The Terrible Trial of Kennedy Abrams (Treadmill II)

Synopsis of Treadmill

If you haven't read Treadmill, this gives you an overview of the book, including plot twists and the ending.

If you have read Treadmill, here's a refresher if you need it.

Synopsis of Treadmill, Book One

Rebecca Eaves is the girl that wants to be included in everything. She wants to be pretty, and popular, and cool, like the rest of the people at Clemson University. Kennedy Abrams is everything that Rebecca is not: she has thousands of Instagram followers, she's gorgeous, confident, popular, and throws the absolute best parties at the school. One morning, when Rebecca is on the treadmill at their campus gym, she trips and falls on her face—only to be helped up by Kennedy Abrams herself.

The girls form a quick bond and become close friends. As both of them are obsessed with social media, they think it would be fun to create a fake Instagram "influencer," and Drew Parley is born. With Kennedy as her face and Rebecca behind the account's management, @drewboo quickly racks up followers, eventually entering the hundreds of thousands, as the girls remain behind the account in secret, their bank accounts growing by the second.

In an effort to find a new location for 'Drew's' pictures, the girls travel down to Tampa, Florida. On the first night of their stay, Kennedy is driving Rebecca's car with Rebecca in the passenger seat when they get lost down a dark, windy road. Kennedy gets nervous, starts to go faster, and she rounds a corner only to hit something. Or, more accurately, someone—the girls discover they have hit and killed a man. Rebecca is freaked out, but Kennedy is calm and collected as she finds someone to fix the car and drives the girls back to Clemson, South Carolina the next morning.

The girls discover that Hank Wilcox is the man they hit, a well-known millionaire philanthropist and public speaker. His wife hires a private investigator to look into her husband's death, while Kennedy and Rebecca focus their attention on their Instagram account, hoping no one will track the murder to them. Everything comes crashing down when a modeling gig gone wrong turns into Kennedy kicking Rebecca off of the Instagram account, thus freezing her funds and causing the girls to be done with their friendship.

Rebecca is approached by Leo Lutz, the PI hired by Hank Wilcox's wife, and is informed of the true story behind the hit-and-run: Kennedy knew Hank and had had an affair with him the year prior. Lutz says Kennedy planned to kill Hank, and that Rebecca must have been the scapegoat that Kennedy selected to pull off her ruse. Rebecca is stunned and Kennedy approaches her later, telling her that Wilcox had in fact been harassing her when she decided to scare him, not kill him, and the death had been an accident.

Rebecca has been publishing the news of this on a blog that she doesn't think will be discovered, but eventually is found and becomes an instant viral sensation. Kennedy is arrested, and Rebecca is offered a chance to write her story for the world to see in the magazine Chopped. She takes the offer, and when her piece, The Story of Kennedy Abrams & Her Scapegoat, comes out, Kennedy is officially declared to be put on trial for the murder of Hank Wilcox.