Chapter 1

Wendy Anderson, our college exam prep teacher, stood at the front of the classroom and praised my cousin, Millie Fitzgerald, with undisguised pride. "Once again, the top scorer on our third college entrance practice exam is Millie, with an impressive score of 678! Keep it up, Millie!

"At this rate, you'll have no trouble getting into Hargrave or Westbridge!"

Meanwhile, the moment her gaze fell on me, her expression turned cold, and her eyes filled with contempt. "Of course, someone else has been just as consistent as ever. Still dead last!

"Ella, you never cease to amaze me! You scored 3 in math? That's barely above the minimum! I'd be too embarrassed to tell anyone if I were you!

"Why don't you go lay bricks for a living? At least then you wouldn't drag down the class average!

"You and Millie are cousins, yet you're worlds apart! One of you is up in the clouds, while the other is down in the gutter!"

Wendy continued her tirade before angrily flinging my exam paper at my face to vent her frustration.

My classmates wasted no time joining in the mockery.

"I'm dead! 3? That's practically the lowest score possible! I could fill in random answers and probably score 30!"

"Poor Millie! Imagine having a cousin like her. I'd be embarrassed to have someone like that in my family!"

"She's got the brains of a pig and can't even pass a test! What makes her think she'd be any good at laying bricks? Give me a break!"

Utterly mortified, I clenched my fists so tightly that my nails dug into my palms. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and disappear.

Wendy spent a full 10 minutes humiliating me. Only after she finally grew tired of berating me did she allow me to return to my seat.

Relieved that the ordeal was over, I picked up my exam paper and turned to leave the front of the classroom.

Before I could walk away, Millie spoke up with a faint, amused smile. "Come on, everyone. Don't be so hard on my cousin! Sure, she only scored 3 in math, but that just means she has plenty of room for improvement.

"Besides, she seems to work pretty hard. She often studies until midnight at home, and she even memorizes things while walking around..."

Millie deliberately emphasized the words "3 in math" and "work pretty hard."

Her remarks immediately drew everyone's attention back to me.

Wendy raised an eyebrow in contempt. "She works hard? Please! I'd say she's just pretending to!"

My classmates burst into even louder laughter, and their cruel remarks rang in my ears.

"Exactly! If she really worked that hard, how could she score so poorly?"

"3? Of course she's got plenty of room for improvement!"

...

My face burned with humiliation, and a deep sense of injustice welled up inside me.

I wasn't pretending to work hard. I paid attention in every class and took meticulous notes without fail.

While everyone else ate, I worked through practice problems. While they rested, I memorized vocabulary.

Yet no matter how hard I tried, I could never seem to earn a high score.

Every time I took an exam, I felt confident that I'd done well. When I estimated my score afterward, I was always certain I'd earned at least 630.

But my actual results were always a crushing disappointment.

At first, I suspected the teachers had graded my papers incorrectly. Yet the handwriting on every paper was unmistakably mine. Worse still, after each exam, my mind would go completely blank. I couldn't remember what I'd written or even which questions I'd answered.

Over time, I began to doubt my own abilities. I even wondered whether I was under some kind of curse.

Desperate to ward off any evil influence, I'd even visited a temple to pray, but nothing had worked.

Just when I was at my wit's end, I unexpectedly heard Millie's voice.

'Lol, that idiot Ella still has no idea! I've bound myself to the Reap the Rewards system! The harder she works, the higher my scores get! I hope she works even harder!'

I froze and whipped my head around to stare at Millie.

Her lips hadn't moved at all!

Then what I'd just heard... could that have been her inner voice?