Chapter 2

Alyssa's horrible words continued to echo in my ears.

I did everything that I could to force myself to calm down even as scenes from my past life flashed through my mind.

I couldn't figure out what went wrong.

Suddenly, an idea pushed itself to the forefront of my thoughts.

In my past life, Alyssa sat behind me and to my right during the math tournament. It would have been as easy as breathing for her to peek at my exam paper from that position.

Although the math tournament examiners were incredibly strict, Alyssa had plenty of tricks up her sleeve. She must have found a way to copy my answers and intentionally planned it so she would score 20 more points than me. Her goal must have been to break me mentally all along.

I convinced myself that my hypothesis was right.

I leaped to my feet and ran to the office.

"I want to change my seat in the exam hall during the tournament, Mr. Potts!"

I was a math genius, but I was born to an extremely poor family. Everyone in my grade found out about my tragic backstory a long time ago.

I explained to Mr. Potts that I wanted to change seats for good luck. I wanted to maximize my chances of becoming the champion of the math tournament, so that I could use the prize money to pay Mom's and Dad's medical bills.

Mr. Potts immediately sought out the vice principal and successfully convinced him to change my seat to the first row of the exam hall.

Alyssa's seat was in the second-to-last row. There was no way that she could peek at my paper anymore considering the vast distance that separated us.

…

The next day, I arrived at the exam hall bright and early in the morning.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I confirmed that Alyssa's and my seats were far apart.

A few moments later, Alyssa entered the hall. She strode over to me and hissed, "You really are so stubborn, Clara. Well, we'll get our results once the exams are over. You'll be able to witness with your own two eyes that I scored 20 more points than you."

I gritted my teeth and suppressed my rising emotions as I watched Alyssa haughtily saunter away. I was sure that she wouldn't be able to copy my answers anymore since we were so far apart from each other. There was no way she could possibly do it unless she had some kind of enhanced vision.

Since I had already taken the exam in my past life, I still had 30 minutes to spare after I finished answering all the questions.

When the exam was over, I had lunch before returning to the exam hall.

A collective groan erupted from the crowd of students.

"I'm positive that this year's questions are the toughest in the history of this math tournament. I couldn't even solve the first part of most of the questions near the end of the paper."

"Me too. I couldn't understand the questions at all."

"I bet only a math genius like Clara can solve all the questions."

Alyssa scoffed. "You think quite highly of her, don't you? Don't make me laugh. I can easily score 20 more points than her!"

I halted my footsteps upon hearing Alyssa's words.

She was still so fixated on those 20 points!

However, it was simply impossible for her to score 20 more points than me this time since our seats were so far apart. There was no way she could have copied my answers.

Not only was the security in the exam hall very tight, but we were separated by a huge distance. It was impossible for her to peek at my paper.

I was still lost in my thoughts when Mr. Potts strode over to my side, holding the results. His eyes shone with sympathy when he looked at me.

An ominous feeling began to fester in my heart.

I snatched the results from him with quivering hands.

"First place: Alyssa Ford (92 points)."

"Second place: Clara Toland (72 points)."

My head felt numb. I felt as if I had been plunged into a pool of freezing water, a wave of hopelessness crashing over me.

Alyssa had scored 20 more points than me again.

What on earth was going on?