I Stopped Saving My Students

With graduation three months away, the seniors in my advising cohort still hadn't finished the internship credits they needed. I talked my father into taking all of them at Morgan Components: three thousand a month after tax, free room and board, weekends off. Brooke Hayes, our senior class president, was the first to object. "Three thousand? That's what you throw at a panhandler. Everyone, I've already found us placements. Eighteen thousand a month. They sign off on the paperwork after thirty days, and the company's flying us overseas on top of it." I told them it had every mark of a recruitment trap, and I called their parents. Brooke turned the whole cohort against me. They said I'd used my position to funnel them into my family's plant and pocket the state hiring credits. They filed a joint complaint. I lost my job, and the pile-on online drove my father's company into bankruptcy. Then I walked into traffic in a daze, and as the car sent me flying I saw her leaning against my fiancé, laughing. "That's what you get for going after my man." When I opened my eyes, I was back in the group chat, on the day she announced she'd found everyone a high-paying job. This time, I smiled while I typed. "Well then — good luck with graduation, everyone!" Chapter 1 After my message landed in the group chat, Brooke Hayes went quiet. I leaned back in my chair and shut my eyes. In my first life, graduation had been less than three months out. Most of the seniors I advised still had no placement, and without verified practicum hours they couldn't earn the credit, which meant they couldn't graduate. That was why I'd asked my father, Warren Morgan, to take them on at Morgan Components. Two months on the floor and he'd certify every one of them. Once Dad heard they were my students, he treated it like a personal debt. He was worried the kids wouldn't settle in, so I had a whole floor of company housing wallpapered and fitted with new bunks. Every week he paid out of his own pocket to upgrade their meals. They got their degrees on schedule. Then they listened to Brooke, signed a joint complaint, and took my family apart. Now that I had the year to live over, they could do whatever they liked. I wasn't going to manage them anymore. Whether Brooke's miracle internship actually got them across the stage was no longer any business of mine. I was still thinking it through when the office door banged open. "Ms. Morgan!" Brooke marched in with twenty-odd students behind her. She slapped her phone down on my desk. The screen showed the last message I'd sent the cohort. "What's that supposed to mean, exactly?" I didn't look at the phone. I looked at the group. Rachel Turner, our student rep on the program committee, stood at Brooke's shoulder. Dylan Shaw was on her other side. In my first life, Rachel had claimed my father pressured her into drinking with his buyers. Dylan had claimed I wouldn't stop sending him private messages. Every face behind them had turned up on the complaint that ended my career. I pushed the phone back across the desk. "What part isn't clear?" She gave a short, cold laugh. "Don't act like you weren't threatening us." She leaned over my desk and planted both hands on it. "You're furious that the placement I found is better than your dad's factory. If we don't work for him, the two of you can't collect the state hiring credits for new grads." Her voice sharpened. "So now you're hinting that anyone who turns your placement down doesn't graduate. That's it, isn't it?" Rachel and Dylan had the others going within seconds. "Right! The state pays companies thousands a head for every new grad they hire." "There's twenty-seven of us. Her father would clear a hundred grand off this." "I kept wondering why Ms. Morgan was being so generous. Now we know." "If Brooke hadn't caught it, we'd have worked ourselves half to death and thanked them for the privilege." The other faculty in the shared office looked up from their desks. Diane Reed, who sat beside me, started to say something, but I stopped her with a small shake of my head. Then I smiled at Brooke. "I was trying to solve the internship problem for all of you. But now that I've heard you out, I agree — sending you to my father's plant wasn't well thought through." Chapter 2 "Since you've found everyone something better, of course I'll respect the choice. I hope graduation goes smoothly for all of you." I tilted my head. "If the wording bothers you, I'll change it. Shall I wish you all brilliant careers instead?" "You—" Brooke clearly hadn't expected me to fold. For once she couldn't get an accusation out fast enough. The students glanced at one another, and the heat went out of the room. "Brooke, did we read that wrong?" "She never actually said we had to work at her family's plant." "My dad says most places want a full three months before they'll certify anything. Morgan Components offered to sign off after