The Toadstool Trap

My best friend saw a TikTok claiming that eating a specific type of poisonous mushroom would let you see the answer key during the SATs.
She spent a fortune buying them to slice up like sashimi.
I warned her that shed just end up dead or in the ER. Out of fear, she threw them away.
But after the exams, a classmate bragged that hed eaten the mushrooms, hallucinated the math answers, and was guaranteed a perfect score.
When the results came out, he got into MIT. My best friend missed the cutoff for her dream school by a single point.
At my graduation party, she snapped. She stabbed me eighteen times.
"Bitch! If you hadn't been such a busybody, that acceptance letter would be mine!"
When I opened my eyes again, I was back to that day.
The day she showed off her "magic" mushrooms.
"They say if you eat these, the math answers just float in the air. Should I try it?"
1
"Sarah, look! I paid a fortune for these. The internet swears they work."
The moment I opened my eyes, I saw Chloe shoving a red-capped, white-spotted mushroom in my face. Her eyes were manic with excitement.
"Once I eat these on test day, Harvard and Yale are basically in the bag."
Seeing her smug face, a chill ran down my spine. The phantom pain of eighteen stab wounds throbbed in my memory.
In my past life, I had grabbed the mushroom out of curiosity.
Having grown up foraging in the Pacific Northwest, I recognized it immediately. It wasn't just some magic fungus; it was Amanita muscaria, the Fly Agaric. It was hallucinogenic, sure, but also potentially deadly.
I told her the truth. I even showed her news articles about people dying from ingestion.
Terrified, Chloe threw them in the trash.
"Sarah, you saved my life! If I ate that, I wouldn't even make it to community college."
But after finals, a guy in our class claimed he ate them, saw the answer key floating in the air, and aced the test.
He got into MIT. Chloe missed her target school by one point.
She broke. She blamed me for everything.
She killed me at my own party, screaming that I stole her future.
Then, she played the insanity card, avoided jail, and even became a dark-web celebrity off the story of my murder.
I swallowed the hatred rising in my throat and forced a smile.
"Chloe, when you get into the Ivies and become a CEO, don't forget us little people."
Chloe beamed, her vanity stroked. "Duh! We're besties. When I'm rich, I'll take care of you."
Then, her face fell slightly. "But... are you sure these are safe? I know your grandma taught you about plants. Can you double-check?"
I blinked innocently. "I haven't been hiking in years. I barely remember anything. If you're scared, just toss them."
I knew her. She didn't want to study; she wanted a shortcut. She wouldn't give up a lottery ticket just because it might be dangerous.
Sure enough, she pulled the mushrooms closer to her chest.
"People on TikTok did it and they're fine. I'll be fine. On test day, I'm eating them raw."
I didn't say a word.
Eat them. Go ahead.
This time, let's see if you get into Harvard or the morgue.
2
Chloe was still anxious, so she spent hours doom-scrolling TikTok for validation.
The algorithm, being what it is, only fed her what she wanted to see: videos of students claiming the mushrooms gave them superpowers.
She ignored the doctors and toxicologists warning that it was a death wish.
I stayed up late every night, chugging coffee and grinding through practice tests.
Chloe pulled all-nighters tooplaying Valorant and flirting with guys on Discord.
One day, seeing me review flashcards during lunch, she rolled her eyes.
"Sarah, you try so hard for what? A few extra points? Hop on the game, I'll carry you. On test day, I'll even share some of my mushrooms with you. Way better than studying."
"No thanks," I said instantly.
Chloe's face darkened. "What? You think something bad will happen to me?"
I put on my best worried expression. "No, it's just... I read that if you don't eat enough, you won't hallucinate the answers. What if you split it and neither of us sees anything? Besides, I can't afford to pay you for them."
Chloe's anger vanished, replaced by arrogance. She looked down at my thrifted hoodie.
"True. These were expensive. Someone like you definitely couldn't afford them."
I nodded, keeping my face blank.
My family wasn't rich. My parents worked double shifts to fund my education. In my last life, I worked myself to the bone to get into a decent state school. I was content.
But Chloe took that away.
Thinking of my parents aging overnight after my murder, I wanted to scream. But I held it in.
I watched her log back into her game, then I turned back to my books.
Finals week arrived.
Before walking into the testing center, I saw Chloe's Instagram story.
Caption: Let's get this 1600!
Photo: A plate of raw, sliced red mushrooms.
3
When the first day of testing ended, I walked out to hear a familiar voice holding court.
"Chloe, did you really see the math answers?"
Chloe was surrounded by a crowd of students, looking like a queen bee.
