Story code: ST-001380
Part 3: The Nine-Minute Warning
The portal window flashed, and Dean Pendelton’s face appeared in a high-priority video call block. I did not want to answer, but if I ignored it, he could claim I was entirely unresponsive. I clicked accept.
‘Haley, you have missed the start of the afternoon peer-tutoring block,’ he said immediately. His voice was clipped, losing the artificial warmth from before. ‘I have the administrative dashboard open. Your webcam stream is inactive.’
‘I am not participating in the tutoring program, Dean Pendelton,’ I said, keeping my face calm and my voice steady. ‘I have reviewed my account ledger. The late fees have been fully waived. I do not have a balance due.’
Pendelton let out a dry, humorless laugh. ‘The waiver is an administrative adjustment that I control. I can reverse it with a single keypress. If I do, you will owe four thousand dollars immediately, and your portal account will be suspended for non-payment. Your transfer request will be rejected.’
‘You won’t reverse it,’ I said, looking directly into the lens.
He leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. ‘You think I won’t? I have the authority to manage all portal permissions. If you think you can call my bluff, try me. Log in and start the session, or I will flag your account as delinquent within the next five minutes.’
‘I looked at the system audit archives, Dean Pendelton,’ I replied. ‘The proctoring system automatically records all billing overrides. I downloaded the video from the fifteenth.’
He froze for a fraction of a second, his posture stiffening. Then he recovered, his voice turning sharp. ‘That archive is for internal auditing purposes only. Students are not authorized to download administrative video logs. That is a direct violation of the academy’s digital safety policy. If you have accessed those files, I will have you expelled for unauthorized data retrieval.’
‘The student handbook says we have full access to our own academic and financial audit records,’ I said. ‘I didn’t bypass any security. I clicked the download button on my own billing tab.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Pendelton said, his voice rising slightly as he began to overexplain. ‘A verbal exchange during a portal session does not override the terms of enrollment. The waiver was applied under the condition that you maintain active status. I can easily write a system note stating the waiver was input in error. The state auditors will accept my documentation over a student’s claim. You are playing a very dangerous game with your academic credits, Haley.’
He clicked something on his screen. A bright red warning banner popped up at the top of my portal window. *WARNING: Your account is scheduled for administrative lockout in nine minutes. Please contact the administrator’s office immediately.*
‘You have nine minutes to open the tutoring application and activate your camera,’ Pendelton said, his voice flat. ‘Or the system will lock you out automatically, and your transfer credits will be archived as incomplete.’
He disconnected the call. The red banner remained, the countdown timer ticking down to eight minutes and fifty seconds.