By the time I returned to get Isabella, the “Plan” was no longer a hope. It was a blueprint.
Isabella was waiting by the door, dressed in her charcoal suit, looking like a woman awaiting a sentencing. I handed her a small, sealed envelope I’d picked up from the printer.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“That,” I said, “is the script for the rest of your life. Get in the car, Valedictorian.”
Isabella’s eyes went wide. She stood frozen on the porch. “You found out?”
“I found out,” I said, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the SUV. “And by the time tonight is over, the entire city is going to know too.”
Chapter 3: The Gathering of the Phalanx
We didn’t go straight to the high school. I made a detour to the State University campus, pulling up in front of the Ecology Department building. Waiting by the curb was Professor Timothy Stevens, a man with a weathered face and the calloused hands of someone who spent more time in wetlands than in lecture halls.
“Professor,” I said, stepping out of the car. “Thank you for coming.”
Stevens looked at Isabella, then back to me. He held a thick, embossed folder. “Isabella is one of the most brilliant students I’ve mentored in twenty years, Mr. Griffin. When you told me what happened… well, academic sabotage is a crime I don’t take lightly.”
He leaned into the car window. “Isabella, the research assistant offer I mentioned? The one we were going to discuss next week? Consider it officially signed. Full funding for your freshman and sophomore years, working on the Great Wetlands Restoration Project. You’ll be co-authoring your first paper by Christmas.”
Isabella’s jaw dropped. For the first time all day, the haunted look in her eyes was replaced by a spark of genuine, incandescent hope. “Full funding? But Mom said—”
“Your mother doesn’t decide your worth,” Stevens said firmly. “I’ll see you at the ceremony. I wouldn’t miss this speech for the world.”
We pulled away, and the silence in the car was finally comfortable. Isabella held the folder from Stevens like it was made of glass.
