Reborn as the Romance Heroine, I Only Aim for First Place Chapter 13

Reborn as the Romance Heroine, I Only Aim for First Place Chapter 13

When I got home, two people were sitting in the living room.

My mother sat on the couch in front of a coffee table piled with fruit.

Chelsea sat beside her with her head lowered. Her eyes were red, as if she had just been crying.

“Tessa, you’re home.” My mother stood up with a smile plastered across her face. “How did the exam go?”

“Say what you came to say.”

Her smile stiffened. Her lips moved, and then she looked at Chelsea.

“Chelsea is young. She did a lot of foolish things before.”

“She was thinking that, since you’re family, she should apologize to you. From now on, you two can go back to being close cousins.”

Chelsea stood up with red-rimmed eyes.

“Tessa, I’m sorry.”

“I was immature before. I shouldn’t have stolen your admission ticket. I shouldn’t have made you cover my cleanup duty. I shouldn’t have said those things. I know I was wrong. Tessa, I really know I was wrong.”

My mother chimed in from the side.

“Tessa, Chelsea has already apologized. Just forgive her. We’re family. Blood is still blood.”

“Chelsea is having such a hard time now. Her father ran off, her

mother can’t be reached, and she’s living alone in that awful place.
She’s so pitiful. You should help her more from now on.”

“Sure,” I said with a casual nod. “I still need to make my final college decision, so I’m going to my room.”

Then I went back to my bedroom.

But very soon, someone knocked on my door.

Chelsea pushed it open.

“Tessa, I actually came to ask you about something else too.”

“My dad gambled away all the money, and I don’t have enough to buy a laptop. Could I use yours for a bit? I want to look up which schools might still take me.”

My mother said anxiously, “It’s just a laptop. Why are you talking about borrowing it? Tessa, get up and let Chelsea use your computer.”

“Sure.”

I agreed so readily that Chelsea clearly froze for a moment. A flash of delight crossed her eyes.

“Go ahead. I’ll get some water.”

Chelsea thanked me at once and hurried inside.

She did not forget to shut the door behind her.

My mother grabbed my hand and lowered her voice.

“Tessa, you really are a good girl. I knew you were softhearted. Chelsea will remember how kind you were to her.”

I pulled my hand back without a word, then turned and walked into the kitchen.

I poured myself a glass of water and leaned against the counter, drinking slowly.

The System suddenly spoke, sounding urgent.

“She’s not looking up schools. She’s trying to tamper with your college enrollment response. She wants to decline your MIT offer and commit you to a community college instead.”

“Go back now!”

I was a little surprised.

“Isn’t this important plot? Why are you telling me?”

The System said nothing.

After a while, it whispered, “I saw how hard you worked. You gave so much to finally earn this score, and I… I just…”

I received the next stretch of plot.

The original Tessa had been devastated by her family, the male lead, and the second male lead.

Studying had been her only escape from reality. She worked so hard only because she wanted to get out of here.

Her scores had originally been enough to get her into Harvard or MIT.

But in the end, Chelsea tampered with her college enrollment response and changed it to a remote community college in Alaska.

The original Tessa had already been put through physical and emotional torment by the male lead and the second male lead. The final blow shattered her so completely that her body gave out, and she collapsed, coughing blood.

But when she woke up, her mother, Evan, and Wyatt were all gathered around her hospital bed.

They told her not to hold it against Chelsea, saying Chelsea was only being childish. They told her to forgive Chelsea.

The original Tessa had no choice but to take a gap year, retake the SAT, and reapply. But the blow had been so severe that she developed major depression, and her grades plummeted.

In the end, she only managed to scrape her way into a mid-tier state school.

After that, she continued to be hurt by the male lead, the second male lead, and Chelsea until the final few chapters, when the groveling redemption arcs finally began.

Meanwhile, Evan and Wyatt never paid any price at all.

“Why are you still standing there?” the System urged. “If you don’t go back now, she’ll be done!”

“I know.”

“You… you know?”

I scoffed.

“Did I even need to think about it? I could have figured out why she wanted to borrow my laptop with my eyes closed.”

“Then why are you still—”

My brow lifted slightly.

“Just watch.”

…

Two minutes later, Chelsea came out of my bedroom.

“Done already? That was fast.”

“Yeah. I just wanted to see what schools were out there.” She smiled.

“Tessa, I’ll go now.”

She hurried toward the door. As she left, she glanced back at me.

The look was brief, so brief it was almost impossible to notice.

But the smugness and malice hidden inside it were nearly impossible to conceal.

I smiled back at her too.