My mom eyed me with deep suspicion. "The neighbor’s kid, Tommy, goes to the exact same college as you. How come he isn’t heading back to campus a week early?" I rubbed my hands together, sweating bullets. "You’re going back early to see a boy, aren't you? Look, I’m not some old-fashioned prude. Here’s an extra three hundred bucks. Go have fun." I accepted the cash with profound gratitude. "You are so right, Mom. So right!" My mom completely bought it. On the Amtrak train back to campus, I pulled out my brand-new, untouched Physics 101 textbook and started frantically copying down formulas, scratching my head in despair. See a boy? Hell no. I was going back early to take a makeup exam! While I was literally on my way to the exam hall, a FaceTime call from my mom popped up. "Harper, honey! Let Mom get a look at this new boyfriend of yours." 1 I was dead. The only new thing I was getting today was a new failing grade. I definitely didn't have a new boyfriend to show her! Driven by pure desperation, I randomly aimed my phone camera at a stranger walking past me on the sidewalk. "Mom, this is the reason I came back to school early," I whispered into the mic. When I lie to my mom, I fully commit to the bit. I had only planned to use the stranger's side profile to appease her. But despite how softly I spoke, the gorgeous guy in the frame actually turned his head and looked at the camera. Through the phone, my mom shrieked. "He’s so handsome?! Are you dating a movie star?! Bring him home this weekend!" "Gotta go, honey! I’m taking screenshots to show off to my book club, hahahaha!" The video call abruptly ended on my mom’s exaggerated, booming laughter. Leaving me and the handsome stranger standing in the wind, staring at each other. The guy had perfect posture and a sharp, breathtakingly handsome jawline. Absolute god-tier looks. I scratched my head and let out an awkward laugh. "I'm so sorry. I was too embarrassed to tell my parents I came back early for a makeup exam, so I lied and said I was coming back to see a boyfriend." The handsome guy nodded in understanding. He actually matched my pace and started walking with me. Clearly, we were heading to the same building. I shifted into a light jog to keep up and struck up a conversation. "Hey, are you taking the Physics makeup exam too?" The guy didn't say a word, just kept walking forward. I noticed he wasn't carrying a backpack or any study materials. It was obvious he was an honest student—but Physics 101 was brutally hard. Going in without cheating? He was guaranteed to fail! A brilliant idea struck me. "Bro, how about this? I’m locked and loaded with cheat sheets. I’ve transcribed almost every single formula. I’ll share my guaranteed-to-pass cheating tips with you, and in exchange, you come home with me this weekend to meet my parents." The moment I said that, he stopped in his tracks. Seeing that he was intrigued, I officially began my entry-level cheating tutorial! I pulled out the "tissue-paper study guide" from my pocket. Then, I reached into my knee-high socks and produced a ten-fold formula accordion. And the ultimate weapon—my phone! The handsome guy looked confused. "How are you getting a phone into the exam hall? The proctors always use metal detector wands." I smiled like a genius. "Heh. They only scan the body. If you hold the phone flat against your palm while you raise your arms, they never find it! Plus, my phone folds!" "What about the signal jammers?" "The ancient jammers our school uses can't even block a 5G signal. My service works perfectly in there." The guy nodded thoughtfully, then asked with genuine curiosity: "If you have so many brilliant methods, how did you fail the final exam in the first place?" I waved my hand dismissively and patted his broad shoulder. "Let us not dwell on past failures. We must look to the future!" When we got to the classroom, I spotted my fellow struggling friends. Perfect. Our academic survival squad was assembled. But I didn't forget the handsome stranger I had just met. I quickly pulled him into our circle. The girls took one look at his suffocatingly good looks and instantly agreed to let him join. Everyone started enthusiastically sharing their cheat sheets and coordinating how we were going to pass answers under the proctor's nose. The handsome guy must have been deeply moved by my generosity. He even asked for the names of everyone in our survival squad. I raised an eyebrow at him, giving him a look that said, No need to thank me. A true wingwoman always looks out for her bros. He’d remember this favor for the rest of his life. 2 Ten minutes left until the exam. Everyone was fully prepped and locked in. The only thing missing was the proctor, who was running late. My best friend, Zoe, started dishing the gossip on our invigilator. "I heard the proctor for our room is a literal god from Apex University. He’s a second-year PhD student, ridiculously hot—like, better looking than celebrities. He's only proctoring at our college today to do a favor for a friend." "Apparently, he's a research genius. He hasn't even graduated yet, and research labs from both Apex and our school are fighting over him. They're already offering him seven-figure salaries." Lexi, another girl in our group, slammed her hand on the desk in regret. "Damn it! If I had known, I would have worn a full face of makeup today." "Ugh, we're gonna have to be super careful cheating with a guy like that." "Don't worry about it!" I reassured them. "A golden boy like him has never seen the kind of high-tech underground cheating methods we use!" ... The room finally quieted down when a roaming supervisor came in to drop off the exam packets. "Hey, where is Mr. Payne? Wasn't he already on duty?" the supervisor muttered. Mr. Payne? I turned to my friends and whispered, "What a weird name. If he's Mr. Payne, I guess I'm Miss Pleasure." My dirty-minded friends instantly caught the joke and started giggling uncontrollably. My face flushed hot. "I didn't mean it like that!" But no matter how much I tried to defend myself, the damage was done. Right as everyone was still grinning like idiots, the handsome stranger from earlier—who had been sitting quietly in the corner—slowly stood up. He calmly walked to the front, accepted the stack of exam papers, pulled a staff ID badge from his pocket, and stepped up to the podium. "Hello everyone. I am your proctor for today, Carter Payne." Wait. Excuse me? Is it too late for me to apologize by throwing myself out the window? 