Chapter 3

At lunch the next day, I had just picked up my fork when a sudden commotion erupted two tables over.

"Who gave you permission to take pictures of me?!"

A girl's furious voice sliced through the cafeteria, freezing the entire dining area in its tracks.

I looked over. Lexi was sitting in the middle row, cornered by two girls standing directly in front of her.

The girl who had spoken slammed her tray onto the table with a loud *clatter*.

A piece of chicken stir-fry slipped from Lexi's fork back into her bowl. She forced a nervous smile. "Wh-what are you talking about?"

"Stop playing dumb." The other girl whipped out her phone and aimed the camera straight at Lexi.

"You took pictures of me two days ago, didn't you? My best friend recognized you. Did you post it online? Did you give me a score?!"

Heads turned from every direction.

Lexi’s smile froze, the corners of her mouth twitching as she gripped her fork tight. "I was just trying to help you glow up! My rating system is meant to help people see their true potential!"

"Say that again?" The girl holding the phone took a step closer, shoving the camera within inches of Lexi's nose. "Say that again! What were you trying to 'help' me with?!"

Lexi buried her head and shoveled rice into her mouth, swallowing without even chewing, nearly choking on the dry grains.

More students crowded around, murmuring.

"Isn't that the Rating Girl? The one getting dragged on the forum?"

"Yeah, that's her! The video exposed her. She’s been secretly snapping pics of people and grading them."

The whispers buzzed like a swarm of hornets, multiplying from a few murmurs into a roar of chatter across the entire dining hall.

Lexi jammed the last few bites into her mouth, grabbed her tray, and bolted.

The two girls didn't chase her, but others snapped photos of her scurrying away in shame.

As she shoved through the crowd, she bumped hard into a guy’s shoulder without even apologizing. Her pace quickened until she was practically sprinting out the cafeteria doors.

That afternoon, our dorm counselor called me into her office.

She sat behind her desk, sighed heavily, and rubbed her hands together. "Chloe, have a seat."

"Your roommate came to see me today. She spent nearly half an hour crying in this office."

The counselor unscrewed her travel mug, took a sip, and continued, "What she did was wrong. Secretly filming people is unacceptable. But look, those two posts on the campus board have blown up, and it's severely impacting her."

I remained silent.

She rubbed her hands again. "How about this? You take down your post, and I’ll make sure she deletes hers. We handle this internally without escalating it to the administration. It’s better for everyone. What do you think?"

I looked her in the eyes. "Counselor, she secretly took photos of me in my pajamas and plastered them online for people to mock. That photo is still up on the forum. That's what I call out of hand."

"I recorded evidence to defend myself. That’s called self-defense."

The counselor opened her mouth, but had no answer.

"If you want posts deleted," I added firmly, "maybe ask her why she was stalking people and grading their faces in the first place."

The counselor fell silent for a long moment before sighing. "I'll talk to her again."

I stood up. "Thank you."

At the door, I paused and looked back over my shoulder. "I'm not deleting the post."

That evening, the campus forum exploded.

The moderator had pinned my post to the very top and updated the title:

*From 'My Roommate Aspires to Be a Campus Creep' to 'The Rating Girl: From Self-Appointed Guru to Campus Pariah.'*

It was trending at number one. Comments were pouring in faster than I could refresh the page.

New submissions flooded the thread.

Someone uploaded a screenshot showing Lexi sneaking photos of girls in the library.

Someone else compiled a nine-photo collage of blurry candid shots Lexi had taken over the past two weeks—at the boba shop, the quad, and outside lecture halls.

Title: *She took photos of all these people too. If you recognize yourself, start saving evidence!*

The outrage snowballed from public shaming into formal complaints.

Just past six in the evening, Lexi’s forum account was suspended for seven days.

Her post containing my pajamas photo was finally scrubbed, replaced with the default message: *This content has been removed due to community violations.*

I got up from my desk to refill my water bottle. Passing Lexi’s bed, I saw her curled up in the corner, clutching her knees and weeping softly.

I ignored her completely.

In this life, I’m not the one who’s going to end up in a grave.