Chapter 159
Andrew sat nearby, and he recognized a bunch of the topics from last night’s cramming session. But now, his mind was totally blank. He couldn’t remember a single thing. If only he’d actually paid attention instead of zoning out.
During the exam, Ronald, the physics department head, strutted around the classrooms, checking on everyone. When he spotted Charlotte sitting quietly at her desk, he couldn’t help but smirk. He made a show of walking right up to her, his round belly leading the way.
Her test paper was almost untouched. Only her name and student ID were filled in. Ronald felt pretty pleased with himself. He’d gone out of his way to get this exam from a famous physics professor, someone who’d helped write national entrance exams. The questions were tough. No one could coast through this one.
Last time, the test had been way easier, and Charlotte still managed to rank dead last. With her so-called smarts, Ronald figured she’d score even lower this time.
He snorted quietly, eyeing Shirley’s paper next. Lots of blank spaces there, too. Clearly, she was lost. Ronald had warned them before. If you didn’t want to actually study and just tried to cheat your way through, it was bound to catch up to you. Especially if you hung around with someone like Charlotte.
Then Ronald stopped at Olivia’s desk. She’d already finished most of the multiple- choice. No surprise there. She was the top student, his pride and joy. He was sure she’d be this year’s valedictorian. Ronald could already picture her in the news, everyone praising him as her mentor. The thought made him practically giddy.
After his rounds, Ronald returned to the front of the room. He shot Eleanor a tight, forced smile.
“Ms. Adams, I’m noticing several students in this room who aren’t taking things seriously. Please make sure you supervise carefully. We can’t have any cheating.”
He made a point of glancing at Charlotte as he said “cheating.”
Eleanor’s expression soured. “Mr. Lee, the students are all following the rules. No one here is going to cheat,” she replied, her tone sharp. “Everyone’s trying to concentrate, so please keep it down.”
“Anyone who can get a perfect score will do so no matter what. But people who only ever score a ten, well-”
Before Ronald could finish, Eleanor stood up and walked away, not even bothering to listen. Ronald didn’tè mind. The idea that Charlotte would be gone soon was enough to put him in a good mood. He left the exam room humming to himself.
The test rules said no one could turn in their paper early. Eleanor kept sneaking glances at Charlotte. For the first hour and a half, Charlotte either stared off into space, zoneÜ out at her blank test paper, D doodled on her scratch paper. Eventually, she ended up sketching the entire classroom, every detail perfect.
Eleanor caught a glimpse of the drawing and her eyes went wide. She couldn’t believe how talented Charlotte was. She was a computer whiz, she could draw it was amazing. Why wouldn’t a kid with so many gifts want to study?
With just twenty minutes left, Charlotte finally stirred. Her eyes looked tired as she sat up and stretched, then she spread out the test paper and started scanning the questions, flipping through them almost instantly.
Three minutes later, she was done
reading. She grabbed her pencil, pushed the test paper to the side, and began bubbling in answers on the answer sheet. She’d already worked
head
St all the problems in her
while she was spacing out.
Is she just guessing at this point? Eleanor wondered. If she was going to give up anyway, maybe she should’ve just left school sooner. Once the grades come out, the embarrassment will be brutal.
Olivia had already finished her own test. She watched Charlotte filling in answers and couldn’t hold back a smirk. How did the Main family end up with someone so useless?