She had a habit of posting on Facebook story almost daily, and with the onset of our competition, her posts became even more frequent. She crafted a narrative of hard work, portraying herself as less capable than me but utterly dedicated.
What struck me was her honesty in sharing her progress with me. Even when I didn’t respond to her Facebook messages, she persisted, sending updates and posting screenshots of our discussions on her Facebook. This created a perception among our peers that I was intimately aware of Felicity’s research, making it all too easy for anyone to accuse me of plagiarism.
I had to admit that Felicity was skilled at manipulation; she was playing the game masterfully.
But this time, I needed to turn the tables. I had to find a way to test her and uncover how she was managing to plagiarize me without drawing suspicion.
I dove into my experiments, fully committed to the new research direction. This time, I deliberately magnified certain data points, ensuring that the results would lead to inconsistencies. If Felicity’s data matched mine again, it would be clear she was plagiarizing.