3 Obviously, it was too late. Forget the phones and the cheat sheets. Even the smart-watch Zoe had strapped to her ankle got confiscated. Carter Payne stated he had no malicious intentions. I agreed. He didn't have malicious intentions. He just didn't want us to survive. There was zero suspense. My friends and I were completely wiped out by Carter in one fell swoop. We all failed and were forced to retake the class this semester. Utterly defeated, I practically got on my knees in our group chat. "I am so sorry. I invited the wolf into our house. To make up for this, I am willing to lay down my life for you all!" Lexi replied with a "disgusted" sticker. "Stop offering us worthless trash." Zoe immediately followed up: "Since you sincerely want to make it up to us, we will mercifully grant you a chance to redeem yourself." I nodded like a bobblehead. "Name it. Anything." "Carter is working as an adjunct professor at our college this semester, and he just happens to be our Physics 101 instructor. Your mission: seduce him, conquer him, wreck him! Get revenge for us, and then secure the final exam answers for this semester." Huh? Me? What kind of delusional confidence did they have to think I could make an Apex University god look at me twice? I typed back helplessly: "Zoe, do you have a reality-distortion filter on me? How on earth am I supposed to bag a guy like that?" Zoe was supremely confident: "Based on my years of social experience, the way Carter looked at you today was absolutely not innocent. Just crook your finger, and he'll bite the hook." I didn't know if his eyesight was bad, but Zoe's eyesight was definitely broken. But things had reached a critical point. I had to try a desperate measure. Besides, I had failed the makeup exam. I absolutely could not let my parents find out that I came back to school early just to fail a test. The weekend was two days away. Time was of the essence. I had to rush over to Apex University and convince Carter to come home with me. 4 Before I left, my entire dorm worked together to paint my face in the ultimate "siren/baddie" makeup style. The head-turning rate on the street was undeniably high. Our college and Apex University were only separated by one main avenue. Carter was famous. All it took was asking a random student, and I immediately found out which dorm building he lived in. When I arrived at his building, I was genuinely shocked. Apex didn't play around with their PhD candidates. Not only were they single rooms, but the lobby looked like a luxury apartment complex. It made me want to apply for a PhD. I was lucky. I only had to camp out in the lobby for half an hour before Carter walked in. He was wearing a crisp black button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up slightly, exposing prominent, defined wrists. Unlike the casual, messy vibe he had the first time we met, today his hair looked styled. Every single strand radiated stupid amounts of handsome. I literally forgot to breathe for a second. When he dressed up, he was way too highly-visible. Every girl walking past was staring at him. "Looking for me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "How did you know?" I asked, confused. The corner of his mouth ticked up. "You've been squatting by the entrance for twenty-eight minutes. You ignored every other guy who walked past, and the second I came down, you stepped forward." Playing murder mystery games with him would be terrifying. He'd solve it in five minutes. I got straight to the point. "Yes. I want you to come home with me this weekend to pretend to be my boyfriend and deal with my mom." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Why should I?" "Because you used me to infiltrate my friend group, made me public enemy number one, caused me to fail my makeup exam, and now I have no way to explain to my parents why I came back early!" I snapped, getting anxious. The nerve of him to ask why! If it weren't for him, I would have easily passed that exam, and I wouldn't be here begging him to come home with me. He frowned slightly. "You're cheating, and you somehow think you're in the right?" "You—!" I licked my lips, completely unable to argue back. He was right. He was an Apex PhD student; he hadn't done anything wrong. I had absolutely zero leverage to make him fake-date me. It seemed Zoe really was blind. There was nothing "not innocent" about the way he looked at me. Messing with him was a terrible idea. Just as Carter was turning around to leave, a clear, familiar voice interrupted my thoughts. "Harper? What are you doing here?" "Caleb?" 