The Demlin

18:00 CST – ROOM 16B

Deep in the bowels of SSAHQ, I monitored my phone. No response from Damien yet. “Maverick, do you think we should send the text?”

“Yes.”

I quickly opened the application and my regular phone app to copy Damien’s number. I crafted my message carefully.

"Hi, Damien. This is Summer. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you my number at school—you know how weird Ethan is."

Then, I ran it through AI to make it sound more like a teen girl:

❤️Hiii Damien!! This is Summer, im sorry I couldnt give you my number in the school, you know how weird Ethan is, LOL

Taking a deep breath, I tapped send... and waited. And waited.

Finally, a notification.

Room 16B had connected to the Demlin.

@Damien: "I know this isn’t Summer."

I was wary of this.

@SSA: "Yes, it is."

@Damien: "Stop playing around."

@SSA: "What?"

@Damien: "What was the Snap you told me?"

Panic. I frantically searched the internet for Summer’s Snapchat—nothing. I connected to GNN HQ through Clarissa.

@SSA: "What’s Summer’s Snap?"

No response. Frantically stalling, I got another message.

@Damien: "I’m gonna find out who did this."

SSA doesn’t take this lightly. Damien has chased us around the school. He has bullied other students. He did beat up some kid in October.

Then—the phone buzzed again.

A new number.

@D: "Who is this?"

I quickly screenshotted and reverse-searched the number through my contacts and the web. From what I could tell, it belonged to a 10th-grade basketball player we were allied with.

@SSA: "Summer."

@D: "Hi Ethan. We just wanted to check. You know how it is sometimes."

@SSA: "Yeah."

@D: "Could you send a picture?"

I pinged GCAM HQ. Scanned the internet for an Instagram. Nothing. No response. No collaboration. No connection to the real Summer.

SSA was alone. Again.

I scrubbed through all the footage stored on my phone since late January, desperately searching for anything—Instagram, Pinterest, old school photos. Nothing. Except for one.

A few games ago, I had been scanning the crowd and landed on Summer’s face. I quickly cropped it and sent it.

@D: "This is low quality. Take a selfie."

@SSA: "My camera is broken."

I refreshed again. Still no response from GCAM HQ.

And tomorrow was Tuesday—the day the segment would air. If anyone looked closely, they’d notice the image was pulled from an old video of Summer.

   The plan was falling apart. GCAM’s ineptitude had left SSA exposed. Damien was back on our trail. And once again, SSA was on its own.

I needed a Hail Mary. Fast. The next day, SSA arrived at Glory High, heading straight for the Vice President.

SSA would not back down.