After Rebirth My Class Beauty Led Cheating and I Stayed Silent Chapter 02

After Rebirth My Class Beauty Led Cheating and I Stayed Silent Chapter 02

The next day. Two days before the SAT.

During morning study hall, Sienna stood at the front of the room handing out the devices.

She used a pink floral makeup pouch as cover.

The second she unzipped it, rows of clear zip-top bags were revealed, each one packed with a flesh-colored earpiece, a frequency card, and a printed instruction sheet.

Her movements were smooth and practiced, like she was passing out candy.

“Raise your hands if you’re on Frequency Three. Brielle, Macy, Ethan, you three are a group. You’ll get the answers at the same time.”

“Frequency Seven, Grant, Tyler, Naomi. Your seats are farther back, so there’ll be a point-three-second delay. Listen first, then write. Don’t jump ahead.”

I sat in the last row by the window, my book open on the deskand my gaze fixed on the page.

No one handed me a device.

When Sienna reached my side of the room, she skipped right past me.

She’d already explained why in the class group chat the night before.

Tessa’s already the top student in the senior class.

She doesn’t need this. Let her perform normally.

If anything goes wrong, at least she won’t get dragged into it.

The replies had flooded in right after. Exactly. No point. Tessa’s the face of the class.

[Thank you,] I thought.

[Thank you for cutting the last thread with your own hands.]

She hadn’t given me that chance in my last life. Back then, I stood up and tried to stop her, which turned me into an accomplice in their eyes—a witness, a traitor who refused to cooperate. Everyone’s anger suddenly had somewhere to land.

This time, she cut me out on purpose.

I was a bystander. I was innocent. I was the girl who was “too good to need cheating.”

I turned a page.

Brielle leaned in and whispered something to Sienna. Sienna smiled and nodded, keeping her voice low, but not low enough.

“Relax. My cousin connected us with the team outside. They’ve been doing this for four years and nothing’s ever happened. They take jobs all over the country. They’re pros.”

Pros.

I remembered the news segment I’d heard in the jailhouse visitor area in my last life. A massive SAT fraud ring had been busted.

The organization had been running for five years and involved more than two thousand students. The ringleader got seven years.

The supplier who provided the equipment got five.

Every student caught up in it had their scores canceled and was barred from future test mains, and eleven enrolled high schoolers ended up facing criminal charges of their own.

That report aired in September.

Three months after the SAT.

Which meant the “never hit a snag in four years” team finally crashed and burned this year. Not because a student reported them. Not because a school caught on.

They got swept up in a federal crackdown.

In my last life, I stopped Sienna, so she never joined in. She never got caught in the fallout.

I saved her life.

And her way of repaying me was to have Grant shove me down a stairwell.

Without thinking, I drew a circle on my scratch paper.

“Tessa?”

At some point, Grant had turned around and draped himself over the back of his chair. “What are you thinking about? Zoned out?”

“The last math problem on the practice set,” I said casually.

He laughed. “You actually have to think about that? You could solve it with your eyes closed.”

“Exactly. I’m trying to figure out how to solve it faster, so I can leave more time to feed you guys the answers.”

I was smiling when I said it.

Grant blinked, then burst out laughing. “Since when did you get funny?”

Still grinning, he turned back around and knocked fists with one of the guys in front of him.

I smiled too.

Just in the opposite direction.

At lunch, I went to the administration office.

Not to report anyone.

I filled out a form, the seating confirmation sheet for the SAT testing center. Every student had to verify their testing room and seat assignment.

I wrote my name neatly on the signature line and confirmed my placement: Building C, Room 201, Seat 07.

Room 201 in Building C was a standard testing room, far away from Sienna’s assignment in Building A, Room 105.

Different buildings. Different floors. Different frequency range.

In purely physical terms, I had zero intersection with this scheme.

Once I finished, I handed the form back to Mr. Bennett.

He pushed up his glasses and glanced at me. “Tessa? The top student?”

“Yes.”

“Do well this weekend. The teachers are all counting on you.”

“Thank you, Mr. Bennett.”

I stepped out of the office and ran straight into Sienna coming down the hall.

She had her phone in hand and was typing something. When she saw me, she looked up and smiled.

“Tessa, what brought you to the admin office?”

Her tone was casual, but there was a flicker of wariness deep in her eyes, nearly imperceptible.

“Just confirming my testing room,” I said, lifting the receipt copy in my hand. “Didn’t want to show up at the wrong building.”

Her shoulders relaxed.

“Oh. Same. I’m in Building A, Room 105. Pretty far from yours.”

“Yeah,” I said. “It is.”

I stepped aside to let her pass.

As she moved by me, I caught the scent of gardenia perfume, exactly the same as last time. That smell had once made me think she was my friend.

Now it only reminded me of the metallic tang of blood.