Right before freshman year started, I bought a lottery ticket. And I got incredibly lucky – I won five thousand dollars cash. Thrilled, I offered to treat my entire dorm to a lavish dinner. But my three roommates, who always played up their financial struggles, just gave me cold stares. Brittany, our dorm leader, said, “So, you’re the one who sucked all the good luck out of our dorm. No wonder I’ve been losing things every day lately.” I thought she was kidding, so I proactively sent each of them a two-hundred-dollar e-transfer. But the next day, Brittany outright snatched my meal card. “You have to split your prize money with us, half and half! It’s the price you pay for stealing our luck!” The other two crowded around me. “Exactly! Ever since you showed up, I failed my test. It must be your fault!” “This is called a ‘luck equalization fee.’ If you don’t pay, we’ll curse you to hell and back every single day!” Seeing my refusal, they sneered. “Fine. We’re not scared of you, so let’s see who can outlast who.” But what they didn’t know was that I’d already used that prize money to prepare something that would expose all their secrets.
“Congratulations, third prize! Five thousand dollars cash!” When the staff told me, I just froze. Five thousand dollars! My fingers tingled as I clutched the envelope. Back in my dorm, I held up the envelope. “Girls! I won the lottery!” “Dinner’s on me tonight! That seafood buffet by the campus gates – let’s go have a feast!” The dorm fell silent. Brittany Hayes, our dorm leader, was putting on lipstick, glancing at me through the mirror. Chelsea Miller sat at her desk, flipping through a book, the pages rustling loudly, without even looking up. Our other roommate, Megan Jones, kept her head down, washing clothes, as if she hadn’t heard a word. My smile stiffened. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you guys happy?” Brittany snapped her lipstick shut, turned around, and crossed her arms. “Happy? Why would we be happy?” “Turns out all the good luck in our dorm was sucked away by you.” “No wonder I’ve been losing things every day lately. My prepaid laundry card, just after I’d loaded it up, went missing.” I was stunned. “How could that be? It’s just good fortune.” I pulled six hundred dollars from my wallet and handed two hundred to each of them. “Don’t say that. Finders keepers, right? Here, treat yourselves to something nice.” Chelsea stopped flipping her book, looked up, and reached for the money. Megan dried her hands and took two hundred dollars from me. Brittany scoffed, snatched the money, and stuffed it into her pocket. “At least you have some conscience.” I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew all three of them relied heavily on financial aid, so their living expenses were tight. Giving them cash probably seemed more practical. But I never expected that two hundred dollars would only whet their appetite.
The next day, I went to the cafeteria. Just as I swiped my card, a hand shot out and snatched my meal card. It was Brittany. She dangled my meal card. I frowned. “Brittany, what are you doing? Give me back my meal card.” “Give it back? Sure.” Brittany flipped the meal card in her hand, a cold smirk on her face. “You have to split yesterday’s winnings with us, half and half.” “Half of what? Didn’t I already give you guys some cash?” “Two hundred bucks? What, are we beggars to you?” Brittany raised her voice, drawing glances from other students around us. “You stole luck from all three of us and won five thousand dollars! Only giving us two hundred – doesn’t your conscience bother you?” Just then, Chelsea and Megan crowded around, blocking my exit. Chelsea pointed a finger at my face. “Exactly! The moment you arrived, I failed my pop quiz yesterday!” “It’s definitely your fault!” Megan quietly chimed in. “It’s called ‘luck equalization.’ You hogged all the good fortune.” “You have to share some with us, otherwise it’s not fair.” I burst out laughing, furious. “Do you have any sense of reason?” “Winning the lottery is random chance, and failing your quiz is because *you* didn’t study.” “How is any of this my fault?” “What ‘luck’ are you even talking about? Stop being ridiculous!” “Give me back my meal card!” Brittany shoved my meal card into her pocket. “Two thousand five hundred dollars, not a penny less!” “This is the price you pay for stealing our luck!” “If you don’t pay, we’ll curse you to hell and back every single day!” “You’ll have bad luck every single day, you’ll trip over your own feet just walking around!” I clenched my fists. “I won’t give it to you!” Brittany scoffed, exchanging glances with Chelsea and Megan. “Fine, Skylar. We’re the ones with nothing to lose, so we’re not scared of you.” “Let’s see who can outlast who!” With that, they took my meal card, swiped the most expensive meals at the counter, and strutted away. I stood there, seething and starving. Back in the dorm, my desk had been shoved into a corner. My books and skincare products were scattered all over the floor, a newly bought serum bottle smashed, its contents spilled everywhere. Brittany, Chelsea, and Megan were sitting at their own desks, eating with my meal card, laughing and chatting. Seeing me return, Brittany deliberately spoke loudly. “Oh, this braised pork is so delicious today.” “Eating with someone else’s card really does taste better.” Chelsea chimed in. “Doesn’t it? Some people are just born lucky.” “It’s only right that we get to share in some of that.” I was trembling all over. I rushed forward. “You’re going too far!” Brittany lifted her eyelids. “Too far? This is just the beginning.” “If you don’t pay up, you’ll only lose more of your things, and they’ll break faster.” Megan muttered softly. “Who told you to suck all our good luck away…” I looked at the mess on the floor, knowing that reasoning with them was pointless.
