All Chapters of The Laptop Trap: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

Caleb Reed's tears froze in his eyes as he stared at me in disbelief."Noah, how can you be so cold? The computer lab closes at ten, and I have to turn in my first draft tomorrow morning!"He reached for my sleeve. I stepped aside.Tyler Cross, who was gaming beside us, looked at me with open disapproval."Noah, you're going too far. We're roommates. Would lending him a computer kill you? Caleb's desperate."Your Alienware cost more than three grand. It's just sitting there. What's wrong with letting him use it for an emergency? Why are you so selfish?"I packed my books and water bottle, then pointed at his desk."There's a computer on your desk. You lend him yours."Tyler rolled his eyes."Mine's a Mac. Caleb isn't used to the formatting software on it. Besides, I still have shows to watch tonight.""So your shows matter more than his senior thesis, but you still think you get to demand my laptop?"Caleb immediately put on a wounded expression."Noah, I know you're angry

I left immediately, ignoring the crying behind me.Just as I reached the dorm building, Tyler sent me a photo.In the photo, my locked cabinet had a huge hole smashed into it."Noah, didn't you say you got rid of the computer? Then what's this in your cabinet, you lying fraud?"I rushed back to the dorm. The moment I stepped in, the room was a mess.Tyler was watching short videos with his head lowered. He didn't even lift his eyelids."Oh, the liar's back. I thought you'd be hiding outside, too scared to face anyone."I walked to the cabinet. It was empty.The black backpack that had been in the corner was gone."Where's the bag? Who took it?"I turned and stared at Tyler.Tyler blew on his freshly painted nails and rolled his eyes."Caleb took it, obviously. He's rushing to write his thesis. Seriously, you had a laptop all along but lied to the counselor that you got rid of it. No wonder your cabinet got smashed.""He smashed my cabinet and took my things. That's theft,

"Hello? Hello, can you hear me? How do you use this thing? Oh, it's on."Caleb's father froze with the chair in midair.Everyone's attention shifted to the screen."I'm Ray from South Gate Salvage. Yesterday afternoon at three, a young man named Noah Hamilton brought me an Alienware laptop to sell."In the video, a middle-aged man stood among piles of old electronics.Caleb whipped around and stared at the screen.Ray scratched his head and continued, "The motherboard was completely burned. It wasn't worth fixing. I paid him seventy dollars for scrap."Then the young man said one leg of his desk was uneven, so he bought a matching empty laptop shell from me for seven dollars. We put two bricks inside to give it weight. He said he was taking it back to level the desk."The hall fell dead silent.I pulled a stamped receipt from South Gate Salvage and a screenshot of the seventy-dollar transfer from my canvas bag. I slapped them onto the table."Printed receipt. Transfer record.

The dean was rubbing his temples in anger, ready to speak, when a voice came from the entrance."Who said he had an award-level thesis? As his thesis adviser, why don't I know about it?"The crowd parted automatically. An elderly professor walked in with a grim face, holding a stack of printed pages.The moment Caleb saw him, even his crying stopped."P-Professor Warren."Professor Warren slammed the papers onto the desk. Pages scattered across the floor."Caleb Reed, how dare you mention your thesis? Look at the garbage you submitted."He pointed at the pages on the floor, his beard shaking with anger."Twenty thousand words, with an eighty-five percent plagiarism rate. Even the punctuation was copied straight from other published papers."I told you to take it back and rewrite it. You told me your computer broke and all your materials were lost. So it turns out you were acting here instead."The hall filled with sharp intakes of breath."Eighty-five percent plagiarism? Tha

"No wonder he didn't care about the recommendation slot at all. Caleb was just clowning himself the whole time."Hearing the words Harborview University, Caleb suddenly lifted his head and stared at me.He pointed at me and burst into laughter."Laugh while you can. You'll have plenty to cry about later."I crouched beside Caleb and lowered my voice."You thought that if you smashed my cabinet and stole my laptop, you could naturally push the blame for your delayed thesis onto me. You even thought you could turn the story around and ruin my name, right?"Caleb's laughter stopped. He looked at me in horror."How... how do you know? Were you spying on me?""Sorry. I'm not as bored as you think. I just understand you pretty well."I don't just know what you would do today. I know what you did in my last life."I leaned closer to his ear and said, word by word, "This is what you owed me. Now you've paid it back, with interest."So, I'd like to interview you. Are you satisfied wi