Gemotions

The professor’s words hung in the air, thick and suffocating. Amelia stared, her jaw slack, at the email displayed on her laptop screen. Plagiarism. Her paper on the socio-economic implications of the Dust Bowl. She’d spent weeks researching, writing, agonizing over every sentence. A coldness spread from her chest, numbing her fingers and toes. She blinked, the room tilting slightly. The neatly organized bookshelves in her dorm room seemed to blur at the edges.

“But… I…” she stammered, the words catching in her throat like shards of glass. She re-read the accusations, each line a fresh stab. Her carefully constructed world, built on academic integrity, crumbled before her eyes. The familiar scent of old books and coffee suddenly turned cloying, nauseating.