Chapter 2

That night, after lights out, I lay in bed pretending to sleep. Behind the curtain of the bed across from mine, the furious clatter of keyboard keys echoed through the room. Even muffled by the fabric, I could feel the sheer rage in every keystroke.

Knowing Lexi, there was no way she would swallow her pride. Having a second chance at life meant I was ready to take her down once and for all.

About twenty minutes later, my phone screen lit up. Sure enough, a notification from the campus board popped up.

The photo showed me from that morning right after I had shredded the paper.

It was taken from a low, upward angle—me in my pajamas, hair a messy bird’s nest, chin tucked down to create an exaggerated double chin. The angle was so deliberately unflattering it looked professionally orchestrated.

Title: *Proof my roommate is an unhinged bare-faced 4.8. Refused a makeover, cursed me out, totally deserves her low score.*

Instant comments rolled in: "Who is that?", "Yikes, rough look," "Keep going, OP! Waiting for the full campus ranking."

Lexi replied under her own post: *Plenty more content coming. Follow me so you don't miss updates.*

I stared at the screenshots for five seconds, then saved them.

Opening my video editor, I trimmed the footage I had shot earlier, bumped up the brightness, and zoomed in clearly on Lexi’s face.

I uploaded the clip with the title: *My roommate aspires to be a campus creep. Here’s the video proof.*

The caption read: "This is what my roommate told me on day one of the semester. Did any girl on this campus actually consent to being graded by her?"

Within thirty minutes, my notifications blew up.

The post already had over two hundred replies.

Top comment: "Who does she think she is? Who gave her the right to rate people?"

Second comment: "Isn’t this a massive privacy violation? Where is the administration on this?"

Third comment: "How gorgeous does she think she is to be handing out report cards on other girls?"

Someone even posted a screenshot of Lexi’s own comment—*Plenty more content coming*—captioning it: *Creepy as hell. Confirmed campus stalker.*

I clicked back over to her original post. The newest comments were flooded with backlash: "OP is a creep," "Karma came fast," "If you're so good at grading, why don't you rate yourself first?"

Her post was completely buried under the outrage.

At 3:00 a.m., my bed curtain was violently yanked open. A burst of cold air rushed in.

I opened my eyes to see Lexi standing right beside my bed, holding her phone.

The glare of the screen lit up her ghostly white face, catching me off guard.

Her voice was a venomous whisper. "You actually posted me online? Did I give you permission?"

I didn't move. I stayed lying on my side, looking at her with half-lidded eyes.

"Chloe, you set me up! When did you start recording? You baited me on purpose this morning, didn't you?!"

"What?" I yawned casually. "You can secretly film people, but I can't record proof?"

She stood there, breathing heavily. Her shadow loomed over my bed, heavy and suffocating.

I could hear the grinding of her teeth. Finally, she squeezed out through clenched jaws, "You're going to regret this."

Her footsteps stomped away, and she slapped the curtain shut with a sharp crack.

Silence settled back over the dorm room. I stared up at the wooden slats of the bunk above me.

In my past life, Lexi stripped me of my dignity and threw me to the wolves online, telling me to "know my place."

Well, in this life, she was about to learn hers.