My Wardrobe Proves I'm No Copycat

My roommate buys an off-the-shoulder top. I happen to own one too. Apparently, that's all it takes for her to start telling everyone I'm obsessed with copying her. According to her, I'm like a rat, constantly watching her and stealing her style. Seriously? I open my closet and reveal rows upon rows of clothes, packed from end to end—all from the latest collections. Then I turn to her with a smile. "So, tell me. How exactly am I copying you?" Chapter 1 That evening, I was on a video call with my mom when the conversation somehow turned to Lucas Shaw, a popular actor. "He's gorgeous, and he can actually act," I said with a laugh. "At this rate, I'm going to end up becoming a fan." I nearly jumped out of my skin when I realized my roommate, Tammy Reed, had appeared behind me at some point. "What?" I asked, startled. "Is something wrong?" She was staring at me strangely. "Since when do you like Lucas Shaw too?" I blinked in confusion. Tammy gave a short, knowing laugh, as if she'd just caught me red-handed. Then she turned to our other two roommates and shot them a pointed look. "See? She's copying me again." The other two immediately started laughing. Mom's confused voice came through my phone. "What's going on, Maren? What are your roommates talking about?" I had absolutely no idea either. "Nothing, Mom. I'll talk to you later. Go get some sleep." I put my phone down and had barely turned around when Tammy rolled her eyes at me and walked straight out of the room. "What was that about?" I asked my other two roommates. They exchanged a look, then studied me with oddly complicated expressions. After an awkward pause, one of them finally spoke. "Maybe you should go apologize to Tammy." Now I was even more confused. The next day, all my classes were pretty easy. Still, easy didn't mean no work. Partway through one of my lectures, the professor announced a group assignment and told us to form teams of four to six. Naturally, I went to my roommates first, but they shut me down immediately. "Sorry, our group's full." "And we'd rather not work with someone like you anyway." I frowned and wondered what they meant. Just then, a girl sitting nearby tapped me on the shoulder with a friendly smile. "Hey, we're actually one person short. Why don't you join us?" My face lit up. "Sure!" I happily joined their group. We got to work discussing the assignment. Everyone in the group was aiming for a high grade, so we tossed around idea after idea, only to shoot each one down. Eventually, two of the group members started bickering under their breath. I sighed dramatically, "Ah, a battle for the throne. A tale as old as time." My groupmates froze. A second later, the whole group burst out laughing. The commotion caught my roommates' attention, and they turned to look at us. "Wait, didn't Tammy say that before?" Tammy gave a dismissive snort. "Here she goes again. Can't come up with anything herself, so she just copies everyone else." It finally clicked. Tammy seriously thought I was copying her. Since when did quoting a meme everyone online was using count as copying someone? Chapter 2 I turned toward her. "What, did you come up with that line yourself? Trademark it for something?" Tammy clearly hadn't expected me to call her out in front of everyone. She froze. "By that logic, whoever said it first must be furious," I went on with a grin. "Imagine finding out the entire Internet's been copying you this whole time." People around us started glancing over, curious about the commotion. Tammy's face went bright red. She shot me a furious glare but didn't say another word. The second we got back to our dorm, Tammy confronted me. "What was that supposed to be in class today? Were you trying to embarrass me on purpose?" I stared at her. "Weren't you the ones insulting me first? Are you seriously okay?" My two other roommates immediately jumped to Tammy's defense. "You didn't have to be so nasty about it. Besides, you were the one in the wrong to begin with." Tammy scoffed. "Exactly. You're a copycat. What, are we not allowed to call you out on it?" The whole conversation was so ridiculous I actually laughed. "When have I ever copied you?" Tammy marched over, yanked open one of my drawers, and pointed inside. "Look! This skincare set, and this eyeshadow palette. They're exactly the same as mine!" I was genuinely speechless. She was the one who'd recommended those products to me when the semester first started. As it turned out, she had never actually been recommending them at all. She just wanted an excuse to show off what she'd bought. I'd only ordered them because she'd