They Framed Me for Cheating,Then Learned I Never Took the Exam

The day before the national college entrance exam, Molly Masonprettiest girl in the classstood up and pitched the whole room on pooling money for electronic cheating devices to smuggle into the exam room.

Fifty-six students who'd ground through three years of study agreed without blinking.

The moment I found out, I stepped in to stop them.

"Bringing cheating devices into the exam room is illegal! If you're caught, you're permanently banned from taking the exam again! The exam rooms have detection equipment this year. They'll catch every single one of you. You've all worked for ten years to get here. Don't throw it away!"

Because I stopped them, everyone dropped the plan

and sat the exam like they were supposed to.

But at the class farewell dinner after the exam,

every one of those fifty-six classmates kept my glass full until my head hit the table, then dragged me up to the school rooftop.

My childhood friend seized me by the throat and drove his fist into my face.

"This is all your fault! If you hadn't stopped us from going in on Molls' electronic cheating devices, we never would've bombed like this! Molls said over a dozen kids in the class next door used them and got into Westbridge University!"

"You ruined the futures of fifty-six people! You deserve to die!"

Fists and kicks rained down on me, too many to count.

I fell from the rooftop. Died on impact.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day before the exam.

I watched Molly Mason cheerfully rallying the whole class to buy her cheating devices, and a cold smile pulled at my lips.

This time around, let's see how many of you actually make it into Westbridge...

"Trust me, everyone, these devices are totally reliable! We bring them in, the miniature camera captures our test papers, and someone outside the exam room feeds us the answers in real time!"

Molly's familiar voice snapped me back to the present.

I looked at herplanted in the center of the classroom, talking a mile a minute

then at the countdown to the national college entrance exam scrawled across the blackboard.

I had really been reborn.

In my last life, this was the exact moment I'd talked everyone out of buying the devices.

My father worked for one of the agencies that oversaw the exam.

Three months ago, I'd overheard him talking to my mother:

to guarantee fairness in this year's national college entrance exam,

the exam centers had upgraded all their detection equipment,

zeroing in on the electronic cheating devices that had been running rampant in recent years. Every single one would be flagged.

And the penalties had jumped, too. Before, getting caught just meant your scores were wiped. This year, anyone caught would be permanently banned from taking the exam again.

Last time, I'd talked myself hoarse before I finally convinced them to drop their stupid plan.

But at the class dinner after the exam,

they kept filling my glass until I couldn't stand, then hauled me up to the school rooftop.

Ethan Henson, my childhood friend, clamped his hands around my throat. Nothing but hatred in his eyes.

"Miriam Winfield, this is all your fault!"

"You said we'd get caught if we brought the devices in, but Molls said the class next door used them, and over a dozen of those students got into Westbridge!"

"You destroyed the futures of fifty-six people! You deserve to die!"

The classmates I'd spent three years helping, tutoring, sacrificing my own time forthey turned on me in an instant.

Fists and feet from every direction, and when I tried to break free I went over the edge of the rooftop. My fingers caught the lip of the building and I hung there, screaming for them to pull me up.

Fifty-six classmates. Not a single hand reached for mine.

Every one of them stood a few steps back, watching me dangle, laughing like it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.

My grip gave out. I dropped from the school rooftop and died on impact.

When the authorities questioned them, they swore in unison that I'd jumped.

My parents lost their only daughter in middle age. After that, they stopped eating, stopped sleeping, drifted through their days like ghosts until there was nothing left of them. They killed themselves at home.

Meanwhile, my classmates went on to college like nothing happened, enjoying their lives.

The memory of how my last life ended left cold sweat prickling down my back.

Maybe Molly noticed the color draining from my face,

because she turned to me, lip trembling, voice dripping with hurt.

"Miriam, what's that face supposed to mean? You don't want to buy the cheating devices with the rest of us? You wouldn't go tell a teacher about this, would you?"

Every pair of eyes in the classroom swung toward me.

These same faceslast life, they'd watched me slip from the rooftop edge, and their twisted laughter was still ringing in my ears.

I switched to a smile instantly,

pulled a fistful of hundred-dollar bills from my pocket, and slapped them down in front of Molly.

"Something this good? Of course I'm buying in. I'll cover the biggest share!"

Molly looked at me like I'd grown a second head.

But the doubt in her eyes was swept away by the eruption of cheers around us.

"Molls, this is amazing! With eight hundred from our class president, we've got enough!"

"This is it! I'm getting into Westbridge this year! All those years my parents spent grinding at the morning market, finally worth something!"

"Miriam, I didn't expect you to support Molly's plan like this."

Ethan stepped forward and slung his arm around my shoulders.

"Miriam, keep being like this from now on. You know how much I like it when you're good and do as you're told."

Ethan and I grew up together. We'd been side by side since we were kids.

We'd promised we'd go to the same university, do graduate school together, head toward the same future.

But in my last life, when I was hanging off the edge of that rooftop begging for my life, he was the one laughing the hardest.

Three years I'd spent tutoring him, giving everything I had without a thought for myself.

