So, honestly I am new to reddit and I don't really know how anything works, so sorry if I do not know how to use reddit properly.

So, I (21F ) go to a very reputed institution in my area for studying Architecture. I'm in my 4th year (it is a 5 year course where I am) now and there is this thing that happens in our college called the jockey system. Under this system you can pick one of your immediate juniors as someone to help for your 5th year thesis and the scouting for this starts the moment you enter the institution in 1st year. So due to this system everyone has a junior in every year and this thing functions like a chain, so it is known as the jockey chain. Now if you have to do something that you can't find the time to do, you send it to your juniors to do, all in the name of gaining experience. How much pressure you have kind of depends on the senior who is above you in the chain.

This context is actually necessary.

So, last Tuesday I was in our class studio making a model for a submission I had that day. There were 2 other guys in the studio beside me. We were all talking about our circumstances with seniors. Now since the 5th years were the ones doing the thesis, 4th year took a lot of brunt. I had not and I will specify why later. We had our design submission on that day and from just the fact that I was making a model you can see that I was behind schedule. So what I told my classmate back then was something along the lines, "My senior did not give me work when I was free before that but this week when I can't even find time to breathe she's giving me work." This is it. This is what I said.

Tuesday itself, my senior asked me, in a chat group with the entire jockey chain, if I would do some work for her. And the 3rd year commented "Oh she does not even have time to breathe, how can she do your work?" I was unsure where this came from so I just replied with a question mark. Day before yesterday at night he replied to my question mark with "You were the one who said this" and the 5th year messaged me privately that I should be careful of what I'm saying and in front of whom in case I get recorded. Now I believe I should point out that the 3rd year and the 5th year are dating.

I hadn't checked the messages that day, so yesterday morning I literally woke up to these texts. I was growing mad, but still trying to be civil I told the group that "Yeah I am swamped with suggestion I could obviously have said that. This 3rd year replied to that saying that we were all swamped with submissions but that I could not talk like a neighborhood auntie to my peers about my senior because she had just requested me to do some of her work earlier that week.

I was mad by that point and mentioned how ranting was completely normal and this was me talking to my peer and was it really such a problem if I did so.

He replied with how if he got caught doing this he would be sitting red faced and ashamed and not defending himself and would not rant about someone who had helped me so much.

After this I got proper mad so I started bringing up everything about how the 5th Year had been talking about me behind my back ever since she was in 3rd year and I had never spoken up about it because I believe that everyone has a right to rant. It is only natural for her to have grievances against me just like I do for her.

I was angry but I still tried to be civil and mentioned how this was a group for work and not such petty things. I talked to that senior privately and she kept dodging everything. Then she asked me what all I'd heard her say and I told her all of it. She just kept denying it all and literally asked me to apologise to her in the group. So, I apologised in the group thinking that I would lay the matter to rest here cause I did not want this to drag on.

I was entirely sitting down in dumps because idk why I thought it was all my fault. I could not even remember the conversation at all and I thought maybe I really said something mean and it was really all my fault and how I am a horrible person, how I couldn't face my parents now and all. I was living in self-doubt for a while so this kinda pushed me off the edge ig. I was contemplating a conversation with my friends but I felt like they would also tell me that I was a horrible person and refrained from reaching out to anyone.

But one of my friends ended up calling me and I just kinda burst out with the entire story, legit on the verge of crying. Well she did get mad at me, but for the opposite reasons. She kept on asking me why I didn't stand up for myself more and why I did not call out the 3rd year for just being disrespectful to me in general. So ig I ranted and she and I reached the conclusion that I should probably talk to the classmate so I could remember the conversation at least. So I called up my classmate and he literally told me what I had said and when I told him the entire thing even he was surprised that I had taken the entire thing. He was pointing out how it was so disrespectful of anyone to make a video of me w/o my permission and now they're charging me on a video he made w/o my consent. This is when I kinda realised, that this really isn't my fault and that I was being witch-hunted (is it correct to use this word here?). Both of them basically asked me to quit being in that chain and not work in such a toxic environment and that anyone would have quit long ago (I legit have more stories albeit not at this level).

So, I sent a long ass text to my senior in private and quit the group legit asking the 3rd year to go get some respect. By this time another of my close friends knew as well and both of them were kinda mad that I let them get away with all this shit.

But ig the story doesn't end there. Because the guy msged me about how he respected only those who demand respect and backstabbers like me did not deserve it. Let me remind you all I said was that my senior did not give me work when I was free and gave me work when I was swamped. Then he said that the first msg about me not being able to breathe was not directed to me but to the 5th year. I legit had to point out that it was in a group where he had sent this directly referencing me. Did he truly not think I would talk about it?

Well the conversation kept going round and round and the basic points I got from him are

1. he wanted to prove his love to 5th year
2. he forgets what he has said a casual minute back
3. he needs screenshots to reference his memory
4. he is actually mad that I had not done any work for 5th year's thesis
5. he is mad that I did not go out of my way to ask for work? when I'm swamped with my own work

Now you may ask why I had not done any such work. Well every time she asked me to do something, I had submissions or was out of town. Yesterday I finally realised why this was happening. She would legit give her work like last minute, something she needed the next day or in 2-3 days and I try to plan ahead and I often did not have the time for that, so I just said no. She was actually giving me work when 3rd year couldn't work because of his submissions. Now since our routines kinda mesh, he had submissions at the same time as mine. And I've also done some work that she had assigned me but that is a whole other story. So yeah this is kinda my theory.

Also about her helping me. Yeah she has helped me at several occasions but not that much. There were so many instances where my friends had to give me stuff their seniors had sent because she hadn't. Like when I was applying for internship I kept asking her for the email that she sent because I wanted to check if I had actually talked on all grounds. She did not give me that and asked for mine telling me she would check. She gave me the go-ahead and I sent my portfolio to multiple firms only to later realise that I had missed out a very important detail. So idk what sort of a relationship we have, like she has helped me and also screwed me over but it keeps on just being my fault I feel.

Yesterday I was convinced that all of this was their fault, now I'm not so sure. So I wanted some opinions from 3rd parties who do not know any of us. Well, AITAH?

Sorry if this was very long.