seemed so enthusiastic about them, and I hadn't wanted to brush her off. Somehow, in her mind, that had turned into me copying her. Then she pointed at the shirt I was wearing, looking even more certain of herself. "And that's not all. I bought an off-the-shoulder top a few days ago, and the very next day, you showed up wearing almost the exact same thing. If that isn't copying me, then what is?" Come to think of it, Tammy's attitude toward me had changed right after she saw me wearing that off-the-shoulder top. At first, she'd even come up to me asking where I'd bought it because she thought it was so cute. And then she'd turned around and started telling everyone I was copying her. The whole thing was laughable. Without another word, I turned around and opened my closet. It was packed from end to end with clothes, everything from trendy everyday pieces to designer dresses, all from the latest collections. And among them were several off-the-shoulder tops. I raised an eyebrow at her. "Go on, then. Explain to me how I'm copying you." Tammy went still. She bit her lip, her gaze darting back and forth across the clothes in my closet. I wasn't finished. "This style is literally everywhere this year. Walk into ten clothing stores and eight of them will probably have an off-the-shoulder top. "What, are all those brands copying you too? I didn't realize you were such a trendsetter." Tammy opened her mouth, then closed it again. Apparently unable to come up with a decent comeback, she grew so angry that her eyes started turning red. "Those are all just excuses! You know you've been copying me!" The other two roommates hurried over and put their arms around her. "Don't waste your time arguing with someone like her. She can copy you all she wants, but she'll never be you. A cheap imitation is still a cheap imitation." "Exactly. Don't worry, Tammy. We know who's copying who." Chapter 3 I had no interest in arguing with Tammy any further. Unfortunately, she only got worse. One day in the dining hall, she saw me pouring myself a glass of lemonade, the same thing she'd gotten, and actually stopped to roll her eyes. "God, some people are like flies. So freaking annoying. I get lemonade, and of course, she has to get lemonade too..." My hand paused over the pitcher. I looked at her curiously. "Are you talking about yourself?" Tammy sneered. "I'm talking about whoever keeps copying me. Seriously, when are you going to stop? Now you even have to copy what I drink?" I laughed and glanced over my shoulder. It was the middle of summer, and the dining hall offered free ice-cold lemonade with lunch. Naturally, it was one of the most popular drinks on campus. Behind me, a long line of students was waiting to get some. I raised my voice, putting on an exaggerated look of realization. "Oh, I get it now! I guess everyone here is copying Tammy Reed. Tammy got herself some lemonade, and suddenly all these people decided to get lemonade too. Apparently that makes all of you copycats!" Every head in the line turned our way. A few people immediately frowned. "Who's Tammy Reed? What are you talking about?" Tammy immediately panicked. "I… I wasn't talking about you guys! I was only talking about her!" I tilted my head. "So, when I get lemonade, I'm copying you, but when everyone else gets it, they're not? How does that work?" "You!" Tammy jabbed a finger at me, too furious to get another word out. "Fine! I don't even want it anymore!" She shot me a disgusted glare, then grabbed her cup and poured the lemonade straight back into the dispenser. "What is wrong with you?" someone in line snapped. "You just poured your drink back in there! Other people are supposed to drink that!" Tammy's face went scarlet. "I didn't drink from it!" "How are we supposed to know that?" "That's disgusting..." "Someone, get a dining hall employee. What if she did drink from it? Nobody wants her germs!" The line erupted into chatter as more and more people began complaining. "You…" Tammy's eyes welled up. The moment she saw a dining hall employee heading our way, she stomped her foot and bolted. After that little incident, Tammy ended up all over the campus gossip page. For the next few days, people kept coming up to her and asking if she was the girl from the viral post. She was so humiliated that I heard her crying in our dorm more than once. On the bright side, she finally left me alone for a while. Two weeks later, in our entrepreneurship class, the professor had each group present their final project. My three teammates and I had pulled more than a few late nights putting ours together, and we'd finished both our presentation and business