Chapter 1: The Hallway
My ear felt like it was being torn off.
“Move, Miss Miller! Or do I drag you all the way to the district office?”
Mr. Gable’s voice cut through the hallway like a blade. His fingers twisted harshly against my ear while his other hand shoved my wheelchair forward, jerking it in sharp, painful bursts. Every movement sent shocks of pain through my head.
I tried to hold onto the wheels, to steady myself. I couldn’t.
“Please,” I gasped, tears blurring my vision. “Mr. Gable, stop… it hurts. I didn’t do it.”
“Silence!” he snapped, tightening his grip.
The hallway of Oak Creek Academy wasn’t supposed to be crowded during third period.
But it was.
Students gathered behind classroom windows, faces pressed against the glass. Watching. Whispering. Some laughing.
And there—inside one classroom—sat Tyler.
The real culprit.
He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, smirking like none of this mattered. Like he knew he was untouchable. His father’s donations shielded him better than any truth ever could.
My wheelchair hit a bump near a wet floor sign, jolting me forward violently. Pain shot through my body.
I cried out.
Mr. Gable didn’t loosen his grip.
This was what being the “scholarship student” meant. Being different. Being easy to blame. I was Lila Miller—the mechanic’s daughter, the girl in a wheelchair who didn’t fit into a school built for wealth and power.
To him, I wasn’t a student.
I was a problem.
“You’ve disrupted my class for the last time,” he said coldly. “Principal Henderson will handle you. Expulsion if necessary.”
Expulsion.
The word hit harder than the pain.
My dad…
Jack Miller worked sixty-hour weeks in a garage, hands permanently stained with grease, just so I could attend this school. So I could have something better.
And now I was about to lose everything.
