Fake It Till You Fail It

On a snowy night, in complete despair, I plunged into a lake on the verge of freezing over.

But when I opened my eyes again, I found myself back in the week leading up to my college entrance exams.

Staring at my sister, who was meticulously helping me prepare, and my childhood friend, who was eagerly trying to nourish me back to health, I felt a mix of emotions.

“Denny, I made a list of all the possible essay prompts. If you study these, I guarantee you’ll get the perfect score!” Charlize said confidently as she placed a neatly compiled list of topics in front of me.

Next to her, Geena teased me. “You better land that top spot, Denny. I’ve been feeding you hummus all week—don’t embarrass the chickpeas and tahini!”

It was meant to be a joke, but I couldn’t bring myself to laugh.

Charlize was my sister—she’d never stab me in the back.

Geena had grown up with me—she had always been sharp-tongued but fiercely protective.

In fact, once, someone talked shit about me, and she nearly got into a fight over it.

So it couldn’t have been them.

Then where did it all go wrong?

I had been an outstanding student my whole life, consistently ranking first in my grade.

Even after transferring to one of the most competitive schools in Illinois, I never dropped out of the top three.

Mr. Carmichael, my homeroom teacher, even bet I’d land a spot at Harvard.

That’s why, when the so-called academic dishonesty scandal broke, most of my classmates and teachers stood by me.

I had won writing competitions before—I had no reason to cheat and plagiarize.

But then, Clive leaked the security footage from the testing room.

The video showed that he turned in his paper 10 minutes before I did.

And before the test, he had posted his own “essay predictions” on his blog, breaking down the exact topic and themes.

His essay followed the exact structure of his earlier post.

For a while, the netizens' nasty comments almost drowned me.

[It’s caught in 4K! Denzel Witt straight-up stole Clive’s work! The evidence is undeniable, and that cheater still pretends he’s a victim?!]

[I heard that that liar has always aced his class. Guess all his grades before were just stolen work that went unnoticed!]

[Thank god his own sister and best friend didn’t cover for him. Imagine letting the real victim take the fall!]

The scandal blew up so fast that it became trending.

The College Board took this matter seriously and immediately launched an investigation, analyzing the evidence Clive presented.

After verification, the surveillance footage and blog posts were proven authentic, with no signs of tampering.

They concluded that I was indeed a cheater and plagiarist.

I was completely blindsided.

I swear to god that essay was mine! How the hell was I the one who copied?

But I had no proof to defend myself.

And what I couldn’t figure out was—how did Clive’s essay turn out exactly like mine?

Did the essay prompts that Charlize predicted somehow get to him?

Mystery after mystery surrounded me.

But right now, Charlize and Geena weren’t acting suspicious.

If I wanted answers, I needed to start with Clive’s social media.

If I remembered correctly, his essay prediction post should have already been up.

But with Charlize and Geena keeping a close watch on me, I hastily scribbled down a rough outline of an essay to make myself look convincing, then clutched my stomach.

“I… I need to use the bathroom,” I muttered.

Geena shot me an unimpressed look. “Seriously? You still have a lot to study, Denny. Charlize basically handed you the potential topics, and you’re still looking for ways to slack off?”

Charlize quickly waved my friend off. “Hey, there’s still time; give him a break. As long as he follows my advice, he’ll do well.”

But I didn’t have much time to uncover the truth.

Once inside the bathroom, I locked the door and pulled up Clive’s blog profile.

It was well-known that his parents were professors at Harvard, and thanks to his looks and connections, he had a decent online following.