The bitterness started spreading through me.

"Hey, Miriam! Don't tell me you're already having second thoughts?!"

Ethan's sharp accusation yanked me back to the present.

I swallowed it all down and forced another smile.

"No, it's justeveryone's about to go their separate ways. Makes me a little sad, that's all."

"What's there to be sad about!"

Molly was stuffing the collected cash into her pocket, grinning the whole time.

"Two months from now, we'll all see each other again at Westbridge!"

The whole class erupted again.

"Yeah! Westbridge, here we come!"

"Two months, and we'll be together again at Westbridge!"

Looking at these excited, two-faced monsters, a chill of revulsion crawled through me.

I needed to get away from them. Every second less in this room was a second safer.

I grabbed my bag and headed for the door.

To keep them from getting suspicious, I made a point of patting Molly on the shoulder before I left.

"Be careful when you buy the devices. And tomorrow morning, when you're showing everyone how to use them before the exam, don't forget about me."

"Don't worry!"

Molly caught my hand. Not a trace of suspicion in her eyes.

"No way we'd forget our star class president!"

Once I was out of the classroom, I stopped at the corner and waited.

Sure enough, the moment I was gone, worried voices drifted out from inside.

"Molls, I heard they're cracking down hard at the exam center this year. What if we actually get caught?"

Molly glanced out the window toward the hallway.

I pressed myself flat behind the corner wall.

She didn't spot me. After scanning the corridor and seeing no one, her brazen laughter rang out from the classroom.

"So what if we get caught!"

Molly nestled right up against Ethan,

and the two of them said it at the exact same time:

"If we get caught, Miriam takes the fall!"

A wave of cheering erupted, and then someone asked in a small voice,

"What if Miriam won't admit to it"

"She doesn't get to say no!"

Ethan stepped forward and clapped the student on the shoulder.

"She's got the best grades in our classwho else would they suspect first?"

"And there are fifty-six of us. Fifty-six people all pointing at her. Who's anyone gonna believe?"

"One more thing!"

Molly picked up right where Ethan left off, grinning as she spoke.

"Tomorrow morning, when I show everyone how to use the devicesnobody calls Miriam. Not a word."

"Why? We're not telling her?"

"Of course not. Her grades are so good, she can manage on her own!"

"But she already paid"

"So? She lorded over us for three years. Think of it as payback for putting up with her."

Their laughter hit me through the wall, ugly and wide open, and I dug my nails into my palms until it hurt.

Of course. They let me walk out that easilythere was never a chance it ended there.

But I wasn't the Miriam Winfield of my last life anymore, the lamb led quietly to slaughter.

I gripped my bag and went straight to the homeroom teacher's office.

"Ms. Simmons, this year's early admission to Westbridge UniversityI want it."

Then I set my exam admission ticket on the desk in front of her.

"I'm not sitting for the national college entrance exam."

I wouldn't set foot in a single exam room. Let them try to pin something on me then.

My decision came so suddenly

that Ms. Simmons didn't even have time to announce it in the class group chat.

The next morning, I picked up my phone. Not a single message. My mouth curved.

My mom was president of the Parent-Teacher Association,

so she'd been up since dawn getting things ready to help out at the exam center.

"Mom, I'll go with you and Dad."

I stuffed a steamed bun into my mouth and grabbed my things.

"Sweetheart, you're not even taking the exam. Why bother? You've worked hard for three years. Stay home and rest"

"I want to go."

I took a handful of small fans from her and tucked them into my bag.

"We were classmates for three years. Least I can do is see them off."

Of course I was going. I wasn't about to miss the fallout I'd been waiting for.

Lucky for me, there wasn't a single classmate assigned to the same exam room as me this time around,

so none of them had any idea I'd withdrawn.

Outside the school, I spotted Molly and Ethan walking side by side.

They spotted me too.

The second they did, both of them turned their heads in unison and walked the other way, avoiding me.

Once they'd put some distance between us, snickering drifted back toward me,

as if they could already see the ruin they'd lined up for me this time around.

My mom looked baffled.

"Miriam, what's going on with Ethan? And that girl next to him, she's in your class too, right? Why are they both avoiding you like that? They don't know you're not taking the exam! They didn't even say hello!"

"Oh, they probably just didn't see me."

I pulled Mom and Dad over to a quiet corner and sat them down.

"You've been busy all morning and most of the students are already inside. Take a break."

I was sitting by the school gates with my parents, chatting about life after college,

when a commotion broke out near the campus security office.

More than a dozen security guards and over a dozen teachers hurried past us, heading straight for the exam rooms.

Minutes later, they came backhauling students out by the arms.

I stood up and craned my neck to look insideall fifty-six of my classmates, every single one, with Molly and Ethan dead center. The parents who'd been gathered near the school gate were already surging toward them, and the proctor's face was ashen.

He turned to the parents crowding around him and spoke in a voice that cut through the noise.

"Parents of Senior Class 11, are you here? Come forward."

"Here!"

"Sir, what happened? They're supposed to be taking the exam! Why were our children pulled out?!"

