The Rumor That My Grad School Spot Came From The Dean's Special Favor Novel by Kaelum Rueveil _ Novel





The Rumor That My Grad School Spot Came From The Dean's Special Favor Chapter 01

By senior year, only my roommate and I were still drifting through college without a plan.
Everyone else was buried in applications—graduate school, internships, job fairs. We did none of it. We skipped everything, coasted shamelessly, and kept that up right until graduation.
One day, she finally asked if I was planning to move back home and live off my parents too.
When I shook my head, she frowned, genuinely confused.
“Then what are you planning to do?” she asked.
“Don’t pretend,” she added. “You’ve been slacking off right alongside me every day.”
I hesitated, feeling a little awkward.
“Didn’t you see the early placement list?” I said. “I was accepted a year ago.”
She froze where she stood.
The next day, I received a message from my academic advisor.
[Rowan Vale, your Early Graduate Placement has been revoked following a formal whistleblower complaint. After review, the decision is final.]
That night, I climbed to the rooftop of the tallest academic building on campus.
“Professor Brooks,” I said lightly into the phone, my voice almost drifting with the wind, “It’s really cold up here tonight. I wonder if it’d be even colder if I jumped.”
***
For four straight years, I’d ranked first in my major. Scholarships had come easily. Everyone assumed my placement was guaranteed—myself included.
Then the message arrived.
[Rowan Vale, your Early Graduate Placement has been revoked following a formal whistleblower complaint. After review, the decision is final.]
I slipped my headphones off and typed back: [Received.]
That evening, I returned to the rooftop and called Ethan Brooks.
“Professor Brooks,” I said lightly into the phone, my voice almost drifting with the wind, “It’s really cold up here tonight. I wonder if it’d be even colder if I jumped.”
On the other end of the line came a sharp, panicked shout.
“Rowan! Don’t do anything stupid! Where are you? I’m coming right now!”
I hung up without answering.
Footsteps pounded behind me. I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.
Blair Monroe—my roommate.
She was holding her phone up, the harsh glow of the screen cutting through the darkness.
“Rowan,” she said between breaths, her expression twisted with a strange, tragic resolve. “I’m the one who reported you.”
The phone camera was aimed straight at me. On the livestream interface, the viewer count was climbing at a terrifying speed.
“Stop pretending,” she snapped. “You really think we don’t know? How else did you get that placement? By running to the president Vale’s office every day?”
Her voice rose, thick with indignation and fury.
“Do you dare say there’s nothing going on between you and Jonathan Vale? What did you trade for that spot, huh? You know exactly what you did.”
“I reported you for the fairness and integrity of Northbridge University,” she declared. “I did nothing wrong.”
The livestream comments exploded.
[Are we really starting with something this wild? Academic corruption already?]
[She’s brave—calling out the president and a student by name.]
[That Rowan girl looks innocent. Didn’t expect this kind of scandal.]
[Disgusting. Get her out of Northbridge.]
I watched Blair stand there, righteous and triumphant, and couldn’t help but marvel.
She was a phenomenal actress. A waste, really, that she never applied to film school.
I didn’t smile. Instead, I let my body sway as if her words had crushed me completely, one hand gripping the railing behind me for support.
“Blair…” My voice broke, trembling, thick with tears. “Weren’t we… weren’t we best friends? Why would you do this to me?”
“Friends?” She laughed sharply, as if she’d heard the funniest joke in the world.
“I never considered you a friend. Someone who climbs up by selling her body doesn’t deserve that word.”
She stepped closer, shoving the camera nearer to my face, eager to capture every moment of humiliation.
“Look at her,” she shouted to the tens of thousands watching. “She’s panicking. She knows she’s guilty!”
Facing the livestream, Blair cried openly, her voice shaking with dramatic conviction.
“She thought she covered her tracks perfectly—but justice never stays silent!”
I covered my face, my shoulders shaking violently as a sob tore its way out of my chest.

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