At three in the morning, the class monitor, Hayden Clark, suddenly posted a message in the group chat announcing that the graduation photos would be taken the morning after next.

He then sent a payment QR code in the chat, where each student had to pay 50 dollars for the graduation photos.

I told Hayden that I had my thesis defense scheduled for the morning after next and asked if the time could be changed.

He immediately snapped back at me, “Is your time the only time that matters? If you can’t come, then get lost!”

Wanting to keep the peace, I paid the money and went through great trouble to rearrange my schedule.

But when the day for the photos finally arrived, Corin Vale told me, “The graduation photos were already taken yesterday!”

I deliberately changed into the new shirt I had bought and carefully styled my hair before heading to school.

But when I arrived at the track field under the blazing sun, I discovered that there wasn’t a single person there.

I took out my phone and checked the notification again.

[The day after tomorrow at 10 a.m., gather on the track field for the graduation photo.]

I scrolled down.

There was no notice about any change in time.

Everything seemed correct, yet the field stood completely empty.

I refused to believe it and thought they might have hidden somewhere else to escape the heat.

Worried about wasting time, I hurried over to the gym.

But inside, only a few younger students were playing basketball.

The scorching sun burned against my skin, and sweat slid down my back, soaking the white shirt I had specially prepared for the graduation photo.

The hairstyle I had so carefully arranged had collapsed, and a few strands of hair clung awkwardly to my forehead.

Unable to endure it any longer, I called my dormmate Corin Vale.

“Hello, Everett. What’s up?” Corin answered uneasily.

“Where are you guys? Did the graduation photo time change? Why is there no one on the field?”

I tried my best to keep my voice from breaking.

The line went silent for a few seconds.

“Well… Everett, actually… we already took the photos yesterday.”

“Yesterday?”

My voice suddenly rose, drawing the attention of several nearby students.

“But Hayden clearly said today…”

“Hayden later announced the time change in a smaller group chat. He probably… forgot to add you.”

Corin’s voice grew softer and softer.

My hand holding the phone began to tremble.

It was happening again.

Ever since the class event in our sophomore year, when I refused Hayden’s unreasonable demand to split extra expenses, I had become the target of exclusion by the small clique of classmates.

But this time, they had gone too far.

A graduation photo was something that happened only once in a lifetime.

“Then what about the fees I paid?” I asked, biting my lip.

“Well… you’ll have to ask Hayden about that.”

Then Corin hurriedly said he had something else to do and hung up.

I stood there, feeling as though all the blood in my body had rushed to my head.

It was not a small sum for me. I worked part-time to earn this money.

What hurt even more was that my face would never appear in the graduation album.

And every classmate would remember it, Everett, the oddball who did not even show up for the graduation photo.

I took a deep breath and opened Hayden’s WhatsApp message.

Our chat history still lingered on his aggressive message: [If you don’t come, then get lost.]

My fingers trembled slightly with anger as I typed: [Hayden, why wasn’t I informed when the graduation photo time was changed? I already paid the money, so why wasn’t I included?]

After I sent the message, the screen showed that he was typing, then stopped, appeared again, then stopped.

A full five minutes passed before Hayden finally replied: [Who told you not to read the group messages? If you can’t fit in, who else can you blame?]

I stared at the message, my eyes burning.

I decided to go to the school counselor, Mr. Glenn Harper, and demand an explanation.

The door to Mr. Harper’s office stood slightly ajar.

I was about to knock when I heard Hayden’s earnest and respectful voice coming from inside.

“Mr. Harper, over the past four years, I organized more than twenty class activities and even received the Most Outstanding Class Monitor award…”

I pushed the door open and saw Hayden sitting across from Mr. Harper, a stack of documents spread across the desk.

They both looked up at the same time, and Hayden’s expression froze instantly.

“Everett?” Mr. Harper said with some surprise.

“What’s the matter?”

I clenched my fists, my nails digging deep into my palms.

“I want to report that Hayden has been maliciously excluding classmates.”

I tried to remain calm.

“He collected the graduation photo fee but deliberately failed to inform me of the shooting time, which resulted in the entire class photo being taken without me.”

Hayden immediately jumped to his feet.

“What nonsense are you talking about! You’re the one who didn’t check the group messages!”

“Which group?” I said as I stared at him.

“Do you mean that small group chat you created without me?”

Hayden’s expression shifted slightly, and he turned to Mr. Harper.

“Mr. Harper, our class has three group chats. Everett left it himself—”

“I didn’t leave any group,” I cut him off.

“You kicked me out. During that class dinner in our sophomore year, you asked everyone to pay fifty dollars, and after I objected, you removed me.”

Hayden let out a cold laugh, but when he turned to Mr. Harper, he replaced it with a wounded expression.

“You see, Mr. Harper? Everett is always like this, constantly nitpicking our class affairs.

“That dinner was at an upscale restaurant. Fifty dollars wasn’t even enough, and I had to cover the extra cost with class funds…”

“That’s a lie!”

My voice trembled with anger.

“The actual cost was less than thirty dollars per person, and you never released the account records afterward!”

Mr. Harper frowned.

“All right, all right. Graduation is approaching, so don’t argue over such trivial matters.

“The two of you are both at fault. Hayden, you really should have informed every classmate about the graduation photo…”

“But I did notify everyone!” Hayden protested as he took out his phone.

“Look, I posted the announcement in the main year group chat and even tagged everyone. If he muted the group messages, how is that my fault?”

I leaned over to check and saw that he had indeed posted a brief notice in the year group chat.

