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 an explicit video of the late Hannah Bentley," the news anchor's voice filled the car as I rode in the backseat on my way to school. "The accused, Mr. Bennett, is also facing charges in connection to Hannah's death..."

Guilt weighed heavily on me as I listened to the news. 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 right in her stance; Mr. Bennett was innocent. He had indeed been framed. The research I did last night and what Daniel had told me proved it — he was set up by someone clever.

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

I unbuckled my seatbelt and squeezed his shoulder before opening the door to step out. "See you later, bro," I said with a smile. "Hit the books for me, okay?" 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 entrance, eager to get to the prefects' 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 sharing red-designed flyers to students. One of the flyers fluttered to the floor at my feet, and I read its contents.

"Who's in for Valentine's Day celebrations tomorrow? Meet us at Ship House at 7:00 pm and let's party till you drop!"

Did I read it right? A night party? It had been two years since the last one. Only God knew what the SMS had told the authorities to get a go-ahead for a night party in the school, amidst Mr. Bennett's arrest.

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 night.

Pushing the Prefects' room door open, Victoria and Jayden immediately got to their feet. It looked like they were both just as eager to share something with me as I was to share with them.

"Jayden needs 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 sit around the center table, and they did so, leaving me standing. I then placed the payment receipt Matthew Clark had left behind on the table and began to explain.

"That account number used to transfer the money to Matthew Clark doesn't belong to Mr. Bennett," I told them. "In fact, Mr. Bennett has only one account, the same one the school uses to pay him, and there haven't been any large withdrawals from it since last year."

"How did you know?" Sandra asked.

"He must have hacked the system; he's an IT genius," Victoria replied, before my words could come out of my mouth. And her response got me frowning.

"I'm what?" I asked, confused, since no one knew about my interest in IT.

"I know you're interested in IT," Victoria said. "I saw it canceled 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 pursuing IT, even though he was well aware it was my main interest. That was why he had it canceled on my file.

"I get it now," Jayden said. "That's how you were able to hack the CCTV cameras the night we broke into Mr. Bennett's office."

I couldn't deny it any longer. "Fine, you caught me," I admitted. "Then you have to believe me when I say Hannah Bentley's explicit video was AI-generated. It's not real. And the car Matthew escaped with? It was a rental car booked online by someone from our school."

Jayden slammed his fist on the table. "Shit!"

"Told you!" Victoria said smugly.

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

"Mm, so what do we do now?" Victoria asked anxiously. "How can we clear Mr. Bennett's name and get him out of jail?"

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

"And what's that?" Jayden pressed.

"We have to find the real culprit—the one behind everything."

"Alright, but before that, you need to help me first. Since you're good at IT, I bet you can do some hacking, right?" he said, his eyes welling up with emotion.

"You want me to hack someone's phone?"

"No, not a phone. I want you to hack an Instagram account," he said, his voice strained.

"Whose account and why?"

"AnonymousX. They're threatening to post a video of something Ella and I did two years ago."

What on earth could Jayden and his cousin have done that AnonymousX would use to threaten him, making him so worried? It must be something serious, because the Jayden I knew wasn't one to back down a threat.

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

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

It all clicked into place. The message Jayden had received on his phone when we were checking on Matthew Clark was a threat.

"Gimme your phone," I said, holding out my hand. He did, and I continued, "It'll take me around an hour to trace the location of the person sending these threats. Once I have that, I can use my computers at home to find their identity, which should take about 8 hours."

I pulled out my laptop from my bag and booted it up.

"Anything we could do to help you?" Victoria offered.

"Yeah, anything?" Sandra said.

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

They nodded and left the room with their bags, closing the door behind them.

I loved working with computers, but I wasn't as skilled as I could have been. My dad hadn't supported me, so I had to learn coding, hacking, and other things from YouTube videos and research.

"I feel bad," Jayden said beside me as he watched my hands move across the keyboard. "I misjudged you three for nothing, not knowing you are good people."

I kept quiet, pretending to tune him out. I noticed how his eyes flickered between the screen and me, expectantly waiting for me to speak up.

I ignored him and focused on what I was doing, combing through every corner of the internet. Firewalls were mere obstacles to be bypassed, and encryption was simply another puzzle to solve.

After what felt like an eternity of relentless searching, there was a breakthrough. I finally tracked the threatening messages to a specific location.

"Got it," I said triumphantly, turning to Jayden with a grin. "The person behind the AnonymousX account is a resident student, and surprisingly, a girl."

"What?" Jayden's brow furrowed. "AnonymousX is a girl?"

"Yes!" I confirmed. "Most of the messages came from the Ship House, specifically from the girls' dorm."

And there was more. While scouring the web, I found something else. "If I'm not mistaken, the person behind the 'AnonymousX' account is the same one who rented the car for Matthew Clark's escape."

Jayden's jaw dropped. "We have to let Victoria and Sandra know, ASAP. This just got way more intense."