The teacher patted her on the shoulder with visible pride.
Three students from her class had placed, all with top honors.
It was more than enough to earn her a spot as an outstanding educator-and a shining bullet point on her resume.
Zayden, who had also been called into the office, wasn’t surprised to receive his award.
Given his math skills, it was expected.
But what he didn’t expect… was that Elena had won too.
After all, aside from the last monthly exam, Elena’s performance had always been inconsistent.
“Teacher… what about Sarah?” Zayden suddenly asked, realizing her name was nowhere among the award recipients.
Not even once.
At the mention of Sarah, the homeroom teacher sighed, clearly frustrated. “She failed the exam.”
Zayden froze.
“Sarah? Failed? That can’t be right. There must be a mistake.”
Sarah had always had good grades. Even if her last exam wasn’t great, failing outright seemed impossible.
“I haven’t received the original test paper yet, but I do have a photo of it.”
The teacher then pulled up a photo of the test and handed it to Zayden. “See for yourself.
Also, please tell Sarah to come to my office. I need to speak with her.”
Zayden glanced at the photo.
Most of the paper was blank. The large problems in the back hadn’t even been touched.
Suddenly, a memory surfaced: Sarah’s practice book. It had been completely blank too.
She’d explained it by saying she had already finished a whole workbook and was using the new one just for review.
At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it.
But now… if she’d really done that much work, why had he never once seen her solve a single problem?
Elena, on the other hand…
Zayden fell into deep thought.
He left the office silently, but not before casting a long glance at Elena.
From the dark, conflicted look in his eyes, Elena could tell: Zayden was starting to suspect Sarah.
But to her, that didn’t matter anymore.
She turned and walked away.
Sarah, it’s your turn to explain all those tests I took for you.
…
Class 1.
Zayden stood at the door.
Sarah lit up when she saw him and rushed over to ask why he’d gone to the office, but Zayden spoke first.
“The math competition results are out. Want to know your score?”
Her smile froze.
“Sixty-three,” he said flatly. “I didn’t expect this from you.”
Sarah paled. “Zayden, I…”
“You didn’t take the last few monthly exams yourself, did you?”
Zayden’s eyes were cold, his voice even colder.
It was impossible for anyone’s performance to drop this drastically in just one month.
It didn’t add up.
And he remembered how, on the way to the math competition, Sarah had boasted she was sure she’d win an award.
She’d been so confident.
Yet she failed.
Even a teacher would get suspicious, let alone him.
“I… I just didn’t go to the prep class, so I wasn’t familiar with the test format…”
“And the last monthly exam?”
Zayden pressed on. “You barely passed, and that test was way easier than the ones before.
How did you even manage that?”
Sarah’s expression grew more panicked by the second.
“Or… were you letting Elena take your exams this whole time?”
Zayden didn’t want to believe it.
He couldn’t imagine that sweet, kind Sarah would ever use her sister like that.
“Zayden, it’s not what you think! Let me explain-!”
“I don’t want to hear it. Save your explanation for the teacher.”
Sarah felt her legs weaken.
Zayden didn’t say another word. He just turned and walked back to his seat.
The rest of the class didn’t know what had happened-until a student appeared at the door.
“Sarah, the homeroom teacher wants to see you in the office.”
Sarah stood frozen in place.
Zayden didn’t speak up for her. He simply kept his head down, quietly working on his assignments.
With no other choice, Sarah dragged herself to the office.
…
By the end of the day, the whole school had heard: Sarah hadn’t placed in the math competition.
Even worse-she had failed the test.
And by Class 1’s strict merit-based policy, Sarah’s score would need to be reassessed.
If she couldn’t meet the standard, she’d be kicked out of Class 1.
…
“My daughter? Failing? That’s impossible!”
Evelyn had come storming into the office after receiving the teacher’s call.
No matter how the homeroom teacher tried to explain it, Evelyn refused to believe that Sarah had failed the city-level math competition.
After all, Sarah had always been raised with strict tutoring and private lessons. Her grades had always been solid.
Never in her life had she failed anything.
But now, on the brink of senior year, she had suddenly failed.
Evelyn couldn’t accept the blow.
“There’s no mistake in the results,” the homeroom teacher said calmly. “Sarah did, in fact, fail the exam. As a result, we have to reassess whether she’s qualified to stay in Class One.”
Then the teacher glanced at Sarah beside Evelyn and continued, “Also, we’ve found irregularities in Sarah’s two previous monthly exams. Upon reviewing the test papers, we discovered that the handwriting on Sarah’s and Elena’s answer sheets had been swapped. After comparing the handwriting carefully, it’s clear that the two switched papers, leading to reversed scores.”
She paused before finishing in a gentler tone. “The school has zero tolerance for proxy testing. We haven’t publicized this matter, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Isn’t that right, Sarah?”
Though the homeroom teacher’s voice was calm, her words cut like ice.
Sarah kept her head down, lips tightly pressed together. She didn’t dare look up.
She had never imagined this would be exposed in front of her parents-and by the teacher herself.
“Sarah, is what the teacher said true?” Evelyn’s voice softened, protective. “Don’t worry, honey. I’m here for you. If anyone is slandering you, I’ll fight for you!”
Outside the office, Elena hesitated at the door, not wanting to interrupt while delivering some graded papers.
Evelyn’s bias toward Sarah had been clear her whole life. Elena had always known.
But knowing it in your heart and watching it unfold in person were two different things.
“Teacher, here are the graded test papers from study period,” Elena said, placing them neatly on the subject teacher’s desk.
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