Chapter 441:
Being reduced from a top student in her hometown school to nothing more than an average one here was a humiliation Zaylee could hardly endure.
She didn’t even glance at the list of students admitted to the Advanced Honors Class. Deep down, she already knew her name wouldn’t be there.
Frustration and shame weighed so heavily on her that she wanted nothing more than to walk away in silence. But before she could move, a classmate beside her suddenly shrieked in disbelief. “Oh my God! Is this for real? Melany from our class got into the Advanced Honors Class by special exception!”
“What the heck? Not only did she avoid failing, but she was admitted to the Advanced Honors Class by special exception?”
“The list even states she got full marks on the additional questions and identified two logical errors!”
One astonished voice followed another, each reaction louder than the last. Zaylee stood frozen in place, her body stiff as she turned to look again, disbelief etched on her face.
It felt like a heavy blow had struck her skull, leaving her mind ringing and her face numb.
How could this possibly be true?
The surrounding noise swelled around Zaylee, every word pricking at her ears like deliberate mockery.
Even with Letty tutoring her tirelessly day and night, she still failed to outdo Melany—a so-called dunce tutored by Rylie, who used to rank at the very bottom. Yet now, Melany’s results far surpassed hers, securing a place in the Advanced Honors Class that felt painfully out of reach.
The blow hit Zaylee hard, a deep ache settling in her chest.
Lᴬtєѕτ chᴀρτєrs ιn g𝓪lɴovєl𝓈.𝒸о𝓂
Suddenly, another voice rang out sharply, cutting through the murmurs. “Wait a second! Why didn’t Zaylee even make it into the top ten? Isn’t Ms. Carter her tutor? She’s got a PhD from overseas, doesn’t she? And her father—Rory, the renowned doctor from the military district? He’s famous in the medical field!”
“How can someone with such a top-notch teacher not even reach the top fifty? That’s completely illogical.”
“What’s illogical about it? If she failed to do well, then she simply failed.”
Zaylee felt her chest tighten painfully, each breath a battle against the suffocating weight of humiliation bearing down on her.
Then, a flicker of realization cut through the haze.
She recalled the day a friend mentioned seeing Rylie escorting Melany to dine with the principal and several teachers from the Advanced Honors Class. Normally, only the top ten students were admitted, yet Melany, who had placed fiftieth, had somehow been accepted as a special exception. Could that dinner really have been the reason? How could something like that be acceptable?
Zaylee bit down on her lip, the despair clouding her eyes giving way to sudden, unsettling clarity.
Everyone knew how notoriously difficult the extra questions for the Advanced Honors Class were, and students throughout Crolens had seen it firsthand. Each year, these questions were posted online, studied and admired by countless netizens for their complexity.
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