Henry Instantly perked up and murmured, “It’s time to find out how well we did on yesterday’s paper! You
worked on it till two in the morning, didn’t you? I wonder what score you’ll get.”
Jared remained silent, but his expression was a dead giveaway to how equally eager he was to find out.
Shortly after, Donovan made the announcement. “The first place goes to Wendy Greene, who scored
ninety points.”
A round of scattered, almost obligatory applause rang out from the class.
Even though Wendy wasn’t well-liked, there was no denying that she was smart as a whip. As such,
some of her classmates were still gracious enough to give credit where credit was due.
When the applause died down, Donovan continued, “In the second place, we have Terry Fuller with
eighty-eight points.”
Then, Donovan proceeded to announce the third and fourth place.
It was only at the sixth place that Donovan finally called out Trisha’s name.
Trisha, however, was anything but happy as she glanced at Arielle’s seat.
If Arielle were here, she‘d have easily topped the class. I wonder if she can make it back for tomorrow‘s
exam.
With so many racing thoughts in her mind, Trisha couldn’t help but feel even more dismal.
Meanwhile, Henry was still outside the classroom, listening with bated breath for the announcement of
Jared’s name. Alas, it never came.
Left scratching his head, Henry turned to look at his friend. “Hey, did you forget to hand in your paper?”
“No,” Jared replied with a frown. “I was the first to do so.”
The paper was difficult, and the last question had him completely stumped. In the end, Jared gave up
trying to work out the answer and handed in his paper to Wendy.
Did Wendy not submit it on purpose? But then again, she isn‘t that dumb to do something so obvious.
Just then, Donovan spoke up again.
“Everyone has done well, despite the difficulty level of this paper. Even the last place holder scored
eighty-one points, which is very commendable. However, you may have realized that I left one student
out. Well, that’s because he scored even higher than Wendy.”
Jared stiffened as the class erupted into a commotion.
Then, one of the students asked the question that was on everyone’s mind, “So why won’t you announce
his score?”
“I had found most of the questions online and adapted them for this paper. The last one, though, was set
by me,” Donovan scoffed. “This student got everything but the last question right, which means he must
have lifted the other answers online!”
Upon hearing that, Jared’s face instantly darkened.
Henry was no fool either. He knew Donovan was accusing Jared of cheating, and he wasn’t going to
stand idly by
The next second, Henry barged into the classroom. “Donovan Baxter! Why would you make such an
accusation? Jared was up until the wee hours trying to finish this paper. Even while brushing his teeth
this morning, he was still thinking about that last question. It’s fine if you don’t like me because I’m not a
good student anyway. But Jared has worked so hard! How dare you slander him!”
“Henry West!” Donovan shouted as he bristled with anger. “You better watch your tone! Is this the way to
talk to your teacher?”
“Tell me then, is this the way to treat your student? By slandering him?”
“Slander? The two of you only got into the school through connections. Yet, curiously enough, he scored
higher than the other elite students whom I’ve hand-picked for this class. It’s not at all unreasonable to
believe that he cheated, so how is that slander?”
Before Henry could retort, Jared stepped in. “Gibby, that’s enough. Forget it!”
“See?” Donovan said with a smirk. “Your friend’s feeling guilty.”
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