The Popular Girl Manipulated Our Applications I Went To Stanford Chapter 08
Early September. The late summer in Palo Alto was bright and clear.
I wheeled my suitcase through the gates of Stanford.
At the welcome area, upperclassmen helped me with my bags. The sun shone on the sandstone buildings with their red-tiled roofs and green lawns, and everything felt alive.
A thousand miles away, another kind of welcome was happening.
I saw a post on Marcus’s Instagram story.
The photo showed endless prairie grass and a few sheep eating dry brush.
The caption read: [The wind never stops. And neither does the smell. This is my university.]
It had zero likes.
Lindsay arrived at her school and got into a fight with her roommate on day one because she couldn’t handle sharing a bathroom. She got written up.
Chad, since his family had no money left, ended up working on a construction crew framing houses.
He posted whiny posts on Instagram every day about how unfair life was, until I finally blocked him completely.
As for Tiffany, her public hearing took place last week.
For computer system sabotage and fraud, with severe consequences, she was sentenced to three years in prison.
I heard that in jail, she still acted like the popular girl and tried to boss everyone around. The other inmates beat her badly, and now she sleeps next to the toilet.
And Leonard.
After he lost his teaching license, his wife divorced him and took the kids.
Now he drinks outside a convenience store every day, telling anyone who’ll listen that he used to be a great teacher. No one pays attention to the crazy man.
I turned off my phone and left those people and their mess behind.
The people who once thought they were special, who thought they were above everyone else, destroyed their own futures with arrogance and stupidity.
And me, after the betrayal and despair of my past life, I finally got my fresh start.
The sun shone through the leaves onto my face, warm and bright.
“Hey, are you the new CS major? This way.” An upperclassman smiled and waved.
“Coming.” I walked toward him, my steps light and fast.
“It’s a long road ahead. You ready?”
“I’m ready.” I smiled.