Freshman Just Wanted Dinner — Until Three Bullies Made a Mistake That Cost Them Everything
Chapter 10
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Claire did not know this as she walked home through the October air. She did not know about the forum post; she would not know until morning. What she did know, walking under the elm trees of the Hartwell campus with the clock tower lit up ahead of her, was something simpler: she knew that boy had knocked over her glass on purpose. She knew it the way she knew when a person was lying in a conversation; the way she knew when a professor had a favorite student and was grading accordingly; the way she knew when a room was safe and when it wasn't. She had known it the moment his elbow moved.And she had not said anything in the moment, not because she was afraid; she had not said anything because she needed to understand the shape of what she was dealing with before she responded to it. That was how Eleanor had always told her to think. Not her grandmother's specific words—her grandmother had died when Claire was eleven—but Claire remembered her. She remembered the way Eleanor sat at a kitchen table, the way she held her coffee cup with both hands, the way she said,"Take your time to understand what you're looking at before you decide what to do about it."Claire was taking her time.She walked through the dorm entrance and up the stairs to her room. Her roommate was out; the room was quiet. She sat on the edge of her bed and opened her ruined notebook. The ink had run on most of the economics pages, but near the back, where the water had not reached as completely, a page was still partially readable. It was a page of notes from her introduction to law class.She had written something at the top of the page from the professor's lecture in the first week of classes:"The law does not care about intent. The law cares about evidence."Claire read those words. She thought about the framed letter on the wall of Miller's Diner. She thought about Dot's face when she had asked about it. She thought about the fact that she had told a woman she had never met before to make sure nobody took it down. She did not know why she had said that; she only knew that it had felt necessary.She set the notebook aside. She reached for her phone. She called her mother. The call went to voicemail."Hi, Mom," she said. "Just checking in. Midterms are done. I'm okay. I went to this diner near campus, Miller's. I think you might know it. There's a letter on the wall." She paused. "Anyway, I'm fine. Talk to you tomorrow. Love you."She hung up. She lay back on her bed and looked at the ceiling.