Chapter 5

As Adam watched Juniper leave, he got up to leave as well when heard a familiar voice.

"Adam"

Adam turned around and saw Elise walking towards him from the opposite entrance. The cafeteria had two entrances. The one Juniper and he used was the main entrance while Elise was coming towards him from the side entrance. The counter blocked it from view, so Adam didn't know how long Elise had been standing there and how much she had heard.

'Let's hope she just got here.'

Adam saw Elise had no intention of continuing so he said, "Why did you come to school on a weekend?"

"The drama club is preparing an act for the Establishment Day Program."

Establishment Day Program was the day the first Autumn School was founded. Later, a branch was established in B and E City and then a University in the capital.

Adam cursed at Elise's answer.

'There's no way to continue this conversation.'

Adam said, "Then, I'll be going back to the dormitory. Have a nice day."

Adam got up again to leave when Elise said, "It's against the rules to threaten someone."

'So, you heard something. Why did you wait so long to mention it?'

Adam complained in his head.

"What do you mean?"

Adam didn't plan to play word games with Elise since the more he talked, the higher the chance he will slip up. Even if she didn't record the conversation between Juniper and him, she might record now.

Adam was pulled out of his thoughts by Elise's words, "That girl who just left is the girl in the photo posted last night. She left crying after talking to you. So, you must be the one who uploaded the photo yesterday and have something even worse that you are using to threaten her."

Elise said it with such a sure tone, Adam thought she had heard the whole thing and he might as well just confess and not implicate all four of them. But after thinking for a while, he calmed down and thought.

'If she really heard something, we wouldn't be having this conversation. She is guessing after she saw what happened. So, I just have to deny everything.'

Elise didn't seem to be in a hurry for Adam's reply and sat down opposite to him and waited.

Adam finally said, "I didn't threaten her or anything. She tried contacting James after someone uploaded the photo yesterday, but he was ignoring her calls. She stood in front of the boy's dormitory and James couldn't leave. So I brought her here with the excuse of contacting James. I was just stalling when she started crying and saying she wanted James to say they broke up before someone took the photo. After that, she got a call and left then you arrived."

His lie wasn't perfect, but Elise had no way of confirming what happened.

'I don't care how much you heard of my conversation with Juniper as long as you don't bring out proof, this is the story I'll insist on. Juniper deleted the video from my phone, and the only other copy is with Ethan. Even if Juniper says I threatened her, she was the one who deleted the proof herself.'

Elise didn't insist on her opinion and changed topics, "I've seen your roommates using your badge. You know it's only to be used by the student committee to do their jobs properly and not for borrowing."

"They were probably with me."

"Should I insist on checking your badge usage and the camera footage in the past two weeks? I'm sure I can find a few when they were alone."

Johnathan had used it more times than him, so he might as well admit it instead of going through all that trouble.

"I have let them use it sometimes in the past. It won't happen again."

Adam had no problem letting Elise win this argument as long as the topic didn't go back to him threatening someone. He wasn't attached to the prefect position. He admitted it quickly so he could make an excuse and run away.

Adam continued, "The exams are coming up. I need to go back and prepare. See you on Monday."

He didn't wait for Elise to respond and ran away.

The incident was handled quietly like Adam expected. After Juniper and her parents were called into the principal's office, they also somehow managed to contact Ethan. The principal decided to do an alcohol level test after looking at Ethan and after the test came positive, berated him for stealing the prefect's badge, going outside school without permission and getting drunk.

Juniper ended up with a week long suspension, but Adam didn't think she will return to the school. As for Ethan, his parents were outside the city, so he had to spend an awkward night at the school dorms before his parents arrived and took him away. The guy tried explaining that he didn't write that comment, but people thought he did it in a drunken haze and forgot. Adam and the three had destroyed most of Ethan's relationship in one night.

Ethan's parents came on Sunday and the principal gave him a month of suspension from classes, although like Juniper he might not be coming back. Only a few people knew Ethan had taken a prefect's badge, gone outside and gotten wasted. Others thought getting a month of suspension was too much for just a photo and a comment. Ethan's former roommates knew about it, and people will probably hear about it on Monday.

