The AI Shortcut

Looking at Carly Monroe's face, flushed with excitement, I rolled my eyes inwardly.

What none of them knew was that I'd ranked first in my major for three years straight and won every national scholarship available to me. Back in September, I'd already made it through multiple rounds of selection for a competitive summer program and received direct admission to graduate school at Hawthorne University, one of the country's top schools.

The only reason I still spent every day at the library was to help my advisor review research from leading academic journals ahead of time—and, while I was there, help Carly study when she hadn't even managed to make sense of the GRE syllabus.

"Fine. I can't stand seeing any of you succeed." I looked calmly at Carly, completely unfazed. "If you really think AI can get you guaranteed admission to a top university, then take your time discussing it. I'll leave you to it."

I turned toward my seat and began leisurely packing my bag.

"Stop! Who said you could leave?" Preston strutted over and slapped a hand down on my book.

His expensive cologne hit me before his condescending expression did. "Anders Dawson, if you apologize to me in front of the whole class right now and admit you're just bitter because you're jealous, I'll be generous and let this go. When I secure everyone's spots, I'll even get you one at Hawthorne University. How does that sound?"

"Yeah! Hurry up and apologize to Preston!"

"Preston's way too nice. Even after all this, he's still willing to help Anders!"

"Anders, don't push your luck! You won't get another chance like this!"

Carly came over too and grabbed my arm. She lowered her voice, speaking as though she were doing me a huge favor.

"Anders, stop being so stubborn. Preston has this once-in-a-lifetime access to such an amazing opportunity. Just apologize and back down a little. Then the two of us can go to grad school together at the same university. Isn't that a thousand times better than staying up every night studying?"

I shook Carly's hand off in disgust and looked at her like she was trash.

"No, thanks. Your miraculous shortcut is way out of my league. I hope everyone in the class gets accepted without a hitch."

With that, I zipped up my backpack and headed for the study room door without looking back.

Behind me, Kendra, the class president, shouted furiously, "Girls! Someone as toxic as Anders doesn't deserve to be in our class! I say we kick him out of the class group chat right now!"

"Agreed! Kick him out!"

"Let him take the exams all by himself! Next year, when we're all holding acceptance letters from top universities, we'll see how hard he cries!"

I'd barely stepped through the door when my phone vibrated several times in a row.

[You have been removed by the group admin from "Class of 2027 – Group 3".]

For a second, I was so speechless I actually laughed.