After Rebirth My Class Beauty Led Cheating and I Stayed Silent Chapter 12

After Rebirth My Class Beauty Led Cheating and I Stayed Silent Chapter 12

June 20th.

SAT scores came out.

I checked mine at 12:01 a.m., the second the portal opened.

Total score: 1570.

State ranking: eleventh.

A massive leap from my last life, when I had scraped by at thirty-seventh statewide, but I’d also

gone into the test half-broken, isolated by my entire class before the exam even started, with

nothing in my head but fear and resentment.

This time, I had been calm.

This time, I performed the way I was supposed to.

A 1570.

Good enough to get me anywhere I wanted to go.

Mom screamed from the living room, then came running into my room and threw her arms around

“Fifteen seventy, Tessa! Fifteen seventy!”

She shook me by the shoulders so hard my vision blurred and couldn’t help laughing. “Mom, stop,

you’re gonna rattle my brain loose…”

“I have to call your dad! I have to call Grandma!”

Then she tore back out of the room, her slippers slapping against the floor.

I stayed in my chair and looked at the number glowing on the screen.

A clean 1570.

No earpiece. No signal. No outside team.

Just me.

A little after one in the morning, my phone buzzed.

It was a text from an unknown number.

Tessa, it’s Grant New number. Can we meet? Please.

I stared at it for ten seconds.

Then I deleted it.

No reply.

At two in the morning, Delaney texted me.

Delaney:[!!! TESSA WHAT DID YOU GET!!!]

Me:[1570.]

Delaney:[AHHHHHHHHH!!! WHAT WAS YOUR STATE RANK!!!]

Me:[11.]

Delaney:[OH MY GOD!!!! YOU’RE INSANE!!!! I GOT A 1280 AND I’M ALREADY SO HAPPY!!!!]

Me:[1280’s good. You can get into a solid school with that.]

Delaney:[Hehehe right??? Tessa let’s go out tomorrow and celebrate!]

Me: [Okay.]

I set my phone down.

I couldn’t remember what Delaney had scored in my last life. But in this one, she hadn’t gotten

pulled into the storm. She had stayed steady and performed normally.

For her, 1280 was the best possible outcome.

And those forty-two students.

On their score pages, there were probably only blank fields now.

Or one line in red:

Scores Voided

They would have to wait three years before they could test again.

Three years.

More than a thousand days and nights.

Long enough for someone to go from eighteen to twenty-one.

Long enough for someone to go from bright and full of promise to hollowed out beyond recognition.

Long enough to chew on regret a thousand different ways.

I turned off the light.

Then I lay down.

In the dark, I couldn’t see the ceiling above me.

But I knew it was there. Flat. White. Unbroken.

Just like my life.

Unbroken.