The Understudy Chapter 2

Dylan and I grew up across the street from each other. He was always the intense, self-disciplined kid, while I was... not. When other kids were playing tag, he was dragging me inside to do my homework.

He’d stand over me, his face dead serious. "You got this wrong. Write it out ten times." It was torture.

In high school, he engineered it so we were lab partners and sat together in every class, constantly pushing me. "You have to work hard, Chloe. We'll go to Blackwood University *together*."

He'd always say that, his ears turning a little red on the "together" part, this tiny crack in his usual cool, calm facade.

For that one word, "together," I studied like my life depended on it.

And we did it. We both got into Blackwood's top-ranked Computer Science program. My parents practically cried with joy. They said Dylan was a godsend, the only reason I hadn't "veered off track and ruined my future."

The day I got my acceptance letter, everyone was celebrating.

But on that sunny July afternoon, I felt like I'd been plunged into an icy lake. I was shaking uncontrollably.

Because in the list of majors I had painstakingly submitted on my application, Computer Science was nowhere to be found. And my scores were way too high to have been auto-assigned.

Someone had changed my application.