Naomi laughed once.
“I didn’t mention race.”
Madeline walked away.
That exchange stayed near the top of Adrian’s mind when Naomi told him later. He had seen people reveal more through defensive answers than through direct questions for most of his career. He still did not contact Ashford. Naomi had specifically asked him not to.
She wanted her complaints handled through the same channels available to every student.
That decision became important later.
In December, another student finally made the pattern larger than Naomi.
Anika Patel reported that Claire and several girls repeatedly asked whether her family paid “international tuition,” even though she had been born in Virginia and had lived there her entire life. DeShawn reported being told Ashford’s STEM fellowship had become “basically recruiting.” A Latino junior described jokes about whether his father worked for the landscaping company when he stayed late near the athletic fields.
For the first time, administrators could no longer frame Naomi’s experience as a conflict between two strong personalities. Students entering Ashford from outside its traditional wealthy, mostly white feeder system were repeatedly treated as visitors whose presence required justification. The board requested broader recommendations on student conduct and admissions integration. The process moved carefully.
To Naomi, it moved painfully slowly.
Winter break gave her two weeks away from the school.
She toured colleges, spent Christmas with relatives in Maryland, argued politics with Adrian, and accompanied Tessa to buy gifts for children staying in the pediatric hospital through the holiday. By January, Naomi had decided she would finish senior year without letting Madeline Prescott become the main character of it. For a while, she succeeded.
She focused on debate.
Her research paper.
College applications.
Friends.
Madeline largely ignored her.
Then Naomi received an acceptance email from Yale.
She opened it during study hall and stared at the screen so long that Anika thought something bad had happened. Naomi called Tessa first, and her mother screamed loudly enough that a nurse in the hospital hallway asked whether everyone was all right. Adrian later claimed he remained composed.
Tessa eventually learned he had walked around his office telling nearly everyone who passed his door that his daughter had been admitted to Yale.
Ashford published its senior college results a week later. Madeline had been accepted to an excellent university herself. That apparently did not prevent her from finding Naomi near the dining hall and saying, “Yale always loves a compelling story.”
Naomi turned.
“What story?”
Madeline shrugged. “You know.”
“No.”
“You do.”
“I really don’t.”
Madeline smiled as though Naomi were forcing her into an unfair position. “You’re seriously going to make me say it?”
Naomi held her gaze. “That depends on whether you’re willing to say what you keep implying.”
Madeline walked away.
A sophomore sitting nearby had recorded the end of the exchange because he initially thought the two girls were arguing about college admissions. The clip eventually reached Dean Foster. This time the school issued Madeline a no-contact directive.
She could not approach Naomi outside required academic situations.
She could not discuss Naomi’s race, fellowship, admission status, family finances, transfer background, or college acceptance.
Victoria Prescott challenged the order.
She argued that Naomi’s ordinary disagreements were being transformed into racial harassment because everybody knew who Adrian Brooks was. The accusation made Naomi angrier than anything Madeline had said because Adrian had never once contacted the school on her behalf. Dean Foster confirmed that.
Most students apparently did not know who Adrian was.
Madeline certainly did not.
That detail would matter later.
In February, Ashford announced that Adrian had been retained by its board as outside counsel for a separate discrimination review involving athletics. Several athletes had alleged unequal disciplinary treatment and inconsistent recruiting practices between sports programs. Adrian initially declined because Naomi attended Ashford.
The board’s ethics committee eventually created strict limitations.
Adrian would not investigate any matter involving Naomi, senior discipline, the humanities fellowship, Madeline, or Naomi’s social circle. Another firm would handle anything that could intersect with his daughter. Naomi knew about the arrangement, but there was no reason for students to know.