two. That does sound like she was trying to help." Brooke's face tightened. She stared at me, then pitched her voice louder. "Don't let her play you. She's being reasonable so we'll drop our guard. The second we walk out that door she's calling our parents." The room went still. Then the panic caught. "Oh, God. If my mother finds out I haven't started an internship, I'm dead." "I told my dad I already had a placement. He wired me three thousand for living expenses and I spent it on a trip. He'll kill me." "My mom doesn't even know I'm short on credits. If she hears I skipped the internship, that's the end of my money." Brooke knew exactly which fear to press. One sentence and they'd turned back on me. "You're supposed to be an educator, and you're going to run to our parents like a kid telling on us?" "You'll wreck the whole thing. We finally find a good job and you can't stand it." "She's doing it on purpose. She wants us in her father's plant so she gets her cut." Brooke's mouth curved. "Ms. Morgan, getting between someone and their money is a serious thing to do. Drop the threats about our parents, or I promise you won't be teaching much longer." I met her eyes without moving. "Brooke, I do intend to talk to your families. You're adults, but you're still enrolled here, and I'm not signing off on a placement I can't verify." I tapped the offer on her screen. "Eighteen thousand a month for an intern, certification after thirty days, and an overseas retreat thrown in? There's nothing credible in that." Brooke opened her mouth, but Diane snapped her lesson planner shut before a word got out. "Eighteen thousand a month? For an internship? And they're flying you overseas?" She pushed her glasses up and stood. "Claire's right. That's wrong on its face." She turned to the students. "My nephew graduated last year and took one of these 'high-paying opportunities.' "He got there and found out it was a recruitment pyramid. He never earned a cent, and he lost twenty thousand of his own money on top of it. "You're twenty-two. You don't have the experience to spot a professional operation when it's dressed up nicely." Howard Grant nodded from the next desk. "No legitimate employer pays a new intern eighteen thousand a month and adds an international trip. The university has to check this company out, and your parents need to hear about it." Brooke's face changed. She'd braced for a fight with me, not a room full of faculty trading stories about fake job offers. A few of the more cautious students started looking at her differently. "Brooke, maybe I should sit this one out. It's starting to scare me." "Same. You keep saying the company's great, but none of us even knows what they actually do." Chapter 3 "Then I'm out too." Brooke panicked. "No. Everyone's going!" The shout killed every other sound in the office. In my first life I never understood why she was so desperate to drag the whole cohort into that company. I found out later that going after me was only half of it. Brooke had been sleeping with my fiancé, Marcus Hale, and she was also drowning under the private loans she'd taken out to keep up the rich-girl act. Meridian Global Partners had promised her a thousand dollars for every student she delivered. She caught everyone staring and made herself smile. "Nobody needs to panic. The company belongs to a relative of mine. The salary is a favor to me. They sponsor college students all the time — it isn't a scam." She gestured at Rachel and Dylan. "They know. They both toured the offices with me." Rachel nodded fast. "A town car picked us up. Afterward the CEO's assistant took us out for a seafood buffet that had to cost a fortune." Dylan thumped his chest. "I'll vouch for it. I heard the chairman call her his niece with my own ears." He looked over at me, not bothering to hide the sneer. "Brooke has enough pull to get us a salary like that at a company like that. Some people offer us work at their own family's plant and still only pay three thousand. What do they think we're worth?" The relief went through the room like a held breath letting go. Brooke turned to me with her face arranged into wounded innocence. "Ms. Morgan, I know finding everyone a good placement may have cost you a payday, but you don't get to call me a fraud over it. "We're all adults. We can size up an employer and pick where we work. You're our adviser, not our guardian." Inside, I was laughing. If she wanted a performance, she'd get one. I sighed like a woman weighed down by concern. "You are adults. You're also students of this university, and if something happens on a placement I signed off on, it comes back here. "So now that I know about this offer, I'm making the calls. At the very least, the school needs to run the employer's credentials." Diane nodded. "Agreed. Nobody should be going anywhere until that company's been checked." Brooke's expression froze. She didn't want the university or the parents anywhere