Chapter 4

It said the application had been submitted successfully.

The two officers immediately patted my shoulder and beamed.

"There's absolutely nothing to worry about now, so you can relax! We'll see you at Wexford in September, and we'll treat you to the best food on campus!"

But when I thought about what happened at Uncle Wade's house, I still couldn't put my mind completely at ease. "Are you sure nothing will go wrong? I won't end up at some place like Fernbrook Vocational School again, will I?"

Both of them shook their heads right away. "You're overthinking this! This is our school's internal system. Even if something goes wrong, the worst that could happen is a mix-up with your major, and we can fix that later. There's no way you'd end up at a different school!"

Only then did I relax. Surely nothing could go wrong now, right?

But just as we were warmly seeing the two officers out, they got a phone call. Within seconds of answering, their faces changed, and they turned to me in shock.

"The review team says they never received your application. When they looked into it, they found you'd applied to the excavator operation major at Fernbrook Vocational School!"

My head started ringing, and I nearly collapsed.

Mom and Dad frantically asked what was going on, but the two officers were just as confused. "How is that possible? We clearly..."

They exchanged a look and hurried to open the laptop. The moment the application page came up, we were all stunned. My application now listed Fernbrook Vocational School, with a major in excavator operation.

The two officers cried out at once. "This can't be happening! This is Wexford's internal system, so how did Fernbrook Vocational School end up on here? Did someone hack into the system? Who would have the nerve?"

Since this was such a big deal, we called the police right away. Because it involved college admissions, the police took it extremely seriously and immediately brought in several top tech experts to figure out what was wrong with the system.

But in the end, they concluded that no hacker had broken into it.

When I heard that, I nearly lost my mind. If it wasn't a hacker, why did my application keep mysteriously turning into Fernbrook Vocational School?

Fortunately, once the police learned about my situation, they agreed to let me apply through their secure system. When they saw I was still uneasy, one of the police officers took the time to explain.

"This secure system has military-grade protection and stability, and it's among the best in the world. It hasn't made a single error since it went live."

"We don't want to see a promising student like you held back, so we put in a special request for you. Using it for a college application is total overkill, so there's no way anything can go wrong!"

That reassured me. This was the police department's most advanced system, so how could a college application possibly go wrong on it?

Soon, with everyone watching, I carefully filled out my application. After we double-checked it again and again, I clicked submit one last time.

As the loading circle spun, every nerve in my body went taut. This was my last chance, and nothing could go wrong this time.

After a few seconds, the page suddenly loaded, and every choice I'd made went through without a single change. But just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the page refreshed, and my application listed the excavator operation major at Fernbrook Vocational School yet again.

At that moment, I finally broke down completely. I'd used the most advanced system available and prepared for every possibility, so why did my application still turn into Fernbrook Vocational School?

I'd always been a kind person who worked hard and did things the right way, so why was I being punished like this?

Just then, a small detail flashed through my mind, and I suddenly understood exactly what was going on.