"Exactly! If this ruins their national college entrance exam, can you take responsibility for that?!"

"Responsibility?!"

The proctor's expression darkened even further.

"Your children brought electronic cheating devices into the exam room! They don't even answer for themselvesand you want *me* to answer for them?!"

He turned to face Molly and Ethan, standing in the middle of the group.

"Do you know this year's new exam regulation?!"

"Anyone caught cheating during the national college entrance exam is permanently banned from taking the exam again! Your futures are destroyed by your own stupidity!"

The moment his words landed, the crowd erupted.

Every parent from our class went white.

"Cheating devices?"

Austin Henson lunged forward and grabbed the proctor's arm.

"Sir, you've got this wrong! My kid's always been honestthree years he's been grinding, up before dawn, studying past midnight. How could he bring a cheating device in there?!"

"That's right!"

Claudia Mason's eyes were already brimming with tears.

"Sir, this has to be a mistake. My daughter's grades are fineher father and I sell from a stall at the morning market. Where would we get the money to buy her something like that?"

"It was Miriam Winfield!"

From the crowd, Molly pointed straight at me, tears glistening in her eyes, her teeth clenched.

"She made us all buy them! She said she wanted Westbridge University and she didn't think she could make it, so she wanted to cheat her way in!"

"That's right!"

Ethan fixed his eyes on me, voice cracking high and ugly.

"Miriam Winfield's the class president! She said use the devices for this examwe couldn't say no! We were forced! You want to punish someone, punish her!"

Before the last word was out, the parents came at me like a mob that had lost all reason.

"You little bitch!"

"You're rotten to the core and you had to drag our Molls down with you?! Do you have any idea how hard her father and I worked to get her this far?!"

Claudia swung her arm and slapped me across the face.

She was on me before I could flinchher palm cracked against my cheek full-force and my face was already swelling before the sting even hit.

My mother threw herself in front of me the second she saw what happened.

She looked at Claudia, face full of panic.

"Mrs. Mason, you must have it wrong. Our Miriam didn't"

"Didn't what?!"

Claudia cut her off, voice like a blade.

She reached out and grabbed my mother by the hair.

"Of course you're going to say she didn't do it, right?!"

"You're her motheryou're exactly the same kind of trash she is. Of course you can't admit it!"

"A little wretch like yours pulls something like this? She learned it from you! You worthless piece of filth!"

Claudia raised her arm and slapped my mother across the face.

My mother was small and thin. She couldn't take a hit like that.

Claudia dragged her straight down to the ground.

The other parents swarmed toward my mother like they'd all gone feral, and my father threw himself over her, shielding her with everything he had.

The screaming hit like a wallparents howling over each other, faces twisted, veins standing out in their necks.

"It wasn't our Miriam! Our Miriam doesn't need to cheat!"

"Doesn't need to?!"

Austin Henson's fist clenched and slammed straight into my father's face.

"Ethan just told usyour little brat forced every single one of them! My son doesn't lie!"

The proctors and security guards rushed forward to intervene,

but fifty-six students' parents meant over a hundred people in the crowd.

Before the staff could even get close, the mob shoved them to the edges.

A couple of proctors went down under the crush.

"That little brat had the nerve to buy cheating devicesthese two put her up to it!"

Austin's bloodshot eyes swept the crowd as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

"I could kill them! These two are the ones who ruined our children! Everyone, hit them!"

The moment those words left his mouth, the wall of bodies surged forward.

Fists and feet rained down on my parents from every direction.

Bloodbright, ugly redwas already spreading beneath them before I could even scream.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

A clear, sharp voice cut through the chaos.

Ms. Simmons was running toward us as fast as she could.

"Stop it! I've already called the police!"

She rushed in and helped me lift my parents, then turned to face the furious crowd.

"What is wrong with you people?! Your children are in trouble and your answer is to beat an innocent family half to death?!"

"Ms. Simmons, you don't know! That cheating deviceMiriam forced the kids to buy it!"

The moment Molly saw Ms. Simmons arrive,

she put on a tearful voice and grabbed hold of the teacher's hand.

"My mom's telling the truth, Ms. Simmons. Miriam forced everyone to buy those electronic cheating devices."

"She said she wanted to get into Westbridge but wasn't confident enough, so she wanted to buy them and gamble on it..."

"Hold on!"

Ms. Simmons cut her off.

She pulled her hand free from Molly's grip and looked her dead in the eye.

"Say that again."

"You're standing here telling me Miriam Winfieldforced all of you to buy electronic cheating devicesso she could get into Westbridge?"

"Yes!"

All fifty-six classmates stepped forward in unison, fingers pointed at me.

"Ms. Simmons, Molly's telling the truth! Miriam put us up to it!"

Ms. Simmons's expression darkened.

She climbed onto the steps behind her, face grave, and raised her voice so every person in the crowd could hear.

"Miriam Winfield already received early admission to Westbridge University!"

"She didn't even sit for the national college entrance exam! So you tell mehow did she cheat?!"