I woke up the next morning to my toothbrush covered in mustard. When I went to class, there was glue smeared on my forks. At night, when I tried to sleep, they’d deliberately blast music at full volume, then suddenly turn it off just as I was drifting off, tormenting me repeatedly. New clothes I bought would have holes the very next day. Snacks on my desk would vanish in a flash, the wrappers left on my bed. I couldn’t take it anymore and had a huge fight with them. Brittany, however, just plopped down on the floor and started bawling. “Everyone, come look!” “The rich girl is bullying us poor students!” “All I asked was for her to share a little of her prize money, and she’s trying to hit me!” Chelsea and Megan fanned the flames, claiming I was using my family’s wealth to look down on them and force them to kneel. The dorm hallway quickly filled with people, all pointing fingers and whispering about me. “Whoa, who is that? So arrogant?” “I heard it’s Skylar Reid from the finance department. She was flaunting a ten-thousand-dollar bag on Freshman Orientation Week. So high-profile.” “Being rich makes her think she’s special? Forcing someone to kneel, that’s disgusting.” I was speechless, my eyes welling up. I went to Mr. Davison, my counselor, explained the situation, and asked to switch dorms. After listening, Mr. Davison just gave me a placating smile, trying to smooth things over. “Skylar, I know you feel wronged.” “But you have to understand, your roommates come from difficult financial backgrounds, and they have strong pride.” “It’s great that you won the lottery, but you also need to consider their feelings, right?” I got agitated. “Mr. Davison, this isn’t about feelings!” “They’re extorting and bullying me!” He waved his hand dismissively. “Young people have little disagreements, it’s perfectly normal.” “You just need to talk it out.” “You come from a good family, so be more understanding with them. Just take the hit, consider it your good deed for the day.” “Switching dorms is a complicated process; it’s practically impossible.” “You should just go back and have a good talk with them.” I left Mr. Davison’s office, feeling utterly cold. So, “understanding” meant I had to back down. And “communication” meant I had to pay them. I returned to the dorm, where Brittany and the others were waiting for me. Brittany smiled when she saw me. “Well? Went to complain to the teacher? Was it any use?” Chelsea crossed her arms. “We already guessed it. Mr. Davison hates privileged princesses who whine whenever things don’t go their way.” “Don’t struggle anymore, Skylar.” “Just give us the money, and we can all get along peacefully.” Megan also added. “Yeah, it won’t do you any good if this gets bigger.” “We’ve already trashed your reputation.” I looked at them, and my last shred of hesitation vanished. I pulled out my phone and, right in front of them, sent a message to a number. Brittany thought I was about to transfer the money, and her smile deepened. “Came to your senses? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just do this earlier?” I ignored her and sent another message. That evening, I was studying in the library when I received a call from an unknown number. A woman’s voice came from the other end. “Hello? Is this Skylar Reid? I’m Chloe Davis’s mom!” Chloe Davis was the girl I tutored. My heart sank. “Ms. Davis, hello. Has something happened to Chloe?” “How dare you ask! What exactly did you do to my Chloe?!” The woman roared into the phone. “Your classmates all called and told me everything!” “They said you have bad character, that you form cliques and bully students at school!” “They said you cheat on your own exams and have no business being a tutor!” “My Chloe is so innocent, what if you lead her astray?!” “Don’t bother coming for tutoring this month! We don’t need you anymore!” The call ended. I clutched my phone, my hands and feet freezing cold. Brittany, Chelsea, Megan. They actually did something like this! They were trying to ruin my reputation, to cut off all my avenues! I rushed back to the dorm, shoving the door open. The three of them were huddled together, showing no surprise at my return. Brittany smiled at me. “Oh, you’re back? How does it feel to get fired from your tutoring job?” I was shaking all over, my voice trembling. “You did this, didn’t you?” Chelsea stood up and walked towards me. “That’s right, we did.” “We already looked into it. You tutor every week, making quite a bit of cash, huh?” “How about it? Do you know how powerful we are now?” Megan also chimed in. “We just made a phone call, gave that parent a heads-up.” “If you don’t want things to escalate, to be completely blacklisted from the entire tutoring circuit…” “Then just be obedient.” Brittany leaned back in her chair. “Two thousand five hundred dollars. This is the final warning.” “Otherwise, the next step is to print out all your misdeeds.” “And plaster them all over campus.” “Making sure you can never show your face in this school again.” I looked at them. I thought they only wanted money, but I never expected them to be so malicious, wanting to completely destroy me. They thought they had me cornered.
My nails dug deep into my palms, and I could taste blood in my mouth. Brittany saw my pale face, thought I was scared, and reached out her hand. “Give it to us, the money.” “Once the transfer is done, we’ll immediately call that parent.” “And help clear things up for you.” Chelsea urged. “Hurry up, stop dragging your feet.” “Our patience is limited.” Megan whispered from the side. “If you give us the money, we can still be good roommates…” Good roommates? I looked at them and suddenly laughed. My laugh was soft, but the dorm instantly fell silent. Brittany frowned. “What are you laughing at? Have you lost your mind?” I didn’t answer. I slowly raised my head, my gaze calmly sweeping over each of them. I spoke softly. “You said you had nothing to lose, that you weren’t afraid of anything.” “You thought because you found my tutoring information, you had a hold on me.” “You thought by ruining my reputation, you could force me to comply.” Brittany started to get a little unnerved by my stare. “You… what are you going to do?” “I’m telling you, don’t try anything stupid!” “Stupid?” I raised an eyebrow. “Compared to you, I’m far from it.” I walked to my desk and, under their wary gaze, picked up my phone. Chelsea nervously asked. “What are you going to do? Call Mr. Davison?” “It won’t work!” “No.” I shook my head, unlocking the screen. Then, I dialed a number. The call connected. I put it on speaker, and a calm male voice came through. “Ms. Reid.” Brittany and the other three froze, exchanging bewildered glances. I looked at Brittany, a small smile playing on my lips. “Hello.” “It’s time.” “Release everything we found about Brittany.” The man on the other end of the phone replied with a single word. “Copy that.” The call ended, and the dorm was enveloped in silence.
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