Chapter 3

Last time, my homeroom teacher, Ms. Gracie Evans, had handed me an application form for direct admission into Hayward University.

I could choose not to sit for my SATs and get myself enrolled in Hayward straight away. However, in my past life, I wanted to prove myself and chose to forgo the application and just sit for my SATs.

Now that I thought of it, I realized that I had been stupid. If I'd just filled in and submitted the form, then none of the drama would have ever happened afterward.

But of course, I never would have known in my past life that Melinda had a score-swapping system bound to her that would swap out her SAT scores for mine.

There were no what-ifs in the world. However, now that I was given a second chance at things, why wouldn't I change the outcome?

I headed to the teachers' room and found Ms. Evans, explaining my situation to her.

Ms. Evans immediately handed me the form with a huge smile on her face.

"You've finally thought it through! I told you that you didn't need to sit for the SATs before. Your regular grades and scores are already way past the minimum acceptance threshold for Hayward. Why even bother with the exams anymore?"

Ms. Evans genuinely cared about me. There weren't many good students in her class, and I was one of the very few.

I smiled at her and said, "Ms. Evans, I still plan on sitting for the SATs even after filling in this form. Even though the final SAT scores don't really count anymore, I would still like to go through with the motions and procedures.

"If not, I'm afraid that the other classmates will feel resentful toward me.

"Besides, if I took the SATs with the others, I'm sure that they would also study harder too. That way, everyone will be motivated to ace their exams together."

Didn't Melinda want my SAT scores? She could have it for all she wanted.

I refused to believe that she would get any good results this time.

Ms. Evans patted me on the shoulder and nodded her head in approval.

"You're the best student I've ever taught. You're even still being considerate about your other classmates now!

"I agree with your suggestion. Let me talk to the principal about it."

I nodded at her with a smile.

Soon, it was the SAT examinations, and Melinda came early in the morning to wake me up for school, checking all my documents and stationery thrice before letting me go.

Mom was so touched when she saw this.

"Look, Lisa. Linda is being so nice and considerate about you. She hasn't even packed her own things yet, but all she's thinking about is just you!"

Melinda lowered her head and blushed lightly.

"It's the least I can do for her, Mom. Lisa's grades have always been the best. I'm sure that she'll be able to get a really good score this time!"

Her words of "affirmation" toward me moved Mom to tears. She pulled Melinda into her arms and hugged and kissed her many times.

"You're such a good little sister, Linda! You're also my biggest pride!"

Melinda humbled herself and said, "I'm not that good, Mom. Not as good as Lisa, anyway. My grades are terrible and nothing like hers, always the top of the school!"

Mom hugged her tighter and patted her on the head.

"You're too kind, Linda. Lisa's just slightly better than you in her studies, but she loses to you in every other aspect! You're so kind and considerate all the time, just like an angel! Sometimes, I feel like you're the only one who's really our daughter!"

I'd also been Mom's daughter for close to two decades, and yet, nothing I did could ever measure up to a "fake" daughter like her.

I shook my head and chuckled, turning around to leave for school.

Melinda's voice rang out after me.

"Make sure you do your very best in the SATs, Lisa!"

Of course, Melinda. Of course I would, for her sake.

…

I let out a huge yawn in the examination hall. Then, I slumped onto the desk and fell asleep under everyone's astonished gazes.

I'd been playing computer games till late every night, and I was really tired and exhausted.

In my past life, I'd put in so much of my time studying and revising that I didn't even have time to watch TV or play any computer games.

I was supposed to be enjoying the last year of high school as a senior with the rest of my friends, and yet, I had insisted on being a study robot the entire time instead.

I wanted Mom to be proud of me. I wanted her to brag about me whenever she brought up her daughters with relatives and outsiders. However, I never thought that everything would end up being attributed to Melinda instead.

This life, I was going to thoroughly enjoy myself by throwing caution to the wind. I hadn't expected it to actually be so much fun!

Halfway through my nap, the invigilator woke me up with a shake. She looked at me worriedly and said quietly, "Hey, this is the SAT exam hall."

I nodded in understanding.

When she saw that I still didn't look like I was going to write anything down on my paper, she reminded me again gently, "At least write something other than your name and student ID number."

I did as I was told and finally flipped open the question paper.

Today was a Math paper, and I just wrote a single "1" on the answer sheet.

Then, I got sleepy again and went back to my nap.

I could hear the invigilator sighing and the other students gasping around me.

…

Melinda was obviously a lot more anxious than I was for the SAT score release date.

She kept trying to find out how I did ever since the end of the examinations, even going to find Ms. Evans and asking her about my estimated score.

After learning that I had an estimated score of around 1300, she finally heaved a huge sigh of relief.

However, today was the most important day for her as it was the official release date.

She didn't even bother checking her own results and sat diagonally behind me, waiting for me to check mine first.

I asked her, "How did you do?"

She said, "Not too shabbily. I at least wrote something down for every question."

I nodded. "That's good."

The better she did in the SATs, the higher my score would be.

At the strike of 12:00 pm, I keyed in my name and student ID on the website.

When my score appeared on the screen, Melinda literally jumped to her feet in deep shock.

"400? You got only 400 out of 1600? How?"

I looked at the number on the screen and chuckled.

"Whoa. I didn't know that they still gave you 400 marks for just writing down your own name and nothing else on the paper."

"No, wait! This can't be! This is impossible!" Melinda screamed. "How could you possibly have gotten a 400?"

She was practically on the verge of breaking down. She kept pacing back and forth and grabbing her hair in frustration, checking and rechecking the website for my name and student ID and making sure that they were all correct.

Still, the glaring number on the screen was still "400" no matter how she looked at it.

Mom was also aghast at my score. She stammered, "L-Lisa? Is this really your score?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I kept getting full marks for every exam I took. I thought I wanted to see if I could get the lowest marks possible this time instead."

"Are you out of your mind, Melissa Bolton?" Melinda screamed at me. "This is the SATs! The college entrance exam! The scores that will determine the trajectory of your life!

"Weren't your scores supposed to be estimated at 1300? How the heck did you end up with a 400 instead? Have you gone absolutely nuts?"

Her loud screaming also shocked Mom. This was the first time she'd ever seen Melinda for who she truly was, behind her usual facade.

I cocked my eyebrow at her and said, "I never told anyone about my estimated score. How did you know about it?"

Melinda was caught. She opened her mouth to explain, but after stammering for a while, she didn't manage to get a single word out.

At the same time, the number on my screen was slowly changing to another score.