Life Within The Halls

Chapter 15: "AnonymousX"

LIFE WITHIN THE HALLS

Gideon

Friday, 13th February, 8:20 a.m.

"Our top story this morning is the arrest of a young teacher at Hill Academy, accused of possessing and possibly distributing of an explicit video of the school's deceased head cheerleader," the news anchor's voice filled the car as I sat in the backseat, wearing my school uniform.

Guilt weighed heavily on me. If only time could rewind, I wouldn't have made that phone call about Mr. Bennett's arrest. I had been wrong all along. Victoria had been correct in her stance; Mr. Bennett was innocent. He had indeed been framed. The research I did last night and what Gideon had told me confirmed it—he was set up by someone clever.

"Bruh, we're here," my little brother, Jasper, informed with a blow through his hand, catching my attention in the rearview mirror.

I gave his shoulder a squeeze before opening the door to step out. "See you later, bro," I said. "Study hard for me." He was in fifth grade at one of Bel-Air's supposedly best elementary schools—my old stomping grounds, actually.

As the car drove away, I hurried into the school building, eager to reach the prefect room. I needed to inform Victoria, Jayden, and Sandra about what I had uncovered last night regarding Mr. Bennett.

In the first-floor hallway, members of the School Magazine Society were busy distributing red-designed flyers to students. One of the flyers fluttered to the ground, and I caught a glimpse of its contents.

"Come, let's celebrate Valentine's Day tomorrow. Venue: School premises. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m."

Did I read it right? A school party? It had been two years since the last one, which was a night party, after the tragic loss of the pony-tailed girl from my class... I hate to even think about it.

I moved past the flyer without picking it up. Nighttime parties weren't my thing after what happened two years ago. I didn't care if they were making a comeback... They would only bring back memories of that tragedy.

Pushing the door to the prefect room open, Victoria and Jayden immediately rose to their feet. It seemed they were both just as eager to share something with me as I was with them.

"We need your help," Victoria confirmed my hunch before I could even speak.

"You both need to hear me out first!" I asserted. "Mr. Bennett is innocent."

"Huh?" Jayden and Victoria exclaimed at the same time, while Sandra chimed in from behind me.

I gestured for them to take a seat around the centre table, and they did so. Placing the bank payment receipt that Matthew left behind during his run on the table, I began to explain.

"The account number used to transfer money to Daniel's look-alike, Matthew Clark, doesn't belong to Mr. Bennett," I revealed. "In fact, Mr. Bennett only has one account, the same one the school uses to pay him—and there haven't been any huge withdrawals from it since last year."

"How did you find out?" Sandra inquired.

Jayden jumped in before I could formulate a response, "Gideon is an IT god."

Wait, what?

"I'm what?" I asked, astonished.

"We know you're interested in IT," Victoria said. "I saw it cancelled on your file the night I was in the records room."

I was at a loss for words. My dad had strictly forbidden me from focusing on IT, even though it was my main interest.

"I see. So, that's how you were able to hack the CCTV cameras the night we broke into Mr. Bennett's office," Sandra concluded.

"Fine! You caught me," I admitted. "Then, you've got to believe me when I say the cheerleader's naked video was AI-generated. It wasn't real. And the car Matthew escaped with? It was a rental car booked online by someone from our school."

Jayden slammed his hand on the table in frustration. "Fuck!"

"I had a feeling something was off about how we came across that video," Sandra remarked. "It was too obvious someone had intentionally changed Mr. Bennett's password to the most common one in the world—1,2,3,4."

"So, what's our next move?" Victoria asked anxiously. "How do we free Mr. Bennett from jail?"

"There's only one option," I replied. It wouldn't be easy, but it was the only path forward.

"And what's that?" Jayden pressed.

"We have to find the real culprit-the one pulling the strings," I declared.

"Why don't you help me first? Then, once I'm out, we can track down the culprit," Jayden suggested, his eyes welling up with emotion. "Please!"

"Help you with what?"

"I'm in hot water right now," he said, his voice strained. "An Instagram account with the name 'AnonymousX' is threatening to post a video of something El and I did two years ago."

What on earth could Jayden and his cousin have done that someone would use it to threaten him?

"What did you and Ella do?" I asked, my curiosity piqued.

"He's not going to tell you," Victoria interjected. "That's why we need your help to find the identity of AnonymousX."

So, the message Jayden received when we were confronting Matthew Clark was a threat. It all clicked into place.

"Okay," I turned to Jayden. "Give me your phone." He handed it over, and I continued, "I'll need about an hour or more to track down the location of the user and possibly their identity."

I retrieved my laptop from my bag, powering it on.

"Don't worry, Jayden, I've got your back," I assured him. He looked surprised by my supportive words, but a smile crept onto his face nonetheless.

"Anything I could do to help you?" Sandra offered.

"No, I'm good. You and Victoria can go chill out. Jayden will be me."

"Alright," Victoria said as she left the room with Sandra.

Being an IT learner, diving into the digital realm was like second nature to me. I would have been even more experienced if my dad had encouraged me to focus on it instead of just sneaking around to learn from YouTubers.

My fingers danced across the keyboard, launching into a search. I combed through every corner of the internet, leaving no digital stone unturned. Firewalls were mere obstacles to be bypassed, and encryption was simply another puzzle to solve.

Beside me, Jayden anxiously watched, his eyes flickering between the screen and me. Though we were now getting along, I could feel the weight of his trust in me.

After what felt like an eternity of relentless searching, there was a breakthrough. A trail of breadcrumbs led me to an online forum.

"Got it," I announced triumphantly, turning to Jayden with a grin. "It's a resident student—some of the messages came from the Ship House, particularly the female housing. And some came from... our class."

"What?" Jayden's brow furrowed. "AnonymousX is one of our female classmates? That too a resident student?"

"Yes!" I confirmed. "A very cunning one."

But there was more. While scouring the web, another revelation struck me. The rented getaway car used by Matthew Clark was sourced from one of the locations of AnonymousX.

"And if I'm not mistaken, whoever is behind the 'AnonymousX' account is the same person behind the cheerleader's death, Mr. Bennett being framed, and Daniel's kidnapping," I concluded.

"Whoa!" Jayden exclaimed, his mouth gaping open. "We have to let Victoria and Sandra know. This just got way more intense."