Early Adopters S01E03 — Consequences
Continued from previous episode s01e02: Amir hacked into the school portal and found the key answers to the upcoming tests. He anonymously announced his discovery and used it to earn money for a gadget he was building. But Amir is in for a big surprise.
“$100 for the aluminum, $25 for the wiring…”
Amir paused a bit from walking as he tried to recall where he had spent the money. It had been a week since he started his ‘business.’
“I should have roughly $700 to work on other projects. Cool.”
He took out a small black box and carefully lifted the cover. He then took out a shiny metal piece from it.
“And you… You shall be called Spiderec. Too bad you can’t shoot webs,” he whispered to himself and chuckled as he looked at it for a few seconds before putting it back into the small black box.
As soon as he entered the school building, the school’s announcement drones went past him. All were headed towards their respective pods placed on various locations in the school.
“Sorry! Coming through!” one of the drones announced in its robotic voice as it slowed down in its flight before speeding up again.
“What the hell?!? Why are the drones in such a hurry to get to the stations?” said one student while barely dodging a drone.
“Something sick might just have happened! Let’s go and check it out!” exclaimed another student as the rest of his classmates scattered on the school grounds and ran to watch the video on the screens of the drone pods.
As soon as the drones sat in their pods, all the students went silent and waited. Amir continued to walk at his own pace, looking at each screen he passed by and then stopped at the pod closest to his classroom.
A few seconds later, the screen flashed the school logo, a woman with a weighing scale and an eagle perched on her shoulder. After the logo faded, the school principal apperead on the screen.
“This is a very important announcement. We hope that this will not be a cause of panic because investigations have been conducted and we now have major updates.”
Everyone remained motionless, still wondering what was the announcement about.
The principal paused and scanned through sheets of paper. He raised his head and looked sternly at the camera, then continued to speak: “the school network has been hacked and test answers have been leaked. The IT department has now found evidences pointing to the culprit. This person will be dealt with accordingly.”
Everyone was holding their breaths, looking at each other and waiting to hear a name. But Amir shrugged it off and was about to enter the room when then principal said, “we would like to announce the three-week suspension of Jasmin Collins effective immediately. In addition to this, she will immediately be marked zero across all examinations and will not be allowed to do a retake.”
“We are requesting that Jasmin Collins reports to my office immediately. That will be all. Please go back to your respective classrooms.”
The drones went in auto hibernation mode. Everyone remained silent, shocked at the principal’s announcement.
Than suddenly Jasmin yelled in shock “Why me? What did I do?”. Two of her friends came over to console her as all the students turned towards her and began to comment the event.
“Jasmin is a top student. Why would she have done it?”
“Don’t you think that’s the reason why she has been maintaining her spot in the ranking? I feel so cheated.”
“What a shame.”
Amir clenched his fist at what he had heard. He wanted to walk away from the place but his feet felt heavy. He stood frozen in front of the pod as the crowd dispersed.
“I know she is a bit of a weirdo, but this doesn’t look like something she would do” continued another student while walking away from the scene.
Amir started to feel sick. He rubbed his temple as he tried to take in the events that had just happened: “What have I done?”
Next: s01e04, s01e05, s01e06, s01e07, s01e08, s01e09, s01e10
Brought to you by Slash.
Written and created by Marc Gamet and Mianne Cudal.
Story-telling Consultant: Robin Narciso.
Drawing by Faisal Arief.
