My Psychic Mouse Just Saved My Life

My buddy, Adam Page, calls me and says that his mom is hospitalized, and he can't rush back in time. He asks me to submit his competition entry that is due tonight. We're both in the competition, but I have already submitted my entry. I'm just about to say yes to helping him when my mouse suddenly jerks. "Don't you dare click it! If you submit his entry for him, you'll lose your first-place prize and the 20,000 dollars prize money! He'll even go on livestream and accuse you of stealing his work, saying that you cost him the prize money and caused his mom to die because she couldn't afford treatment. You'll be torn apart by online bullying, saddled with a huge debt, and end up losing everything!" My hands shake, and I immediately stop what I'm doing. My mouse jerks again. I close the page, create a group chat on WhatsApp, and add the advisor, Colby Jackman, and the teacher, Irene Dawson, who is in charge of the project. Chapter 1 I immediately started a group call. Irene Dawson picked up almost instantly. "Felix, it's going to be midnight soon. Do you need to talk to me about anything?" I took a deep breath, trying to keep my tone calm. "Ms. Dawson, Adam's mom was hospitalized. He told me to log into his account to submit the competition work. Does this go against the rules?" Just then, my advisor, Colby Jackman, joined the call. He sounded sleepy. "What's wrong? What happened?" Ms. Dawson's tone turned serious. "This is a national academic competition. It's a serious violation for contestants to use each other's accounts. Adam, you can contact the organizing committee to request an extension, or give me your account password, and I'll submit it for you." Adam Page stayed silent for a few seconds. Then his sobs grew louder, his voice sounding even more pitiful. "Ms. Dawson, I was so worried about my mom that I forgot my password. Felix, I went to your dorm and logged into my account yesterday. I think your laptop saved it automatically." My mind went blank. The mouse jerked again, and a message appeared on the screen. "Take screenshots of the files' timestamps immediately." I clenched my hand, my nails digging into my palm. "Adam, didn't you hear her? Ms. Dawson said she could contact the organizing committee for you. You can do this the proper way." Adam didn't reply. After Ms. Dawson hung up, another woman's voice came through the phone. It was my girlfriend, Vera Lynch. She sounded agitated. "Felix, what the hell is wrong with you? Adam is your buddy, and his mom is in the ICU now. She could die anytime. Can't you help him out? Will helping him submit his work make you lose an arm?" Vera paused momentarily, her voice turning even sharper. "How did I never realize you were this kind of person? Selfish, cold-blooded, and just plain envious of other people's achievements. Are you deliberately refusing to help because you're afraid that Adam's work is better than yours? You won't even help him out with this simple task. Are you even fit to call yourself a human?" I stared at my phone, wondering why she was with Adam at this hour. My mouse jerked. Another message appeared. "Don't listen to her. She's right beside Adam now! The day after your death, she'll make her relationship with him public! "Vera will also appear in Adam's livestream, her arms wrapped around him. She'll cry her eyes out and tell the viewers that you've been copying Adam's work since freshman year. She’ll say she witnessed you copying Adam’s files onto your laptop. "She hands him every sketch you sent her, with all the timestamps altered to make them look like undeniable proof that Adam created them first." I didn't argue back and ended the call. Everyone was putting Adam first. Who was going to think about me? Was I supposed to risk my life for them? Even though my fingers were still trembling, I was clear about what I had to do. I downloaded the group call recording and saved the backup copies to three different cloud accounts. Then I called the security office downstairs. "Wayne, I'm Felix Cohen from Room 403 in Building 6. Could you do me a favor? I'll video call you." The moment Wayne Gibson answered the video call, I pointed my camera at the laptop screen. "Wayne, my laptop has my classmate's competition account and password saved. To avoid any suspicion, I'm going to screenshot the files' timestamps in front of you." I opened the file properties and took screenshots one by one. Sketch created on November 5, 2025, at 11:47 pm. First draft created on January 12, 2026, at 2:33 pm. Final version created on March 20, 2026, at 9:15 pm. "That's everything for now. Wayne, I'll bring the laptop down now. From now on, I won't touch it. Ms. Dawson will deal with it in person tomorrow. Please be my witness." Wayne nodded. "Sure." I recorded the entire process, from shutting down the laptop and putting it in my bag to leaving the room, going downstairs, entering the security office, and handing it to Wayne. The security camera in the office captured me finishing everything at 11:58 pm. Only two minutes remained until the deadline. I uploaded the video and screenshots to the cloud drives. Then I returned to my room and messaged Ms. Dawson. "Ms. Dawson, I've left my laptop with the security guard, and the entire process was recorded on my phone. Adam previously logged into his competition account on it, so to avoid any complications, please help me delete the saved password in person tomorrow." Ms. Dawson's reply was instant. "You did the right thing. I'll come by at 8:00 am." The mouse's voice softened. "This time, no one can frame you." My phone lit up, then went dark again. Messages from Vera and Adam kept coming, one after another. Chapter 2 I woke up at 6:00 am after barely sleeping all night. I picked up my phone and froze. Adam had posted