Admission Hold: My Fate in Her Hands

Right before the SAT, our scatterbrained airheaded group favourite, the school belle, Priscilla Ashford, volunteers herself to safeguard everyone's admission tickets.

My firm refusal of her offer earns me the displeasure of my childhood sweetheart, Justin Kylemark. "You're picking on her again," he says.

I ignore his rebuke.

On the exam day itself, I personally double-checked every single admission ticket to make sure nothing could go wrong. However, the moment Priscilla gets hers from me, she burst into tears, claiming that I lost her ticket.

Justin snatched my admission ticket and tore it to shreds.

I run until my legs give out, barely managing to get it reissued before the bus leaves. However, my classmates all kicked me off the bus together.

"You lost Priscilla's admission ticket. Do you think you deserve to sit for the exam?"

They carry with them the exam prediction I had prepared for them. Thanks to that, they each achieve excellent scores.

I have no choice but to repeat the year and become the top scorer.

By then, Justin and my other classmates, who are already in prestigious universities and colleges, all return together. They produce fake evidence, accusing me of cheating in the exam.

Unable to defend myself, a candidate who flunked the exam poured gasoline on me and set me on fire.

When I open my eyes once more, I see myself handing the admission tickets over to Priscilla… except for my own.

"I just gave the meal you brought me to Priscilla. Do you really have to go after her like this?"

Justin Kylemark, my childhood friend, spoke in an annoyed tone. "Priscilla's weak. She's about to take her SAT. She needs this more than I do. You always take pride in being fair, don't you? Then, just hand the admission tickets to her. Stop being so power-hungry!"

Right then, I was clutching the class' admission tickets with all my strength.

In my past life, Justin had backed Priscilla Ashford in the exact same way.

I fought with him bitterly and even dragged the homeroom teacher in to mediate before I finally stopped Priscilla from taking our admission tickets.

Afterward, the whole class whispered that I was targeting Priscilla. They said that I didn't deserve to be the class representative and started isolating me.

I had to beg each of them to practice the exam questions I'd predicted. Those very questions helped students who barely had a shot at a first-tier university to an almost guaranteed admission to the top-100 universities.

However, they were completely ungrateful for my help. Moreover, they even called my parents over to watch me burn alive when the failed students set me alight after drenching me in gasoline.

Even now, I was haunted by the image of my parents, frozen in shock as they watched me swallowed by fire. Meanwhile, everyone else shielded Priscilla and laughed out loud at the scene.

My parents, unable to bear the horrific sight, rushed into the flames after me…

A voice snapped me out of my daze. "Cassidy Ford, don't push your—"

"Here. Take it," I said. I shoved the admission tickets into Priscilla's hands, cutting Justin off mid-sentence. Then, I grabbed my bag and turned to leave.

I didn't want to look at any of them for even a second longer. Until the exams were over, I wasn't coming back to this school.

Priscilla froze, clearly shocked by the fact that I'd handed it over so obediently.

However, just as I stepped out of the classroom, Justin yanked me back by my bag strap. "Wait. Where's your admission ticket?"

"I'm keeping mine."

With that, I brushed him off in frustration.

However, he wouldn't let it go. "No. We all agreed that everyone's tickets go to Priscilla. Yours too."

"Why should I?"

I clutched my ticket tighter and pulled away from him.

"If you guys want her to keep yours, fine. I'm not stopping you. I want to keep my own, so what's wrong with holding onto my own ticket?"

The PE committee member, Gaston Hubbard, stepped forward and pinned me to the ground. "Unbelievable. Cassidy, can't you stop being so jealous?"

A few other class committee members chimed in.

"Exactly. Priscilla's our favorite. She's our group's favourite. She's finally trying to do something nice for us. Why do you have to make it hard on her?"

"As the class representative, you should trust your classmates. We agreed that everyone hand their tickets to Priscilla. There shouldn't be an exception!"

Gaston snatched my admission ticket straight out of my hand and tossed it to Justin.

I lunged for it, but the boys started passing it around like a game, tossing it back and forth and holding it up high.

"Come on, Cassidy! If you can grab it, it's yours again!"

"Hah! Look at her jumping around like a monkey!"