The Cursed Valedictorian

“Just write whatever you want on today’s SATs. The more mistakes you make, the better. Remember, don’t try to score high.”At the entrance to the exam hall, our homeroom teacher gave us our admission cards while offering this advice.There were over a thousand candidates there. All of them hoped to get into their dream universities and change the course of their lives. However, not a single one of them objected to what the teacher said.The teacher handed me my admission ticket and repeated her advice.I took the admission ticket and assured her, “Don’t worry, Ms. Spector. My grades are so bad that no matter what happens, I’ll never be the valedictorian.”Ever since the first valedictorian committed suicide ten years ago, every single valedictorian in every subsequent class had taken their own lives on the day the exam results were released.The title of “valedictorian” has gone from being everyone’s goal to something people avoided like the plague.Every year, SATs candidates w

Unsurprisingly, my remark caught everyone’s attention.Everyone flooded the chat with messages asking if it was really me. The streamer even sent me a request to go live together.I ignored them and left the livestream.That afternoon, the police came to my house, accompanied by a psychologist.Soon after, the psychologist finished evaluating me and told everyone that I was mentally healthy.In other words, I would not commit suicide for no reason.My parents finally felt at ease.The police officer said solemnly, “Just to be on the safe side, we’ll be staying here tonight to watch over Sophia. You don’t mind, do you?”My parents were terrified that something might happen to me, so they were more than happy to have the police stay.The police officer and I sat on the sofa. We stared at each other in silence.The officer cleared his throat and said to me, “Sophia, you can go about your business as long as you stay within my line of sight.”I nodded and took out my phone. Just

The face had no features. It was a pitch-black void. Only the vague outlines of its features were visible.More importantly, its hands were cold. They were too cold to feel like those of a living person.In that instant, the word “ghost” nearly leapt out of my mind.The hand around my neck tightened even further. I gasped for air. My mouth was wide open.Suddenly, I heard my mom’s anxious voice ringing in my ears.“Sophia!”Hearing my mom’s voice, the figure in front of me suddenly loosened its grip.Before I could even react, it vanished right where it stood.Immediately afterward, the lights in the room suddenly came on.I looked up and realized that Dad, Mom, and several police officers were all gathered around me.Still shaken, I threw myself into Mom’s arms and cried, “Mom, there’s a ghost! He was trying to strangle me!”After waiting a long time, Mom still did not reply to me. I looked up in confusion, only to see a complex expression on her face.Mom hesitated before

My mom was shocked and distressed. It took her a long time before she finally managed to utter a few words.“There isn’t a single girl named Hope Spencer among last year’s SATs candidates.”I retorted, “That’s impossible. We just added each other as friends last night.“Mom, if you don’t believe me, I’ll show you right now.”As I said that, I took out my phone to look for Hope’s contact.I did not have many friends on social media. I only had about a hundred in total.But even among those hundred or so, I searched through my contacts three times and still could not find Hope.Our chat history had vanished into thin air. It was just like the threatening text message I had received on that day.When she saw that I would not give up, Mom could not help but snatch my phone away.“Sophia, don’t do this. Listen to me. You’ll get better soon.”With tears welling up in my eyes, I shouted angrily, “I’m not sick, Mom! Believe me. Hope really exists!“She even told me her brother was m