LIVING THE DREAM ✅

Twenty Five: The sad news, the culprit and the interns

A week or so later

"What do you mean the project was rejected?" Hayley asked Theo, who was just as sad because of the disheartening news. "We worked on this from scratch. What's wrong?"

"According to the HR, she found a source online that published the same exact dissertation as mine which would mean that I plagiarized someone's work. That's never good."

Both of them turned to William who raised his hands in surrender.
"I didn't copy anything from anyone. I might look like I can but I didn't. I swear."

Theo reached for his laptop and typed a string of words in the search engine. It ran for a couple of minutes and sure enough, the whole dissertation, word for word, was published on an anonymous blog.

"I can't believe this," William said

"Me neither. This is bad. All our work, the effort, everything has gone to waste!" Hayley added

"I'm so sorry-"

"But wait," William said as he pointed at the laptop's screen. "That blog says it was published just two weeks ago."

"So?" Theo asked

"Since I received all that paperwork via email and I received it way before two weeks ago, can't the emails be used as proof that we in fact came up with everything by ourselves before the blog was published?"

"Yes!" Theo said with a snap of his fingers. "That's a good idea. If we can show the emails when you received the paperwork plus the dates on which the documents were saved on my computer, I think we can win this."

And so they did. They presented their evidence and proved their innocence. The HR apologized profusely and said she'd take the project and discuss it with a few other stakeholders and would get back to the group in a few business says.

"Who do you think published that blog though?" Theo asked as they once again had lunch together to celebrate. "The person must have had access to all the documents on my laptop or William's email."

"I say the receptionist did it," Hayley said

"That can't be," Theo shook his head. "She wouldn't go that far to sabotage my experiments or leak my dissertation. She might look fierce but I don't think she did it."

"If not her, then- aha! It must be someone at the lab."

William laughed. "I think that's quite obvious, Hayley."

"Shut up. Do you remember when you downloaded the documents off email? You'd told me that your phone had died. What did you use to hotspot your laptop?"

"Ohhhh, that?" William shook his head. "I used the computer in the lab to log into my email and  downloaded the documents. Then I sent them to my own laptop with Bluetooth."

"That must be it. The person who sabotaged the experiments also got hold of your email and all the documents!" Theo said. "But who is that? And why are they trying so hard to make me fail?"

"Y'all seem to think that the receptionist is not guilty," Hayley shrugged. "I'd like to hear your ideas."

A week later

The receptionist wasn't guilty. With the help of a guy Theo knew, they tracked the IP address of the computer that uploaded the dissertation. Much as it was a company computer, it wasn't the receptionist's. But a computer in Lab Three.

The HR was made aware of the situation and she intervened. She questioned each technician in Lab Three, one after another till they found the culprit. Hayley vaguely remembered him as the guy who showed her the centrifuge in Lab Three. The same guy had also referred to Theo as Theophilus while seeming to mock him for never making it to Lab Three.

That was how Theo got himself a promotion to Lab Three, the lab of the intellectuals and big shots.

Hayley's internship was coming to an end but it was everything she'd ever wanted; a lifetime opportunity, a new friend, a project that'd enable her graduate sooner than her classmates, a new connection and an enemy.

"So, like we should hang out before the internship ends," William suggested

"You must be nuts if you think my sister will let me hang out with you after what happened."

"Man, I miss those days when you hated your sister and wanted to be anywhere but near her."

"And I miss those days when I thought you were a pompous trust fund child with no braincells," Hayley equipped. "But seriously, there's nothing for us to do here anymore. Aren't you bored?"

"Hey, maybe we can do another project together."

"A project?"

"Yeah. Like project get Theo and Hannah together."

"Oh, no William. You won't trick me into doing something crazy with you again. Nope. Nada. No. What even makes you think that they are into each other?"

William snorted. "Other than the fact that ever since Theo got his promotion and now has more free time, he hasn't left your house?"

"Okay, that's valid. But they probably missed each other. They are just catching up."

"Heh. You are no fun. But I'll miss you."

"You'll be eating supper at Claire's, you idiot!"

William scowled at Hayley who'd just punched his arm.
"No need to be violent. I'll miss our shenanigans, like pranks and spontaneous shit. C'mon, let's go prank someone."

"The receptionist?"

"No. That dude that sabotaged the experiment."

"Don't you have like other friends you can bother and stuff?"

"I have plenty of friends," William answered. "But they all like me because my parents are rich and shit. They want to ride in my car and make me buy them stuff. I haven't even bought you anything and I've known you for nine weeks. Do you wanna go shopping?"

"Can you leave me alone? I'm actually writing my internship report and filling in my logbook. Don't you need to do yours?"

"I'll really miss you," he said with a chuckle. "But hey, if I fill in my logbook today, will you go shopping with me?"

"Shopping for what?"

"Prank materials!"

This is the end. Thanks for reading.
Allias:)