Chapter 3
The group of adults never stopped coming.
I heard their shoes before I saw their faces clearly, a flat slap against the linoleum that got louder with every step. My chest was still tight around my backpack straps. Tyler was still holding his phone up on my right, the little red dot steady on the screen, and Jace was still in front of me to the left, arms crossed like he was waiting for whatever came next.
Then Ms. Delgado was there.
She didn't yell. She cut right between me and the boys, her blazer swinging, and put her back to me for half a second. She was shorter than I'd expected up close, dark hair pulled back, a radio clipped to her belt that crackled.
"Phones down. Now," she said. Her voice wasn't loud but it carried the whole length of the hallway. "Tyler. Jace. Step back from her."
The fluorescent lights hummed overhead. For a second nobody moved. I could hear my own breath, ragged and too fast, catching on the inhale.
Tyler's smirk thinned. He lowered the phone from chest height like he was obeying, hand dropping to his waist. But he didn't turn it off. I saw his thumb slide and the screen stay lit, angled out just enough to keep me in frame. He held it low against his dark jacket, horizontal, trying to make it look casual. The recording light was still on.
Jace reacted differently. His arms dropped fast, hands flexing open at his sides, and he shifted left into the foreground like he wanted more space between himself and Ms. Delgado. His shoulders came up. He wouldn't look at her directly. He looked at the lockers, at the floor, at me, then away.
"Ms. Delgado, we were just —" Tyler started.
"I said phones down," she cut in. She didn't look at his phone at his waist. She looked at his face. "You can explain in the office. Not here."
A security guard came up behind her, a tall man in a navy polo with the school logo, keys rattling on his belt. He didn't touch anyone. He just stood wide enough to block the hallway and stared down the row of lockers where a few other kids had stopped to watch. Some of them had their own phones half up. Now they lowered them quick.
"Hallway's closed. Everybody to class," the guard said. "Move along."
Chairs scraped somewhere. Locker doors thudded shut down near the math rooms, that same dull metallic thud I'd heard before but softer now, more distant. The kids who'd been staring started shuffling away, whispering, glancing back over their shoulders. The green lockers on the right caught the cool fluorescent light and threw it back in a long, washed-out stripe.
I still hadn't spoken. I tried to. My mouth was dry and my throat felt swollen from crying. My hands were locked on the straps of my backpack, gray fabric bunched in my fists over the brown leather patch. It was the only thing keeping my hands from shaking visibly. I breathed in and it hitched. I breathed out and it shook.
Ms. Delgado turned then. She finally faced me.
She softened just a fraction, but she didn't reach for me right away.
"Maya," she said, quieter, just for me. "You're okay. I'm going to walk you to the office. Can you walk with me?"
I nodded. I couldn't get words out. The tears were still on my face, cooling, and I didn't wipe them.
Behind her, Tyler adjusted his grip at his waist. The phone tilted up. I saw my own reflection in the black screen, small and blurred, my gray hoodie and my hair hanging forward. He was still recording.
"Tyler, with me," the guard said, noticing. "You too, Jace. Jace, you go with Ms. Delgado's instruction — separate hall. Let's keep distance."
Jace nodded too quickly. "We didn't do anything," he muttered, but his voice was thin, defensive now, nothing like it had been when he'd leaned in close. He took a step back, then another, putting the guard between himself and me.
Ms. Delgado put a light hand on my elbow, not pulling, just guiding. Her hand was warm.
"Come on, honey. This way," she said.
We started walking. My backpack bumped against my chest with each step. The hallway suddenly felt too long, the linoleum shiny under the lights, the lockers passing in a steady green blur on my right. Every classroom door we passed was closed, windows dark. I could feel Tyler behind us, a few feet back with the guard, phone still low at his side. I didn't turn around. I could hear the soft scuff of his shoes trying to keep pace.
At the end of the hall, Ms. Delgado steered me left toward the office corridor where the light was warmer and there were posters for attendance and college applications taped to the walls. The air was quieter there.
"Jace, hold here for a minute," she called over her shoulder without stopping. "Mr. Ellis will take you to the conference room. Tyler, you follow us. Phones stay out and visible."
May you like
She hadn't taken his phone. Not yet. She'd seen it, but she was moving us first. Tyler's screen stayed on, tucked against his jacket. Jace stood where the guard had stopped him, alone now near the lockers I'd just left, hands empty and hanging.
My breathing still wouldn't settle. But my feet kept moving toward the office doors.
