Trapped in a Room with the Top Student for Better Scores Chapter 09

Trapped in a Room with the Top Student for Better Scores Chapter 09

At the end of the semester, we had our state standardized exams.

The day scores came out, our first-period teacher announced that Blair had made huge progress, Full rankings would go up that afternoon.

All through lunch, Blair and her friend sprawled in the back row, talking like the results were already in.

“I’m gonna miss you when you make the AP track,” her friend said.

“I barely even studied.” Blair shrugged, smiling. “I wasn’t that worried about it.”

They talked. I studied.

Her friend couldn’t resist taking a swipe at me, though.

“Look at her pretending to study. She’s freaking out inside.”

“How far ahead do you think you are this time?”

Blair just smiled. She didn’t need to say anything. The look on her face already said she thought the

race was over.

My friend walked back with two water bottles, caught the tail end, and rolled her eyes.

“Are they paying your bills or something? Why do you care so much?”

Right then, someone poked their head in: the main office was looking for Nolan.

The rankings were out.

A few guys around Nolan ribbed him on the way out. “Go claim your crown, genius.”

Nolan waved them off, but he couldn’t fight off the smirk.

He passed my desk and paused.

“Don’t feel bad. Once I’m gone, first place is all yours.”

But the entire lunch break passed, and Nolan didn’t come back.

The chatter in Blair’s corner went quiet little by little until there was nothing left.

He walked back in right before the next period.

His face was blank. He had a crumpled score report in his fist, and he didn’t let anyone near it.

Most people didn’t notice. They cared about their own scores.

The rankings went up, and a crowd swarmed the board.

“Holy crap.”

“First place is Avery, by eleven points!”

“No way. Avery, you’re insane!”

“Oh my God, if she can do it from the regular classes, so can I!”

“Hold on. Second place is Blair?”

In the middle of the noise, a desk slammed. Nolan shoved his hands in his pockets and walked out.

Blair went after him.

He shrugged her off.

“You move up, I drop. That make you happy?”

Nolan rounded on Blair.

“So now you and Avery both make the AP track. What does that make me?”

Blair was crying now.

“Why can’t you just be happy for me? You know how hard I worked. Do I always have to be worse than you?”

“And I told you not to blow off the math section, but you said you had it covered.”

They were getting louder. Heads appeared in doorways from other classrooms.

The dean of students hauled them both away.

The classroom settled.

Blair’s friend leaned forward and tapped my back with a pen cap.

“Avery, how’d you bring your math score up? Can you show me?”

My friend swatted her hand away. “Oh, Mom and Dad are fighting, so you need a new tutor?”

“Whatever. Forget it, then.”

I ignored them and kept working.

Halfway through a problem set, the system chimed in my head.

[Congratulations. Score improvement task complete!]

[Room cycle lifted.]

Then silence.

My pen stopped.

Declan and I had no reason to talk anymore.

No more late nights. No more problems to solve together.

After the after-school study block, I stood at the bus stop.

A few AP guys were talking nearby, and Declan’s name came up.

“Why hasn’t he been at school?”

“I heard he’s not coming back for senior year. Studying abroad or working in some research lab,

something like that.”

“Must be nice having your future locked in already.”

“Plus he’s free to date now, right? Half the school’s been after him. I saw some girl post on the school’s anonymous gossip account that she’d confess to him once she got her acceptance letter.”

I tightened my grip on my bag and got on the bus.

I didn’t hear the rest.

I couldn’t stop myself from pulling out my phone, opening Declan’s chat, typing something,

deleting it. Typing again. Deleting again.

I couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t sound forced.

I sent nothing.

I went home and buried myself in old exams.

I studied until I crashed, slept, and did it again.

The next morning, I fumbled to turn off the alarm and reached for my phone without thinking.

I’d opened Declan’s chat before I was even fully awake.

Still nothing.

Something hollow opened up in my chest.

I didn’t know what was wrong with me.

I swiped out of his profile, annoyed. Fine. I wasn’t going to look at it anymore.

He couldn’t even say goodbye. What kind of person just disappears?

But right as I swiped, I noticed something. His profile picture had changed.

I tapped it open.

It was a little bear in a tiny knitted hat, furiously scribbling its way through a stack of papers.

My little bear.