near this. A real look at the paperwork could turn up what she stood to make per head. Sure enough, the second I picked up my phone, she blurted it out. "Director Hale already knows. I reported the placement to him." I raised an eyebrow. The fish had taken the bait. In my first life, Marcus cut me loose the moment the complaint was filed. When the investigators wanted evidence, he took our private conversations about the internships, stripped out the context, and submitted them as a statement. Every line, on its own, made me look like a woman selling her authority. On the day I died, I begged him for help. He just held Brooke against him and watched. That was when I found out how long they'd been at it behind my back. This time I'd get to watch Brooke walk the man who protected her straight into the ground. Marcus showed up not long after the call. The moment Brooke saw him, the tears arrived in her voice. "Director Hale, Ms. Morgan is insisting I'm running a scam. She wants to call every parent and frighten everyone off. "All I did was help people find an internship, and because she didn't get her commission she's accusing me of a crime." Marcus didn't ask a single question about what had happened. He just frowned at me like the verdict was already in. "Ms. Morgan, is this how you handle students? "I inspected that company myself. Over ten million in registered capital, offices downtown. There's nothing wrong with it." Chapter 4 "Sign their off-campus placement forms. Don't make these kids late for work." Marcus wore such a look of righteous authority that I nearly applauded. What I said was, "No." His face darkened. "Claire, are you deliberately taking me on?" "I'm looking out for my students." He drew a breath and changed his tone. "If you're going to be like this, then you and I may need to reconsider the wedding." Brooke's eyes lit up. Diane hurried in between us. "Director Hale, the two of you can talk this through calmly. Don't drag your personal life into a professional disagreement." She glanced at me. "Claire, if the director inspected the company himself, maybe it isn't as bad as it looks. Maybe—" I shook my head and looked straight at him. "If you want to end it, I agree." Something shifted behind his eyes. He clearly hadn't expected me to take it without a fight. "But I'm not authorizing a single placement until we've spoken to their families." Brooke stepped in with a helpful smile. "Ms. Morgan, Director Hale runs the whole program. He must have his reasons. Contradicting him in front of this many students is pretty disrespectful, don't you think?" That was the last of Marcus's restraint. He snatched the phone out of my hand and threw it out the sixth-floor window. "You're impossible." His voice carried to every desk in the office. "Nobody needs Claire's permission. I'll approve these internships myself." He jerked his chin at the group. "My office. I'll sign every form personally." The students stared for a second, then erupted. "Director Hale's the best!" "Finally, somebody reasonable." "Come on, we don't have to beg her." The crowd poured out into the hall. Brooke went last. At the doorway she looked back at me, triumph all over her face. Diane sighed. "Claire... was that really necessary?" I looked down through the window at the pieces of my phone scattered across the concrete and didn't answer. Within days they'd all signed on at Meridian. Their feeds turned into a nonstop advertisement for their wonderful new lives. Rachel posted the free coffee and imported snacks in the break room. Her caption read, "Third day on the job and I've already gained two pounds." Dylan photographed himself giving a thumbs-up in the company gym. "This is what a real corporation looks like." The rest showed off dual-monitor workstations and marveled that the chairs were ergonomic. "Intern life is amazing. There's hardly any work." "Thank you, Brooke, for carrying this entire cohort!" Brooke posted every single day. One afternoon it was a seafood spread for the department. The next it was cake and specialty drinks delivered to the floor. A month in, she uploaded a collage of more than twenty boarding passes, tagged at the international terminal. "Somebody almost destroyed our futures, but we held the line. Thank you to the person I love for backing me without question, and thank you all for trusting me." It already had dozens of likes. The comments were nothing but praise for their fearless class president. After they landed, they posted a group shot in front of the bus waiting to collect them. "Arrived safe! The service here is unreal. We're barely off the plane and they're already taking us out for a real local massage." Every face in the picture was beaming at the camera. I took a calm sip of my coffee. Smile away, I thought. I hope you're all still smiling in an hour. Sure enough, by the time that bus reached the end of the road, Brooke and the rest of them weren't laughing anymore.