Not This Time

Scott's expression changed, and he said impatiently, "I'm doing all this for you! If it weren't for me, would you have ever gotten first place?"

Tessa's eyes were red as she shouted back, "But did I ever ask you to sacrifice yourself?"

Scott fell silent, then let out a long sigh. "Can you stop? There's only one week left. This whole farce is almost over."

As for me, I didn't feel hurt at all. After all, Scott and I were just using each other.

Pretending to be a bad student got me months of close, romantic interaction with the school's heartthrob. It was totally worth it!

The mock exams came as scheduled. In both rounds, I kept my scores steady at three or four hundred. It wasn't enough even for a normal university, let alone MIT or Harvard.

On the day of the SAT, we were all assigned to different exam halls.

Before going in, Scott tried to comfort me. "It's okay. Even if you do badly, you still have me."

I smiled and nodded, then turned and walked into the exam room—a place that could change my whole fate.

When it was all over, I knew.

Now, I could finally leave that storage closet for good. Never again must I put up with my dad's or brother's fists.

I could finally live my own life.

While waiting for the results, I sold off every single gift the Walkers had ever given me on secondhand shopping websites. My account balance was enough to cover four years of tuition.

The day the results came, the Walkers threw a huge party. They invited our whole class to the villa to check our results together.

This was all Tessa's idea.

She wanted to defeat the rival who had always overshadowed her in front of everyone, and watch me get thrown out and humiliated. The homeroom teacher, principal, and even media outlets were all there.

After all, our school was the best in the city. Our class was also the one most likely to produce a top scorer, so every reporter wanted first-hand coverage.

Everyone started checking their scores one by one. My classmates' results were better than expected.

Tessa, full of confidence, entered her candidate number in front of the camera. The page refreshed, and her score finally popped up.

She beamed. "1535! I got 1535! That's good enough for MIT or Harvard!"

Tessa showed off her score on camera, and Jane was dancing with joy.

"That's our female lead! Barely made the cutoff for MIT and Harvard, and now she's heading for some messy love triangle on campus."

"Can't wait to see what happens next!"

While everyone praised her, Tessa suddenly turned her eyes on me. "Lucia, why haven't you checked your results yet? You've always been first in our grade, right?"

The comments exploded again.

"Our former top student is such a lovesick mess, I bet even 800 is out of her reach!"

"Come on, check your results! This is the part where the tables turn! This is the best part! That's what she gets for always trying to steal our female lead's lover!"

Seeing me hesitate, Scott came over and grabbed my hand, trying to comfort me. "Don't worry. You still have me."

I smiled, pulled my hand back, and entered my candidate number.

The screen refreshed.

The smile on Tessa's face froze. She stared in disbelief, then exploded into screams.

"No way! This can't be happening!"