The superintendent's office moved faster than any of them expected, once Preston's statement landed alongside a named victim and physical evidence. Within a week, both Callahan and Draper were placed on administrative leave pending investigation — a fact that spread through the school within hours, the way anything that big always did.
Nathan heard about it during third period, a ripple of whispers moving through the hallway before any official announcement, and felt something in his chest finally loosen after weeks of carrying it clenched tight.
He found Sasha at her locker, and neither of them said anything at first — just stood there, together, in the strange quiet of an ending that had taken so much longer to arrive than either of them had expected.
"We did it," Sasha said finally,