a long essay around 3:00 am, attaching a photo of him taking a selfie in a hallway, his eyes swollen and red. There was an ICU sign behind him. He said he needed the prize money to save his mom, and I'd refused to submit his work for him. Instead, I'd used it to enter the competition. Adam also included a screenshot where I'd told him to do it the proper way. It somehow portrayed me as someone who outright left his mom to die. There were already a ton of comments below. "How does someone like this still have the nerve to show his face?" "He's a thief who stole Adam's work and refused to help him save his mom. What an asshole!" My hands were trembling. I wanted to explain the situation to them. I wanted to post the entire recording of the group call from yesterday. The mouse jerked. "Don't do it. Whatever you say now will be taken out of context. Vera is ready to come forward as your girlfriend and accuse you of editing the photos and spreading rumors. Just screenshot these comments. Don't retaliate." I bit my lip hard and forced myself to open the comments. Then I took screenshots one by one and saved them. Someone managed to find my Instagram account, and private messages flooded in. "How did your mom end up with a loser like you?" "Go to hell, you dumbass! Stop wasting oxygen." My phone kept vibrating as I opened each message numbly, took a screenshot, saved it, then repeated the same actions. It felt like there was a lump of cotton stuck in my throat. Even breathing was becoming difficult. While I was doing all this, my roommate Caleb Litt sat up in bed. After a moment's hesitation, he said in a low voice. "Felix… Vera came over this morning around 5:30 am. She said you wanted her to bring your laptop in for a repair. I told her the laptop wasn't there, and she kept pestering to know where it was. She looked really scary. I didn't dare say anything, so she left." 5:30 am? Cold sweat rolled down my back as I took out my phone with shaking hands, wanting to check on those cloud drives. According to the login records, someone had attempted to log in from a different IP address at 4:00 am. The password was incorrect, so the system blocked the attempt. Someone had been trying to delete my backups. They wanted to destroy all my evidence. I immediately changed the passwords to all my cloud accounts and enabled two-factor authentication. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely press the right numbers. The mouse jerked again. "Now that they can't get your laptop or access your cloud drives, they'll find another way. They'll go through the school." Sure enough, at 10:00 am, Mr. Jackman sent me a message in the group chat, telling me to meet him in his office that afternoon for a talk and that I didn't need to attend the group meeting. Five minutes later, my senior Adele Cooper privately texted me. "An anonymous person reported you for academic misconduct." When I met with Mr. Jackman, he threw screenshots of Adam's file in front of me, his expression grim. "His timestamps are all earlier than yours. How do you explain this?" Before I could say anything, my phone vibrated. Adam had created a group chat with 200 people and added me to it. Then he sent a voice message. "Felix, here's your final chance. Withdraw from the competition and give my work back to me, and I won't pursue this any further. If not, I'll ensure everyone knows about this. You'd better think this through!" The others immediately joined in and berated me. "Yeah, give him an explanation!" "How shameless. You stole his work and flat-out denied it!" "How disgraceful to have you as my schoolmate!" My phone wouldn't stop buzzing as 200 messages flooded the chat within seconds. Everyone was pressuring me to admit that I was guilty. I left the group, then showed Mr. Jackman the timeline I'd compiled. He went through it, his face slowly hardening. Finally, Mr. Jackman said, "Both of you have clear evidence. I can't decide who's right yet. The department has set a meeting for tomorrow. Bring all your evidence and explain it in person." Chapter 3 The next day, I arrived at the meeting room at 10:00 am. Adam was sitting beside Vera, his eyes red, while Vera patted his hand reassuringly. When she saw me, her eyes flickered before a stern expression quickly took over. Ms. Dawson, Mr. Jackman, and the disciplinary committee member, Kent Perry, sat on both sides, with grim expressions on their faces. I took a seat as the mouse jerked and told me, "Let her talk first." Adam began giving his statement. He laid out the seven screenshots of the files on the table. Every file had a creation date earlier than the date I submitted my competition entry. He looked up at me, his voice hoarse. "Felix, I really thought of you as my best friend. Why did you do this to me? My mom is still in the ICU. I really need that money…" Adam lowered his head, his shoulders shaking. His fists were clenched tight, his knuckles white. "Come on now, don't get worked up." Vera handed him a tissue before glancing at me. I had never seen her look at me that way before. Then she looked at the teachers. "Last December, I saw Felix using Adam's laptop, with a USB drive plugged in. He was copying a large number of files. At the time, I thought he was backing up Adam's files. But now that I think about it, Felix had clearly planned this from the beginning." Vera's voice trembled, and her eyes reddened. "I'm sorry, Adam. I trusted him too much." I dug my nails into my palm until I nearly drew blood. Adam's computer was acting up that day, and he told me to copy his ID photo onto the USB drive. Vera was right beside me when it happened. Also, I had photos from that day saved on my cloud drive. The mouse buzzed twice. "She's twisting the story. Don't lose your temper. Just let her finish." I clamped my mouth shut