Despite my exhaustion, I hurriedly opened Facebook and saw the familiar page layout. Felicity's mouse cursor hovered over page 11 of her document. She had written, "I felt that the topic I chose this morning wasn't innovative enough. I thought of a new direction while in the car and finalized it just now."
Though I couldn’t see the full details of her post, the number of pages, font size, and even the word count matched my document perfectly. Panic crept over me—how was this happening again?
In my previous life, I had received a message from the editorial department stating that my paper was under investigation for plagiarism. Before I could even explain, the rumors spread like wildfire through the college. Felicity took to the forums, accusing me of stealing her work, and it quickly became the talk of the school.
My instructor had called me into his office, telling me to admit to the plagiarism. He said, “Even if you lose your chance to stay in school, I’ll help you get a counselor position here.”
I refused. I had done nothing wrong.