student laughed from shock.
Sloane looked down.
Then back at Maya.
“There.”