proposal well ahead of time. So, when it was our turn, we walked to the front of the room feeling pretty confident. We presented our product, which was designed for seniors, then walked the class through our business model and marketing strategy. When we finished, the professor applauded enthusiastically. "Excellent work. The concept is innovative, but it's also practical and commercially viable. I can tell you put a lot of thought into this. Everyone else should take notes." My teammates and I exchanged excited smiles. The group with the highest score in the class would qualify for the university-wide startup competition. At this rate, we actually had a shot. All those late nights might finally pay off. The professor looked around the room again. "Would anyone like to critique their presentation? Tell us what they did well and where they could improve." The room fell silent. Then one hand shot up. Tammy's. The professor looked pleased to see someone volunteering and called on her. But instead of offering feedback, Tammy stood up with an angry expression and pointed straight at us. "Sir, they stole our entire project!" Chapter 4 Everyone stared at her in disbelief. Tammy's group had already presented earlier. Their project was a farm-to-market initiative designed to help small tea growers sell their products directly to consumers. It had nothing to do with our product for seniors. Apparently determined to prove her accusation, Tammy marched to the front of the room and started going through our slides one by one. "First of all, look at their presentation and ours. They both use green as the main color. We chose green because our project is about tea. What's your excuse?" I stared at her, dumbfounded. We'd picked a PowerPoint template because it looked nice. It just happened to be green. Tammy kept going, "And look at this. Our project has a logo, and theirs does too! If you look closely, even the shapes are kind of similar. There's no way that's a coincidence. They obviously copied our idea!" "I designed that logo myself!" one of my teammates hissed under her breath. She'd gone through more than a dozen versions before finally settling on that design, only for Tammy to stand up there and accuse her of plagiarism without a shred of evidence. She was so furious she looked ready to march up there and confront Tammy herself. "And here! Improving quality of life was one of the core goals of our project, but they made a big deal out of it too. Even the wording is similar! And then there's this..." Tammy kept going, pointing out one supposed similarity after another. Sometimes it was the way we'd organized our slides. Other times, it was a phrase or two she'd decided sounded suspiciously familiar. But not once did she produce any actual evidence of plagiarism. The professor's expression grew darker by the second. "Tammy, if this is the extent of your plagiarism accusation, you can sit down now." Tammy didn't budge. If anything, she looked even more convinced. "Sir, I'm telling the truth. You don't understand. One of the girls in that group is my roommate. She copies everything I do. My clothes, the things I buy, even what I eat! "A few weeks ago, while my other roommates and I were working on our project, she kept walking around behind us. She was obviously trying to sneak a look at our laptops!" I rolled my eyes. I had no idea what they'd actually written in their proposal. What I did know was that I'd overheard them more than once saying things like, "Why would we waste our time doing this ourselves? Just have AI write it. Who's stupid enough to actually do all this from scratch?" Knowing those three, they'd probably typed the title themselves and let AI handle everything else. Even their logo had that unmistakable AI-generated look to it. Tammy happened to glance over and catch me rolling my eyes. Before I knew what she was doing, she marched over, grabbed my arm, and dragged me to the front of the room. "Her!" Tammy pointed straight at me, her face twisted with disgust. "She's the one I'm talking about. Go on, say something, you cheating bitch!" My other two roommates immediately chimed in from their seats. "She's quiet because she knows she got caught!" "Sir, they stole our idea. Their entire project should be disqualified!" The sheer absurdity of it finally got under my skin. "That's not how you prove plagiarism." I gave Tammy a cold smile before turning to the professor. "Sir, why don't we run both groups' written proposals through the plagiarism checker and an AI-detection tool?" I glanced back at Tammy. "After all, the reports won't lie." The color drained from Tammy's face.