The board met over a week.
Not a single session not one afternoon of deliberation followed by a clean, final verdict. A week. Seven days during which Katherine woke up every morning knowing that somewhere in a room in Riverside College, people who held her academic future in their hands were sitting around a table and talking about what she had done and what she deserved. Seven days of classes she could not fully attend to, of meals she barely tasted, of nights that offered nothing resembling rest. Seven days of carrying the knowledge that the outcome was already moving toward her, that it had been set in motion and could not be recalled, and that the only question left was its exact shape.
Emily and Rachel had been present in every meeting. They serve as witness and as Katherine’s frien
