Chapter 4

"What now, Lily?"

Tyler was the first to turn on her. His lips trembled with anger.

"We all paid in full. What are you trying to pull?"

"Nothing!"

Sweat gathered on Lily's forehead as she rushed to deny it.

Her voice softened.

"I wasn't keeping track. I spent a little too much.

"Just give me some more. If this goes wrong, we're all screwed!"

The classmates who'd been so friendly to her now stared coldly.

"Nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars was expensive enough. You messed up. Why should we pay for it?"

"Aren't there loan apps? Borrow it!"

"Once you get the highest score, you can pay it back with the school's prize money!"

I couldn't help laughing.

Under their watchful eyes, Lily opened one loan site after another until she'd scraped together the money.

The classroom clock read ten in the morning.

Someone entered their candidate number on the results site, eager to watch their future change.

Then footsteps filled the corridor.

"What's going on? Why's my mom here?"

"Wait, is that my dad? He's supposed to be back home waiting for me to call..."

The group at the front of the room broke into confusion.

I cleared my throat.

"Relax. I invited them.

"You're all guaranteed to succeed. Why shouldn't the people closest to you get to witness it?"

The door opened, and the parents came in.

Lily quickly arranged her face into something resembling confidence.

"Please, take a seat.

"I'm sure you remember me. Outside the exam hall, I promised our whole class would do well.

"Now you get to see just how well."

She snatched the fifty sets of answers from my hands.

I laughed inwardly.

While everyone was distracted, I took the classroom key from the teacher's desk.

Then I sat down with the parents and watched the front of the room.

Lily hit Confirm.

The students on the right began convulsing.

One after another, they collapsed.

"What's happening? I thought we were just checking their scores!"

The parents rushed forward in panic.

But the students on the left, Tyler among them, began screaming for a different reason.

"I saw the exam room! Why did it throw me out?"

"Lily, get up! You borrowed the money! Why didn't you take me?"

The parents' screaming drowned them out.

"Honey? What's wrong? Please, don't do this to me!"

"Their hands are getting cold. I can't feel a heartbeat. Somebody call an ambulance!"

Tyler suddenly snapped out of it.

"No hospital! Lily said their souls have to return to the same place. We should leave them in the classroom!"

"What are you talking about? Get out of my way!"

Denise picked her daughter up and hurried toward the stairs.

At the classroom door, her foot caught on the scattered answer sheets.

She fell, taking Lily down with her.

Three scratches opened across Lily's cheek.

At that moment, the big screen at the front lit up.

The overloaded results site had finally responded.

Window after window appeared.

Every classmate's score was the same.

Zero.