Chapter 10: Amogelang’s Fake Scandal

 

While Lulu, Zinhle, and Bonolo were going through their messy, public breakups, Amogelang’s fake scandal made her think she was the lucky one. She thought maybe she had dodged the drama. She was focused on her books, sticking to her routine, minding her own business. School was her priority. She didn’t have time for heartbreak or gossip. But what she didn’t know was that Themba hadn’t forgotten about her. In fact, he had saved something special just for her. Themba didn’t want to break Amogelang’s heart like he did with the others. Nah, with her, he wanted to crush her from the inside. He wanted to take away the one thing she was most proud of her future.

One Monday morning, Amogelang got a message asking her to come to the faculty office. She didn’t think much of it. Maybe they just wanted to clarify something in her assignment. She walked in calm, confident, expecting nothing hectic. But the moment she stepped in, the lecturer’s face told her something was wrong. “Amogelang,” the lecturer said, serious. “We received a report that you plagiarised your latest assignment.” Amogelang blinked, confused. “What? Plagiarised? I didn’t copy anything, I swear,” she said. But then they showed her the file. The whole essay was exactly the same as an article online. Word for word. Same structure. Same lines. Everything.

Amogelang’s heart dropped. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She had worked on that assignment day and night. She had her drafts, her bullet points, even her voice notes saved on her phone to prove it was her own work. But nothing she said made a difference. The system had already flagged it as copied. And because the match was so high, it went straight to disciplinary action. No second chance. No marks. No appeal. Amogelang walked out of that office in a daze. It felt like the walls were closing in. One moment, she was on track for top marks, and the next, her whole academic record was at risk. What she didn’t know was that Themba had planned it all. He had a connection someone in the IT department who owed him a favour. He got them to replace her real assignment with a fake one, one that matched something already published online. When it was submitted through the system, it looked like she had copied.

 It was clean. It was perfect. It couldn’t be traced back to him. Amogelang felt like she was drowning. Word started spreading around campus. Whispers in the lecture halls. Side-eyes in the corridors. The judgment was heavy. “Did you hear about Amogelang?” “Yoh, she was faking it this whole time?” “I always thought she was too quiet. Now we know why.” Amogelang started sitting alone. Her friends were too busy dealing with their own mess, and she didn’t want to stress them more. But inside, she was breaking. She couldn’t eat properly. She couldn’t sleep. Her hands would shake every time she opened her books. This wasn’t just about a failed assignment. It was her whole future. Her dreams of graduating, of making her family proud all of it was slipping away. And even though she had no proof, she could feel it in her gut. This wasn’t just bad luck. It didn’t feel random. It felt personal. Planned. But who would do something like this? She didn’t know. But far off, watching from behind the scenes, Themba was there. Silent. Smirking. Happy. Because in his mind, everything was going exactly how he wanted. First their hearts, now their minds. One by one, he was breaking them.