"Obviously. I checked my work against the textbook just now. The answers I saw in the air were 100% correct."
To prove it, she rattled off the answers to the hardest calculus problems.
My heart skipped a beat. She was right.
Knowing Chloe, there was no way she solved those equations herself.
Did the mushrooms actually work?
The students around her were hyperventilating.
"Oh my god, Chloe, you're going to be valedictorian!"
"Forget state schools, Stanford is going to beg for you."
"Chloe, how did you do it? We're classmates, don't gatekeep!"
"I saw your story... was it the mushrooms?"
Chloe nodded smugly.
The crowd went wild.
"There's another exam tomorrow! If we eat them too, we can all ace it!"
"Chloe, where did you get them? Can you buy some for me? I'll pay double!"
Chloe hesitated, but when the bids went up to five times the price, greed took over.
She collected the cash and promised to get a new batch overnight. Then she looked at me.
"Sarah, want me to get you some? I'll give you a discount."
"No," I said loudly. "My grades are fine. Even if I cheated my way into a top school, I'd just flunk out. Besides, maybe you just got lucky. What if the next batch is a bad trip?"
The excited students calmed down slightly. The fear of poisoning or a bad trip started to set in.
"Yeah... what if we get sick and miss the test entirely?"
Some students asked for their money back.
Chloe, furious at losing her profit, turned on me.
"Sarah! I can't believe you. You're just jealous because you can't afford them, so you want to ruin everyone else's future!"
I put on my best victim face. "Chloe, I'm just worried about you guys. What if you get sick?"
"I ate them and I'm fine!" she snapped. "Fine! If you guys don't want them, that's less competition for me."
Her confidence swayed them again. The desperate studentsthe ones failing their classesshoved their money back at her.
"We trust you, Chloe!"
She smirked at me. "Since you trust Sarah so much, enjoy community college."
That night, my feed was filled with photos of red mushrooms.
I put my phone away and went to sleep.
The next morning, Chloe and her "mushroom squad" marched into the exam hall like soldiers going to victory.
When the test ended, they came out ecstatic.
"Chloe! I saw the answers! They were floating right above the paper!"
"I thought I was going to fail, but now I'm definitely getting a scholarship!"
4
The news spread like wildfire.
"Did they really see the answers?"
"It's real. We're screwed. We studied for nothing."
"Chloe is a saint. She saved the GPAs of half the senior class."
The students who didn't buy the mushrooms were filled with regret. Seeing their faces, Chloe turned her gaze to me.
"Sarah, if you hadn't stopped everyone, the whole class could have gone to Ivy Leagues."
She shook her head with mock pity. "Don't cry. There's always next year."
Her words were like gasoline. The students who missed out glared at me with hatred.
"Sarah, you snake! You ruined us!"
"I studied for twelve years for this, and you ruined my chance!"
Insults rained down on me. I stood there, detached, wondering only one thing: Did they actually see the answers?
Suddenly, someone shoved me.
"Bitch! My life is over because of you!"
Chloe laughed. "Don't blame her too much. She was just afraid you'd all score higher than her."
That broke them.
A few guys, eyes red with rage, dragged me toward the edge of the school's retaining wall. It was a steep drop.
"If I'm failing, I'm taking you with me!"
I grabbed the railing, screaming, "Don't listen to her! The scores aren't out yet! Killing me is a felony!"
They didn't listen. They were pushing me over the edge.
Just as my grip was slipping, the Principal arrived with campus security and the police.
"What the hell are you doing?! Let her go!"
Chloe stepped forward, calm as ever. "Principal, don't blame them. Sarah ruined their futures."
The students started shouting over each other, explaining the "miracle mushrooms" and how I sabotaged them.
The Principal listened, his expression shifting from confusion to horror.
Chloe didn't notice. She kept yapping.
"It's Sarah's fault. She's selfish. She deserves to die!"
The crowd chanted, agreeing with her.
The Principal rubbed his temples. "So, you're saying you ate poisonous mushrooms and hallucinated the answers?"
"Yes!" Chloe declared proudly. "I'm going to be the first student in school history with a perfect score. Just wait until the results come out."
The envy in the eyes of the other students was palpable.
"Okay," the Principal said, looking exhausted. "This situation is out of control. To settle this... I'm going to let you see the security footage from the exam room right now."
Chloe smirked. "Go ahead."
The Principal pulled up the feed on his tablet and projected it onto the wall.
We watched Chloe in the exam room, scribbling furiously.
But when the camera zoomed in on her answer sheet, Chloe's smile vanished.

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