Oops, Wrong Girl to Bully Chapter 58

Angelina’s POV

"Oh, I'm not confident. I'm certain." He grinned, but there was something hollow about it. "That test was brutal. I probably got like a fifteen percent or something."

I turned back to face the front of the classroom. More students were coming in now.

"Hey, remember what you said?" Logan poked my shoulder. "You said you'd bomb the test with me. Solidarity and all that."

"Maybe I'm the only one who didn't fail," I said quietly.

"Yeah right." Logan laughed. "We'll see about that."

The bell rang.

Ms. Wilson stood up and grabbed the stack of papers. The entire classroom went silent.

"Alright class," Ms. Wilson said, walking down the first row. She placed a test paper face-down on each desk as he passed. "I've finished grading your midterms. Some of you did really well. Some of you need to come see me during office hours."

She moved methodically through the rows. Each time she set down a paper, the student would stare at it like it might explode. No one flipped theirs over yet.

Ms. Wilson made her way to the back of the room. She set Logan's paper down, then mine. Her expression didn't change. She just moved on to the next student.

"This is torture," Logan muttered under his breath.

Finally, Ms. Wilson returned to the front of the classroom. She leaned against his desk and crossed her arms.

"Alright. You can look now."

The sound of papers flipping filled the room.

"Oh thank god," someone said in the front row.

"Yes! Seventy-eight!"

"No no no no no."

I watched the reactions ripple through the classroom. Relief, disappointment, quiet celebration, silent despair.

Next to me, Logan flipped his paper over.

He stared at it.

"You've got to be kidding me."

His voice was flat. Shocked. He put his head down on the desk, covering his face with his arms.

The guy in front of us, Joshua something, turned around. "Dude, how bad?"

Logan's voice was muffled against his arms. "Don't even ask."

"That bad, huh?" Joshua winced. "I got a sixty-five. Thought that was rock bottom."

"I wish I got a sixty-five," Logan said.

Around the classroom, students were starting to compare scores in hushed voices.

"What did you get?"

"Seventy-two. You?"

"Fifty-nine. I'm screwed."

Up front, someone actually squealed with excitement. "I got an eighty-nine! That's my highest score ever in this class!"

Several people turned to look, their expressions a mix of admiration and jealousy.

Ms. Wilson held up her hand. "Alright guys, settle down. This is just one test. We still have the rest of the semester."

I hadn't looked at my paper yet. It was still face-down on my desk. I was spinning my pen between my fingers.

"Hey Aria." Joshua had turned around fully now, his arm draped over the back of his chair. "What did you get?"

A few more people glanced back at us.

Logan lifted his head slightly. Even in his state of despair, he looked curious. "She probably failed too, right? We had a deal."

I stopped spinning my pen. Everyone was looking at me now.

"One hundred and five," I said.

Joshua blinked. "Wait, what?"

"One hundred and five out of one hundred."

The words hung in the air for a second.

Then the explosion happened.

"No way!"

"Are you serious?!"

"Let me see that!"

Joshua practically lunged for my paper. I tilted it so he could see. There it was, written in Ms. Wilson's neat red pen at the top: 105/100.

"Holy shit," Joshua breathed.

More students were turning around now. The commotion was spreading like wildfire.

"She got one hundred and five?"

"That's impossible!"

"The bonus questions were insane, nobody gets those!"

"I thought she never studied!"

Sarah was staring at me with her mouth literally open. "Aria, those bonus questions... I couldn't even understand what they were asking."

"This is unreal," someone else said.

I felt Logan's eyes on me. I turned to look at him.

He was sitting up straight now, his test paper with its bright red 15/100 forgotten on his desk. He looked completely stunned.

"Bro." His voice cracked slightly. "You said you'd fail with me."

I shrugged. "I said maybe I wouldn't."

"Maybe? MAYBE?" He ran his hands through his hair. "You got one hundred and five! That's not maybe, that's like... that's like breaking the system!"

The classroom was getting louder now. Everyone was talking at once.

"How did she even do that?"

"Does she have a tutor or something?"

"Ms. Wilson's tests are impossible!"

Then Ms. Wilson's voice cut through the noise.

"Aria."

I looked up. She was standing right next to my desk. I hadn't even noticed her approach.

Everyone went quiet.

Ms. Wilson looked at my paper, then at me. Her expression was strange. Serious, but there was something else there too. Pride, maybe. Or surprise.

"Can you see me after class?" she said. "I'd like to discuss your college recommendations."

The classroom erupted again.

"Oh my god."

"Ms. Wilson never offers recommendations!"

"You have to basically beg her to write you one!"

"This is insane!"

Ms. Wilson raised her voice slightly. "Alright everyone, let's go over the test. Turn to page one."

Slowly, reluctantly, people turned back around in their seats. But I could see them still glancing back at me every few seconds.

Logan was slumped in his seat, staring at the ceiling. His test paper was crumpled under his elbow. He looked like someone had just told him the world was flat.

"I can't believe this," he muttered. "I studied with you. We went over the same problems. How did you... how?"

I kept my voice low. "I just did what I knew how to do."

"Nobody just does that on a Whitaker test," he said. "That's not how this works."

Ms. Wilson started going over question one on the board. Her voice faded into background noise as I sat there, pen still in my hand.

A perfect score. Plus the bonus. It wasn't that big of a deal, really. I'd understood the concepts. I'd worked through the problems. I'd checked my answers twice. That was all.

Logan put his head back down on his desk.

"I'm dropping out," he mumbled. "Becoming a monk. Moving to the mountains."

Despite everything, I almost smiled.