"Professor Wilcourt did not improperly assist a student in writing or publishing a paper. Professor Lawson, do you have anything else to say about this?"
David’s lips quivered. He thought, "Seriously? How could this happen? How could things turn out like this?"
"Could it really be that Josie was the one who wrote that top-notch, airtight paper?"
He stared at Josie in utter disbelief. "You really revised and published that paper all by yourself? You’re not making this up?"
"Do you want me to call all my witnesses up here and have them testify in front of everyone?" Josie’s expression was icy cold, her eyes fixed on David with not a shred of warmth.
She added, "I know you never thought my paper was good enough. Back when Natalie and I both wrote on the same topic, you picked hers over mine."
"So after that, I went back and poured my heart into revising and refining it, and that’s how I ended up with the published version you see now."
"This is the result of all my hard work. Why do you have to doubt me so much, Professor?"
David’s face alternated between pale and flushed. After a long pause, he finally managed to speak. "It must be a fluke."
"It’s pure coincidence. Look, I have years' worth of Josie’s experimental data from my team, and every single draft of every paper she’s ever written."
"To my knowledge, she’s never finished an experiment by herself, and not a single one of her papers has ever been published!"
As soon as he finished speaking, all of Josie’s experimental data and her paper records were displayed on the big screen.
Everyone could see all the relevant information for themselves.
As the mouse scrolled, the data slid past on the screen.
Someone in the crowd muttered in disbelief, "Two hundred seventy-one experiments in just over two years? Josie must be insanely busy."
Delilah clenched her fists, anger flashing across her face as she gritted her teeth.
She said, "Even the lab machines at the hospital don’t rack up numbers like that. Professor Lawson, your team really is the best in the school. Your student works like a robot. That’s honestly impressive!"
Delilah’s comment left everyone in the room stunned.
"Isn’t Josie amazing? I can’t believe she took part in that many experiments!" someone blurted out.
"Seriously, most people would’ve given up way before that!" another person said in awe.
"No wonder she made it into Professor Lawson’s team as a freshman. She really fought her way in with sheer hard work," someone else added.
"With that kind of crazy workload, she wouldn’t even have time to breathe, let alone finish an experiment all by herself," a person pointed out.
"Seriously, that’s almost impossible!" another person agreed.
This was the first time David had actually paid attention to the sheer number of experiments, and he looked downright awful.
That wasn’t even the point he wanted to make. What he really wanted was to prove Josie was hopeless when it came to academics and hands-on work.
He felt that there was just no way she could’ve pulled off publishing a paper by herself.
David said, raising his hand, "Everyone, quiet down. Yeah, I’ll admit my team’s workload is huge, and the coursework is tough too. But that’s not what matters here."
"What I’m saying is, with Josie’s abilities, there’s just no way the data in her paper came from her own experiments. That paper isn’t all her own work, not by a long shot."
"I refuse to believe Professor Wilcourt had nothing to do with this. She’s been parading Josie around like some star pupil. Did it ever occur to her that Josie just isn’t up to the task?"
"Why are you doing this, anyway? Have you even considered how this could affect Josie’s studies? What if you end up ruining her chances to graduate, or even messing up her future job prospects?"
"Is this really what a teacher is supposed to do? Aren’t you going against what it means to be a teacher? I hope the school gives us a fair and proper response to this!"
Delilah burst out laughing.
She asked, "Tell me, are you really worried about Josie, or are you just upset because this whole thing is making you look bad?"
"Aren’t you just trying to prove that Josie cannot be successful after she left you, David?"
"You think I’m going out of my way to hype her up just to slap you in the face, right?"
"Seriously, who do you think you are? Do you really think I’d bother going out of my way just to embarrass you?"
"David, you really overestimate your importance."
"Let me say it loud and clear. Josie is outstanding exactly because she left you!"