But that chat had long been flooded with advertisements, and I had muted it a long time ago.

“And besides,” Hayden added smugly, “before the photos yesterday, I even asked someone to go to his dorm to look for him, but he wasn’t there.”

I turned to him sharply.

“Who came looking for me? I was in my dorm the entire day yesterday, preparing materials for my thesis defense!”

“Corin said he knocked for a long time, but no one answered,” Hayden shrugged.

“Maybe you were wearing headphones and didn’t hear him.”

My whole body trembled with anger.

Corin had never come to look for me.

Seizing the moment, Hayden added, “You know how it is, Mr. Harper. Everett never participates in class activities and always needs to be invited again and again.

“This time it was the same with the graduation photo. He was the only one in the entire class who wanted to change the time…”

“That was because I had my thesis defense!”

My voice shook with anger.

“And didn’t I cooperate and adjust my schedule in the end?”

“All right, all right.”

Mr. Harper interrupted us with a frown.

“The graduation photo has already been taken, so there’s no point discussing it now.

“Everett, you should learn to fit in with the group. After four years of school, not even having a graduation photo would be such a pity.”

I stared at Mr. Harper in disbelief. “This isn’t my fault…”

“Hayden has been very responsible as class monitor,” Mr. Harper said quietly as he patted Hayden on the shoulder.

“How about this? I’ll ask the photographer to edit you into the photo separately, and the cost will come from the class funds.”

“Then what about the fees I paid?” I asked.

Hayden immediately replied, “It’s already been paid to the photographer. There’s no way it can be refunded.”

Mr. Harper nodded. “Yes, the photographer worked very hard as well.”

I stood there, feeling a chill spread through my body.

This was the school where I had spent four years, and these were the teachers and classmates I had known.

“There’s no need to edit the photo,” I said.

“I won’t pay for a fake group picture.”

As I turned to leave, I heard Hayden say behind me, “You see, Mr. Harper? That’s exactly the kind of antisocial attitude…”

When I returned to my dorm, Corin was sitting on the edge of my bed, holding a box with flashy packaging.

“Everett…”

He stood up awkwardly.

“I’m sorry. I really wanted to come find you, but something came up at the last minute…”

I walked past him in silence and began packing the items on my desk.

“This is a gift for you.”

He pushed the box toward me.

“All four of us in the dorm contributed…”

I paused and stared at the box.

“Did you really come looking for me yesterday?” I asked softly.

Corin twisted his fingers together.

“I… I did go, but you weren’t there…”

“I was in the dorm all day yesterday.”

I looked straight into his eyes.

“From eight in the morning until ten at night. I even ordered lunch delivery.”

His face flushed red.

“Maybe… maybe I got the time wrong…”

“Corin,” I interrupted him, “over four years of school, how many times did I save you a seat in the library? How many times did I cover for you?”

His head sank lower and lower.

“Last semester, when you twisted your ankle playing basketball, who carried you to the hospital in the middle of the night?”

My voice began to tremble.

“Who stayed with you in the ER until dawn?”

He kept his head low, fists clenched tightly.

“I’m sorry…” he said sadly.

“*Hayden said… said there was no need to notify you… he said you never fit in anyway…”

I took a deep breath and pushed the box back to him.

“No, thanks.”

I was about to ask Corin to leave the dorm when my phone vibrated.

A new message appeared in the class group chat.

Hayden had posted a notice:

[Students who have paid can take individual and group photos this afternoon.]

The chat exploded with cheers and thank-you emojis.

Corin quickly grabbed my hand.

“I’ll come with you this afternoon…”

I coldly moved his hand aside.

“I’ll go by myself.”

After all, I had already paid.

At three in the afternoon, I arrived alone at the school’s photography studio.

From a distance, I saw classmates gathering in small groups, holding the graduation albums they had just received, laughing constantly.

But when I pushed the door open, the normally noisy room fell silent for a second.

More than twenty pairs of eyes all turned toward me, then moved away as if by unspoken agreement, while a few suppressed giggles floated in the air.

I wondered what was happening.

I walked straight toward Soren Vance, a class committee member distributing the albums.

He was Hayden’s close friend and often cooperated with him to target me.

Today, Soren wore a graduation gown and was surrounded by a few buddies, joking and laughing.

Seeing me approach, panic flickered across his face, but he quickly replaced it with his usual condescending expression.

“Well, finally decided to show up?” Soren asked, his voice raised.

“Didn’t you say you weren’t coming?”

I calmly reached out my hand.

“My graduation album, please.”

He exaggeratedly sighed, picked up an album from the table, and handed it to me.

“Here, I saved it just for you.”

I opened the album, and the first page was the full class photo.

My picture had been Photoshopped into the far corner of the last row—a clear ID photo cut from my student card.

It had been enlarged to the point of distortion; my face was pale and lifeless, a stark contrast to everyone else’s natural expressions.

Worse, a ridiculous pair of bunny ears had been added to the top of my head.

A few suppressed snickers rang out around me.

I raised my head and saw several classmates covering their mouths to laugh, and some lifted their phones to take pictures of me.

“How do you like it?” Soren raised an eyebrow smugly.

“I personally instructed the photographer to make it special.”

My fingers clenched the edges of the album, knuckles white.

“This is what I get?” I heard my own voice, unnervingly calm.

Soren shrugged.

“Photoshopping isn’t free. Do you know how hard the photographer worked overtime?”

“Refund my money.” I slammed the album on the table.

“Or I’ll report you and Hayden to the Academic Affairs Office for misusing class funds.”