I accidentally overheard the class beauty fighting with her boyfriend, and I was the innocent bystander caught in the crossfire. "If you think I'm dumb, go find Emma Evans then!" "You're the top student, she's number two. You guys are a perfect match!" I froze. For three years of high school, Liam Carter and I had firmly held the top two spots in our grade. Our names appeared side-by-side countless times on the school's honor roll. Classmates jokingly called us the "Golden Couple" of Northwood High. In reality, we hadn't spoken a single word to each other. Liam sounded exasperated. "I don't even like her." "But I'm just unhappy! Unhappy that your names are always together, unhappy that you'll go to the same university in the future!" I had no interest in listening to a lovers' quarrel. Just as I was about to leave, Liam's words stopped me in my tracks. "Alright, alright. You already made her lose her Stanford early admission offer. Aren't you satisfied?" 1 "The offer is gone, but she can still take the SATs! Am I supposed to just watch you two go to Stanford together?" "Who does Emma Evans think she is? Besides her grades, where does she even compare to me?" Even when angry, Chloe Bennett was beautiful. Liam ruffled her hair. He said dotingly, "Yes, yes. She's not as pretty as you, her figure isn't as good as yours, her family isn't as rich as yours. Her personality is dull and boring. I'd be blind to like her, okay? Honestly, even if Emma ran naked after me for ten miles, I wouldn't turn around once." Chloe giggled, amused. "Not mad anymore?" "Mm." Liam pulled her into his embrace, his tone suggestive. "Don't mention breaking up again, or I'll find plenty of ways to make you beg for mercy." Chloe blushed at whatever thought crossed her mind. "You're so bad~" The couple walked away, flirting. Leaving me standing there, face dark, fists clenched tight. 2 A month ago, my early admission offer to Stanford, secured through the National Math Olympiad, was revoked due to an anonymous tip. The report claimed I had disciplinary issues during school and didn't meet the requirements for early admission. This so-called "disciplinary issue" was merely an incident in freshman year where someone in my dorm used a banned appliance, resulting in a warning for the whole room. But I remembered clearly: I wasn't given any personal demerit. And since it wasn't my fault to begin with, I naturally couldn't accept this outcome. I immediately appealed to the school. The response was: Although I didn't receive a formal punishment, the warning was recorded in my file and still affected my comprehensive evaluation. My world collapsed. No one knew how much effort I had put into walking this path. For three whole years, I spent five or six hours a day on competition prep. No entertainment, no winter or summer breaks, just endless problem sets. From dawn to dusk, tireless. The cost of each competition was nothing to others, but it was squeezed out of my meager living expenses. For the national finals in D.C., my mom used borrowed money to buy my train ticket and book a hotel, saying she believed in me. I thought I could put a perfect period on three years of hard work. But things didn't go as planned. The admission offer I had in hand could still be canceled. And the culprit did it simply because she didn't want me attending the same university as her boyfriend. It was absurd, laughable. Thinking back now, I finally understood why the school was so adamant, giving me zero chances. Chloe's father was the school principal. The seeds of hatred took root and spread like wild weeds in my heart. 3 Back in the classroom, I saw Chloe chatting with a few girls. "Chloe, are you really not going to study abroad? So many people would kill for the chance." "That's just my dad's idea. I'm not going. I've decided to only apply to schools in the Bay Area." A girl teased, "Has to be close enough to Stanford, right?" They laughed together. Chloe's grades were mediocre. She scored around 1200 on the SATs at best; getting into a decent state college was a toss-up. No wonder her principal father planned for her to go abroad. But alas, Chloe was hopelessly lovestruck. How could she bear four years of long-distance with Liam? I walked past them. Chloe saw me too. She rolled her eyes at me without disguising it, then turned back to laughing. I walked to my seat expressionless. As I put my bag down, a notebook accidentally fell out, landing on my desk mate's side. "Careful. Hey, what's this?" My desk mate exclaimed as if she'd discovered a massive secret. "Holy crap! Emma, you like Liam!" The noisy classroom instantly went silent. Everyone looked over. My desk mate held up my notebook high. "Look what's written in here!" On the open page, hundreds of names were written densely in red ink. Each stroke was neat and elegant, showing the care put into writing them. Every single name was the same. "Liam Carter." The whole class was in an uproar. 4 Although rumors about me and Liam occasionally floated around school, everyone knew they were just jokes. Plus, I had been a loner for three years, quiet and reserved. No one would have thought in that direction. Now that it was suddenly revealed I liked Liam, how could it not be huge gossip? The next second, everyone's eyes fell on Chloe. Everyone wore looks of anticipation for the drama. Who didn't know that Liam was Chloe's trigger? Chloe exploded instantly. "Emma Evans, have you no shame? Liam is my boyfriend. What right do you have to like him?" Chloe's clique chimed in. "If you don't have a mirror, surely you can look in a puddle? Look at yourself!" "A toad wanting to eat swan meat." "So the quiet ones are actually the sketchiest." I remained calm despite their mockery. Chloe stormed over. She snatched the notebook from my desk mate and tore it to shreds. "I'm warning you, Liam is my boyfriend. If you dare harass him, don't blame me for getting nasty!" I believed her. Once, a girl from another class gave Liam a love letter. After Chloe found out, she took people to harass the girl every day. I heard they even took nude photos of her, threatening her not to tell teachers or parents. The long-term bullying caused the girl psychological issues. Eventually, she had to drop out. But because of Chloe's status as the principal's daughter, no one dared to report it. Seeing I was still silent, Chloe got angrier. "I'm talking to you! Are you deaf?!" I slowly looked up, my tone sincere and innocent. "But you guys aren't married." "And I don't think I'm worse than you." "After all, besides that face, you're useless." Gasps echoed around me. Everyone looked at me like I was a ghost. Chloe's eyes widened in disbelief, looking like she'd been struck by lightning.
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