'Most people in this school have some background. This is just a small embarrassing incident for them, they can just transfer schools and forget it in a year.' Adam thought.

He was just getting petty revenge and wasn't trying to ruin someone's future. Now that they got a bit of humiliation, this was the end of their relationship. He had already removed any traces of the video from his phone in case someone came looking for it.

Adam didn't get his badge back after Ethan was caught and knew the chances of it returning to him were slim.

'Oh well. It's not a big loss.'

James, Johnathan and Oliver returned on Sunday evening. Adam didn't mention him meeting Juniper or his conversation with Elise. He only told the end result was and mentioned that he might lose his badge in passing.

The next day, Adam was contemplating whether he should attend the morning meeting.

'It's pretty much set in stone but they haven't informed me yet so might as well attend.'

Adam arrived at the meeting and sat at the back as he always did and looked around. Almost everyone had arrived, so the student committee president got up and started speaking.

The present student committee president was a final year student named William Harper. He had soft facial features and a round face. His tie was secured tightly on his neck, and he fulfilled every requirement for what a model student should look like in Adam's mind. He looked like a pushover, but Adam knew otherwise.

'Not anyone can become the committee president.' Adam thought.

William talked about the semester examination, reminded the house leaders to submit their weekly report and finally the changes to the committee badges.

"... The school has removed the badges authority to open the school's entry gates without prior permission from the administrative department. The badges can still work in all other places inside the school. The principal felt that it wasn't a necessary privilege and if anyone needs to, they can get permission from the department first."

He continued, "The reason for the sudden change is that a student stole the prefect's badge on Friday and went outside. The principal doesn't want a similar incident to happen again, both for the school's reputation and the safety of the students."

Adam looked down as he felt the unfriendly gazes from around him. Since, there was only one prefect, it was obvious whose badge was stolen and why a permission was removed from the student badge. Even though it wasn't something they used frequently and most didn't know about, the students still hated the feeling of losing something.

The president continued, "The principal felt that since it was related to the student committee, it was appropriate for the members to vote whether Adam should remain a prefect. There's 16 of us excluding Adam so I will refrain from voting for the sake of not ending it in a tie."

The student committee comprised the president, vice-president, the 4 house leaders, the 10 club presidents and the sole prefect. If the president didn't vote, there would be 15 voters.

William seemed to have something left to say.

"Although I am not voting, I would like to express my opinion. The badge was stolen so I don't think Adam is to blame. He has proved his ability as a house leader before and I think we need representatives in both the boy's and girl's dormitory. Alright, those in favor of letting Adam remain as a House Leader, please raise your hands."

Adam counted and saw that eight people were in favor of him remaining the prefect. Among them were the Mountain House Leader who probably wanted to keep him in the committee since he was also from the mountain house. The next was the Football Club president, who probably supported Adam because of what Ethan did. The Marathon Club also voted in his favor since he knew the president as a previous member of the club. The last one was the Computer Club president, who he had helped before when he was the House Leader.

The others in his favor were the presidents from the Art Club, Music Club, Drama Club and the Literature Club. Adam wasn't close with any of them, but he chalked it up as the influence of the president's words.

Adam wasn't surprised that Elise voted against him because of their conversation, but it surprised him that Drama Club and the Vice-President voted differently.

'They are usually of one mind but what about now. Have I helped the Drama Club in the past?'

Adam thought. He was sure he would lose his badge but didn't expect such an upset. It wasn't what he expected but it was a welcome surprise. He didn't want to feel the embarrassment of losing it if he didn't have to.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Elise's voice, "Although, the prefect has the student committee's badge but he doesn't have any fixed responsibilities. I think we should change that."

William seemed to think about Elise's suggestion and said, "I do think the both of us could use an extra hand. Adam, Why don't you help us out? I'll bring it up with the principal. Alright, the meeting ends here."

Although, William put it like a question, he didn't wait for Adam to respond as he ended the meeting. Adam started to feel that this was how it would have ended even if the majority wasn't on his side.