Reborn as the Romance Heroine, I Only Aim for First Place Chapter 01

Reborn as the Romance Heroine, I Only Aim for First Place Chapter 01

When I woke up as the second-ranked student in my grade, the homeroom adviser was trying to talk me into a peer-tutoring arrangement with the guy sitting beside me.

“Wyatt’s grades aren’t great, and since you two know each other, it would be good if you helped him out when you can.”

The System’s voice suddenly blared in my head.

“Tessa, say yes! Wyatt Hale is the second male lead!”

“He may not like you now, but after you go through every kind of physical and emotional torment, you’ll win him over, and he’ll fall in love with you!”

“Once that happens, you can ride his coattails to an easy life!”

Wyatt let out an impatient scoff.

“Who asked for that? I don’t need her help.”

The next second, while the System screamed in my head, I said calmly, “No, ma’am. Tutoring a struggling student that far behind would waste my time.”

“I refuse.”

***

The moment I finished speaking, the entire office fell silent.

The girl beside Wyatt frowned.

“How can you say that? We’re classmates. We’re supposed to help each other.”

“Do you not care about your classmates at all?”

I glanced at her.

This was Chelsea Carter, the villainous supporting female character in this novel.

I unexpectedly transmigrated into this romance novel world and became the female lead of the story. Chelsea is my cousin in name.

The System had once told me the direction this world’s story would take.

During senior year, Chelsea had moved into the female lead’s family’s house so she could stay in the right school district while preparing for the SATs and college applications.

But her father was a degenerate gambler, and her mother spent most of the year running around with another man. The more Chelsea saw how wealthy and happy the female lead’s family was, the more jealous she became, until her resentment turned into outright malice.

The female lead had basically grown up with the primary male lead and the second male lead, and they had always been on decent terms.

But after Chelsea showed up, both male leads gradually started siding with her under her calculated manipulation. They even put the female lead through physical and emotional torment for Chelsea’s sake.

Only at the very end did they finally realize what a genuinely good person the female lead was. Then they abandoned Chelsea one after another and launched into full groveling redemption arcs.

I was supposed to be the female lead who suffers endlessly in the future.

But now, the System panicked. “Why aren’t you following the plot?”

I ignored it and asked, genuinely confused, “Why should I help him?”

Chelsea argued as if she had every right to, “You should help him because you have good grades. Isn’t helping other people your responsibility?”

“Besides, tutoring Wyatt would let you review the material too. It would help your own studying.”

My gaze landed on Wyatt.

To be fair, the second male lead looked exactly like a second male lead should.

He was handsome, with thick brows and bright, sharp eyes. There was a rebellious edge to him, and he had the standard school-bad-boy look down perfectly.

The female lead had known Wyatt since middle school. Back then, they had sat next to each other in class and gotten along pretty well.

Later, Wyatt’s family went bankrupt. He gave up on himself, spiraled into becoming the school bad boy, and once passed out by the road after getting hurt in a fight.

The female lead was the one who found him, bandaged him up, and called 911. Unfortunately, she was called away right after that.

When Wyatt woke up, he saw Chelsea passing by and thought she was the one who had saved him. From then on, he fell for Chelsea and believed she was innocent and kind.

For Chelsea, Wyatt decided to start studying seriously so he could go to college with her.

Unfortunately, Chelsea’s grades were mediocre too, so she came up with a plan to make me tutor Wyatt.

They were certain the female lead would agree.

In the original plot, the female lead really did agree. Because of her old friendship with Wyatt, she wanted to help pull him back on track, so she worked herself to exhaustion tutoring him.

In the end, Wyatt’s grades finally improved, but he never appreciated it.

Instead, because Chelsea hated the female lead, he repeatedly targeted and bullied her.

I truly could not understand how Chelsea’s brain worked.

“I have good grades because I’m smart and I work hard. Your grades are bad because you’re stupid and lazy. What does that have to do with me? You’re not my kids.”

“Besides, given how far behind he is, he’d probably have to start with elementary-school math. Reviewing something like one plus one equals two would be completely pointless for me.”

Chelsea was furious. “How can you say that? You’re insulting your classmates!”

Wyatt pulled Chelsea behind him protectively and said in a low, menacing voice, “This has nothing to do with Chelsea. She was only trying to be nice. What gives you the right to talk about her like that? Apologize to her.”

I laughed.

“First of all, I’m not singling anyone out. I’m simply saying that both of you standing here are idiots.”

“Second, I came to school to study, not to tutor people.”

“If you need help improving your grades, I suggest you go home and hire a private tutor instead of always trying to get classmates to work for free.”

Then, without waiting for Chelsea to respond, I turned to my homeroom adviser.

“Ma’am, if I had time to spare, I’d be happy to help other students.”

“But the SATs are coming up, and I need to focus on my own prep. I’m sure you don’t want them dragging me down either.”

My homeroom adviser thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

“You have a point.”

I was ranked second in the grade and basically Harvard-or-MIT-bound.

There was no way she would risk dragging down my scores for a struggling student.

“I thought you had all discussed this beforehand. Since that isn’t the case, we’ll drop it.”

Then she looked at Chelsea sternly.

“Tessa Jensen earned her grades through her own hard work.”

“It’s good that you want to improve, but you can’t hold other students back. From now on, do not bring this up again.”

Chelsea stared at her in disbelief. “But—”

Wyatt snapped, embarrassed and angry, “Who said I wanted tutoring from her? Does Tessa Jensen think we can’t study without her?”

“That’s great. The world does keep turning without any one person.” I nodded at him.

“Good luck, Wyatt.”

Then I gave him a cheerful little thumbs-up, turned around, and left.