5 Caleb was a senior at Apex University. We met at a Greek life mixer. He had a pretty obvious crush on me. He was gentle, considerate, and polite. Which is why I had previously rejected him by claiming I was only into "cold, emotionally unavailable" men. My eyes lit up, and I quickly grabbed Caleb's sleeve. "Caleb, are you free this weekend?" Caleb had barely opened his mouth to answer when Carter spun back around, staring at me coldly. "He's not free." "Huh? Professor Payne, I..." Caleb started. "Have you submitted your graduation thesis yet?" Carter asked smoothly. Speaking of his thesis, Caleb wasn't panicked at all; he looked quite confident. "Not yet, but I'll easily finish it by next week!" "Too late. Professor Miller wants it this Saturday. He wants you in his office on Saturday to review it." Caleb panicked a little. "He didn't send out an announcement." Carter spoke calmly. "Professor Miller will notify you tonight." Caleb nodded, then turned to me. "Well, I'm free on Sunday then!" My dimmed hopes flared back to life. "Sunday doesn't work either," Carter interrupted again. "The mini-essay for this module is strictly due on Sunday." Caleb gasped. "What? Mr. Payne, you never mentioned a mini-essay!" Carter calmly pulled out his phone and tapped the screen a few times. "The notification has just been pushed to your student portal." Seeing Caleb open his mouth to argue again, Carter kept going: "And the mock test that hasn't been scheduled yet is now set for..." "I'm completely booked!!" Caleb shouted. He turned to me, looking extremely determined. "I am so sorry, Harper. I am not free this weekend. This weekend, I must study. I love studying. I'm going to go study now. Bye." 6 "I can agree to pretend to be your boyfriend, but you have to agree to one condition." After Caleb ran off, Carter leaned in close to me. His perfect features were suddenly magnified right in front of my face. I leaned back a few inches. "Deal! As long as you come home with me this weekend, I'll agree to ten conditions!" "Good. My condition is that you come home with me tonight." 7 Tonight? Come home with him? I looked down at my ultimate siren/baddie makeup, and then back up at Carter's cold, restrained, academic face. Zoe's words played in 3D surround sound in my head: Seduce him! Wreck him! Get the final exam answers! Could it be... I didn't even need to initiate, and he was already biting the hook? Was this the legendary "the highest tier of hunter often appears as the prey" scenario? I swallowed hard, crossing my arms over my chest protectively, and stuttered, "Mr. Payne, although I do need your help, I have principles! Moving this fast... I-I'm not ready for this!" Carter looked at me like I was a complete moron. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What kind of garbage is floating around in your head? I meant we are going up to my apartment to sign a non-disclosure agreement and a three-point contract for the fake relationship." "Oh..." I awkwardly lowered my arms, my toes curling so hard in my shoes I could have excavated a new basement for the Apex library. "Let's go, then." I followed behind him like an elementary school student called to the principal's office. Carter didn't take me into the dorms; instead, we walked out of the campus gates and arrived at a high-end luxury apartment building ten minutes away. The moment I stepped inside, I was stunned. It was a minimalist black, white, and gray aesthetic. Spotless hardwood floors, and abstract art pieces on the walls that were actually complex physics equations. But the most terrifying part was the massive desk in the center of the living room, piled high with foreign academic journals and scratch paper. This wasn't a home. This was an interrogation room! "Sit," Carter said, pointing to the chair opposite the desk. I obediently sat down and watched as he pulled a freshly printed A4 document from a drawer. Cooperation Agreement Regarding Carter Payne Acting as Harper Quinn's Fake Boyfriend My eyes widened. "You already had this prepared? Are you a human printer?" "I printed it upstairs just now," he said, handing me a pen. "Read the terms. If there are no issues, sign it." I leaned in and read: [Article 1: Party B agrees to accompany Party A to her family home this weekend to act as her boyfriend and properly handle inquiries from Party A's parents.] [Article 2: Party A must unconditionally cooperate with Party B's established backstory during the fake relationship and must not expose the ruse.] [Article 3: In exchange, Party A's retake of the "Physics 101" course this semester must be personally tutored by Party B. Party A is required to complete no less than 10 hours of extracurricular exercises at a location designated by Party B each week.] [Article 4: If Party A fails to score an 85 or higher on the final exam, Party B reserves the right to expose the fake boyfriend arrangement to Party A's parents.] I slammed my hands on the desk and jumped up. "85?! You might as well kill me! I got an 18 on the makeup exam, Mr. Payne!" Carter leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled, looking at me with a ghost of a smile. "What happened? Didn't you just say you'd agree to ten conditions?" "But you can't defy the laws of nature! Having my brain study Physics is like asking a pig to solve calculus!" "I won't allow you to insult pigs like that." "Carter!" "Are you signing or not?" He made a move to pull the contract back. "If you don't sign, I’m face-timing your mom right now to tell her exactly how I confiscated your folding phone, tissue papers, and cheat sheets during the exam." I slammed my hand down on the contract, grinding my teeth. "I'll sign!" To avoid being murdered by my mom this weekend, I was forced to sell my soul. Carter watched with satisfaction as I signed my name, then pulled a textbook thicker than a cinderblock out from under the desk. Advanced Physics Problem Set. "Since you signed, let's execute Article 3 right now. You can't go back to your dorm until you finish chapter one." I looked at that brick of a book, my vision going dark. Seduce him, wreck him... I chanted Zoe's battle cry in my head, and with tears of grief, I opened the first page. The result was that Physics wrecked me for three solid hours. It wasn't until 11:00 PM that I dragged my drained, empty husk of a soul out of Carter's apartment. As I left, he leaned against the doorframe and instructed, "Tomorrow after class, I'll pick you up from your campus, and we'll head to the Amtrak station." I waved weakly. "Got it, boyfriend." He froze for a second, the tips of his ears turning suspiciously red, and then slam! he shut the door. Tch. What a prude.
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