and said nothing to defend myself. Vera doubled down, her voice getting louder. "He always likes to check out Adam's work…" My stomach churned. Mr. Perry kept his head down, scribbling notes. Ms. Dawson looked at me, disappointment in her eyes. "Felix, you told me that night to pick up the laptop from the security office the next morning, right?" I nodded. Ms. Dawson said, "I can guarantee that no one touched the laptop after I got it. But since I didn't see what happened to it before I got my hands on it, I can't completely vouch for you." A visibly upset Adam shot to his feet, his voice hoarse and agitated. "Did you hear that? He had plenty of time to copy my files during that window! The video he recorded afterward only further proves his guilt!" Vera nodded, her face hard. Ryan Stewart, the department head, frowned and looked at me. Mr. Jackman, on the other hand, stayed silent, offering not a single word of defense as he leaned backward. My throat tightened, as if something were squeezing it. The mouse buzzed once in my pocket, its voice barely audible. "You started recording with the laptop screen in view, not after it was shut down. The folder on Adam's account was clearly visible at 11:52 pm, and it had only three files, not seven. "But now is not the time to fight back. Ryan Stewart, the one sitting next to you, went to college with Adam's father." I took a deep breath, my nails digging into my palms. Mr. Perry closed his notebook. "Given the conflicting evidence, I recommend launching a formal investigation. Both of you will be temporarily suspended from the competition. Three days from now, at 2:00 pm on Friday, we'll hold the formal investigation. Bring all your evidence." He looked at me, his voice stern. "Felix, you'd better think this through. The consequences of academic misconduct are no joke. Getting expelled or having your degree revoked would be the least of your worries. In serious cases, it'll go on your permanent record and affect you for the rest of your life." Chapter 4 For the next three days, my life was a living nightmare. Someone photoshopped my pictures to make me look like a thief, tagged me, and called me trash on social media. The posts spread like wildfire, with thousands of people sharing them. Someone even put up a big poster outside my dorm and wrote in red ink. "You thief! Get off campus!" The mouse jerked. "This is nothing compared to what you went through in your past life. At least you can still fight back this time." I took a deep breath. The mouse told me to check the hospitals. I crouched in the stairwell leading to the rooftop and called the information line at the city's general hospital. After I gave them Adam's mom's name and the last four digits of her ID number, the person on the other end said, "There are no records of this patient being admitted in the past month." I called a second, then a third, checking with every major hospital in the city to no avail. There was no record of Adam's mom ever being hospitalized. It had all been a lie. I gripped my phone tightly. The mouse buzzed. "Calm down. Tomorrow, go to the notary office and have the recording officially documented as evidence. Then go to the school's IT department and request the server-side upload logs for your cloud storage. No one can change those timestamps. "Then when the investigation starts the day after tomorrow, let him finish telling all his lies first." I did exactly what the mouse told me and got everything ready. The night before the investigation, I laid all the evidence across my desk, from the group call recording and cloud login logs to the server timestamps and hospital records. Each piece was a devastating blow. The next day, the investigation began. The conference room was packed, with the associate dean, a representative from the university's academic committee, and a representative from the legal department present. Adam sat across from me, his face haggard. His fingers trembled as he held his documents, and his eyes were red and swollen. Vera sat beside him, her lips pursed, her face solemn. The associate dean, James Pecker, spoke. "Adam, you start first." Adam took a deep breath and began his most convincing performance yet, talking about the timeline, the screenshots of the files, Vera's statement, me threatening him, and also how I refused to help save his mom. Every detail added up, making his story more heartbreaking and harder to find fault with. By the end of it, he looked at me, tears dripping onto the table. "I just want to get back what belongs to me so my mom can get the treatment she needs… Felix, we used to be best friends. I really don't know why you're doing this to me…" Adam lowered his head, his shoulders shaking as he sobbed. Kent looked moved, while James frowned, his eyes full of sympathy. Everyone glared at me with contempt, as if expecting me to admit my guilt. Adam slowly raised his head, unable to hide the smug look in his eyes, while Vera kept her head lowered, her fingers tightly intertwined, as if she were in deep pain. Everyone thought I had nothing left to say. Mr. Pecker looked at me. "Felix, Adam has finished speaking. Is there anything else you'd like to say? So far, you haven't submitted any evidence. If you have nothing else to add, we'll have to make a preliminary decision based on what we've seen so far." The conference room was deathly quiet. My heart beat slowly. The mouse buzzed again in my pocket. "Now!" I stood up, bracing my hands against the table. "I have evidence." My voice was steady as I pulled the USB drive from my bag and walked over to the computer connected to the projector. Only one video file was on it. I pressed play. The smugness in Adam's eyes froze, and his face became pale as a sheet. Vera shot to her feet, knocking her chair back with a loud crash.