I don’t have much time; they’re on to me. I don’t know if they’ll find this, or if they don’t, if anyone will read it, but I must attempt to reveal the truth.

Liberty’s culture equates students’ grades and test scores to their worth as humans—making enemies of students who set the curve.

At Liberty, tensions are high, and recently, they exploded.

Almost a year ago, I first started my investigation into the disappearance of Gene E. Yuss, and no one seemed to have any motive. As a 4.0 Princeton-commit, all her friends and teachers testified to her academic excellence, practically idolizing her accomplishments.

But that success—it put a target onto her back.

Yuss disappeared the day before her AP Biology final, a test her teacher expected her to pass with flying colors. But when I asked her peers about the final, the response I found astounded me: students redirected the conversation, avoided eye contact, and refused to answer questions altogether.

An anonymous tip brought me to a meeting I just witnessed between students. From the shadows, I saw their letterman jackets, and I heard their pact of secrecy and the confirmation of Yuss’ “new commitment.”

“As long as I can show off a 4.0 to MIT,” a hooded student shrugged, and the group murmured in agreement.

Everything clicked. The students’ admiration, envy even, of her perfection, their social hierarchy based on academics, their coveted GPA—these Liberty students would do anything for a grade, and I believe anything, even murder Gene E. Yuss, who would have set the curve for that final and make her grade while breaking her classmates’.

And the name these monsters gave themselves: the NHS.