Chapter 461:
Letty tried to find comfort in the thought that Rylie would keep the questions within senior-level material. If that held true, Zaylee should be able to answer. After all, every bit of it had come from her lessons.
Rylie’s gaze swept calmly over Zaylee, devoid of mockery but filled with a knowing indifference.
She reached for the microphone. Her voice rang out, firm and composed. “Zaylee, listen to the question.”
Rylie presented a question of standard difficulty for the Advanced Honors Class, similar to the type of extra questions at the end of the monthly exam. Even the solution path was straightforward. The right derivative formulas would do.
As soon as Melany heard it, she knew what to do. Without hesitation, she grabbed her pen and scribbled out the steps with clarity. Zaylee, on the other hand, blinked at the board, lost in a fog.
Rylie scanned Melany’s work, nodded, and passed it along to the teachers nearby. A few Advanced Honors instructors looked it over and silently agreed. Zaylee didn’t speak.
She hunched over her paper and filled line after line with equations. Each attempt strayed further from the last.
By the time the paper was taken, her arms had gone limp. She already knew the answer was wrong. The shame settled in, heavy and cold. But she wouldn’t go quietly.
“Maybe the question was rigged. What if she and Melany practiced it together before today?” Her voice trembled. “Melany solved it too fast.”
Rylie gave a quiet laugh and turned toward Letty. “Ms. Carter, do you agree?” Letty didn’t reply. Her mouth had gone dry. But she didn’t look at Rylie. Her eyes were locked on Zaylee.
Zaylee’s work appeared on the screen. Rylie asked the technician to bring up a copy of the last major question from the recent exam.
Her tone remained even. “This problem follows the exact method used in the first major question from the last exam. You scored ninety on that one, Zaylee. I assume you solved it yourself?” She paused briefly. “I only swapped out a few numbers. So why can’t you solve it now?”
Zaylee had nothing. No words came to her lips. No reason made sense. The silence crept in slowly, dragging the room with it. All eyes stayed on the screen. On the left side flashed Zaylee’s current answer — messy, broken, filled with steps that contradicted one another. On the right was her old exam solution. Each step precise. Each number correct. As if written by a different hand.
Rylie didn’t raise her voice. But her words sliced clean through the air.
The contrast on the screen was brutal. Even the underclassmen watching from the back could understand what had just been revealed.
“Do I need to explain more?” Her tone stayed quiet, but Zaylee flinched. Rylie didn’t wait for a reply.
She lifted a finger and pointed to the board. “You used the same method before. Only the constants changed. But back then, the work looked like it came from a trained scholar. And now?” She let the silence settle again. “Zaylee, is this what you meant by doing things on your own? Is this what you called a solid foundation? Tell me. Where exactly did that earlier answer come from?”
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