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The mysterious speaker interrupted her.
“But all that changed when a certain parasite was hired by the Department of Education.”
The murmuring started again.
“Someone who had the audacity to pollute this place with their ridiculous rules.”
All eyes turned to Harlow, and for a moment she seemed paralyzed.
“Copeland!” she instantly blurted out, looking up at the laughing Senseque. “DeLoughrey! Which one of you?!”
Once again, she was interrupted.
“Whether you like it or not, Vanderwood is now a political battleground.”
The voice paused, and the students looked around at the Copelands, Miles, Adrian, and Harlow, while others stared mesmerized at the ceilings or the purple eye on the electronic board.
“Our freedom is dead.”
“Whoever you are!” Harlow shouted angrily. “Stop it right now!”
“But don’t worry.”
I too looked through the crowd as if I could spot someone with a microphone. No such luck.
“Now you've got me.”
Harlow picked up her microphone and threw it up at the ceiling, but missed the speaker by several feet, causing a few more students to burst out in mumbling laughter before the microphone clattered to the floor.
“I'm going to clean this place up. But in my way.”
I remembered the winter ball, where someone had played the same prank. What if it was the same person?
“This university has been taken from us.”
At his words, the whispering grew louder and everyone's eyes turned back to Harlow, who was now trying to pull random cables out of sockets next to the high-tech whiteboard, but nothing happened.
“It's time we take back what’s ours.”
Harlow managed to find the right plug and the board went completely black.
The eye was now gone, but the voice remained.
“And this time…” A heavy silence fell over the hall. “…we are going to play by my rules.”
It grew quiet because everyone had heard it. It had sounded like a threat. Whoever was playing this joke had threatened the co-director of Vanderwood.
“You'll be hearing from me,” this someone broke his own silence. “Until then, have fun.” The voice chuckled softly and goosebumps ran down my neck. “I hereby declare your lectures over.”
The speakers crackled. Then it became completely silent.
The students looked at each other, undecided.
Suddenly, Cody jumped up. “Damn it! What are you waiting for?!”
If his words were fire and the lecture hall full of confused students was gunpowder, then what happened next was the epitome of an explosion.
Students shot up without even glancing at Harlow, grabbed their bags, and pushed each other through the rows toward the staircase leading upstairs.
