David said, "Did you have someone put those posts online? What are you trying to pull? I told you, this is all in the past. You left the team on your own. No one forced you..."

Before he could say anything worse, Josie put the call on speaker and tossed her phone onto the bed. David's furious voice filled the dorm room.

He continued, "I don’t care what you’re trying to do. Get those posts taken down right now. I don’t want this to blow up any further. From now on, I’ll act like you were never my student, and you can stop calling me 'Professor.' You’re never to target Natalie again!"

The others in the dorm were left dumbfounded.

"Josie?" Allison stepped closer, concern etched on her face.

Josie shook her head with a faint smile. "I’m fine."

Then, she continued, "David, I’m grateful for everything you’ve taught me over the years. Without you, I wouldn’t be where I am today. But since you wanted to dismiss this past, I won’t consider you my teacher anymore. Our relationship ends here. From now on, we’re nothing to each other. As for those posts, I’m in no position to tell anyone to take them down. After all, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. Even if I wanted them gone, it’s up to the person who posted them."

David took a deep breath. "So, you’re denying any involvement in what’s happening online?"

"Honestly, I wish it was me, but I haven’t even had the chance yet," Josie replied, her expression turning cold.

That was their original plan, but they never got around to doing anything. The posts exposing the trolls and those so-called analysis threads had nothing to do with them. As for all the comments that came after, they couldn’t control those at all. They felt that everyone could see what was really going on.

David’s voice was tight with frustration. "Josie, do you even hear yourself right now? What did Natalie ever do to you for you to go after her like this? Now the whole school’s tearing her apart, saying she hurt you, when none of this is even her fault. You willingly quit the team. It was your decision. Why are you putting all the blame on her? Last time, she got depressed because of all the stuff people said online. If you keep stirring things up like this, are you trying to push her over the edge? This is a life we’re talking about. Are you really that heartless?"

The others in the dorm were left dumbfounded.

Allison, who had a quick temper, couldn’t hold back anymore. "Professor Lawson, let me ask you, what exactly did Josie do that would drive Natalie to such extremes? It’s not like Josie paid those people to attack Natalie online. Are you really sure Natalie never did anything to hurt Josie? If Josie did anything wrong, it was not insisting the school thoroughly investigate the plagiarism incident when it first came out."

Adeline jumped in. "Exactly. If they’d actually looked into the plagiarism thing back then and proved Natalie didn’t copy anything, there wouldn’t have been all those rumors online. And without those rumors, how would she have ended up with depression? If she never got depression, how could anyone say Josie was the one who pushed her over the edge? Bottom line, there’s no way any of this can be blamed on Josie!"

Zoey added, "Even if Josie didn’t make it into your team, at least she lost fair and square, not because of some shady nonsense."

"You—" David was clearly caught off guard by the speakerphone. He was so angry he couldn't get a word out for a moment. He asked, "What do you know? I’m a senior professor here, with thousands of students under my belt. The ones I pick are the cream of the crop, the best out there. Whether it’s character or academics, they’re standouts in their class. Josie and Natalie are both my students, so it’s only natural that their papers might have some overlap. But that’s not proof of plagiarism. Now that this mess has blown up online, it’s already hurt our team’s reputation. I criticized her in order to push her to do better. I never wanted to force her out of the team. Leaving was her own decision. Since she’s made her choice, she shouldn’t keep making a fuss about this."