Nyla frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“You keep looking because you want something.”
“No.”
“You found one old discipline report and turned it into a crusade.”
“I have not published anything.”
“You’re talking to people.”
“That is research.”
Brooke stepped closer.
“Why my family?”
Nyla looked around the courtyard.
Several students were listening.
“Your family is not my subject.”
“My grandfather is.”
“He signed a public-school record.”
“That’s my point.”
“No.”
Nyla’s voice stayed calm.
“That’s mine.”
Brooke stared.
Nyla continued.
“He was an administrator. Public officials become part of public institutional history.”
Brooke’s face flushed.
“You think because he’s white and you’re Black, you automatically get to judge him.”
Cassidy inhaled sharply.
Nyla stood.
“No.”
Brooke seemed surprised.
Nyla picked up her book.
“I think because he made decisions as an administrator, I get to research them for an academic project.”
She left.
Brooke’s version of the conversation traveled faster.
By lunch, students heard Nyla was “trying to expose” Brooke’s grandfather as racist.
By afternoon, somebody said Nyla wanted Whitman’s name removed from the auditorium.
She had never proposed that.
The following morning, a sophomore asked if there would be a petition.
Nyla stared.
“What petition?”
“To rename Whitman Hall.”
“There is no petition.”
“Brooke said people are trying.”
“People who?”
“I don’t know.”
Exactly.
Rumor turned research into campaign.
Nyla corrected what she could.
Ignored the rest.
Then the first anonymous message arrived.
Maybe stop using race to get attention.
No name.
Sent through a temporary social-media account.
Nyla showed Denise.
Her mother wanted the school notified.
Nyla resisted.
“It’s one message.”
“One message directed at your race.”
“I know.”
“Then why protect whoever sent it?”
“I’m not protecting them.”
“What are you doing?”
Nyla thought.
“Not turning one idiot into an emergency.”
Denise disagreed.
Malcolm supported reporting it without demanding punishment.
That compromise won.
Assistant Principal Alicia Grant documented the message.
No sender identified.
No further action.
Two days later another appeared.
Your grandma survived Westbridge just fine. Maybe stop pretending you’re oppressed for a grade.
That detail narrowed possibilities.
Nyla had mentioned Laverne in class.
Several students knew.
Grant increased monitoring.
Brooke denied involvement.
No evidence connected her.
Nyla believed that mattered.
She told Cassidy not to call Brooke the sender.
“Come on.”
“We don’t know.”
“She hates the project.”
“That isn’t proof.”
Cassidy rolled her eyes.
“You’re exhausting.”
“Accuracy is exhausting.”
“Journalism club would love you.”
“I would rather eat glass.”
Despite tension, the capstone itself improved.
Nyla built a timeline.
1969: county integration order.
1971: Laverne enters Westbridge.
1972: curriculum dispute.
1973: Black faculty hiring conflict.