Chapter 3

My heart started racing. Excitement filled my chest. I immediately opened the official website and registered as an individual participant.

When a confirmation message popped up on the screen, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

One day before the event, I called Ms. Walker to inform her of my absence. But I didn't tell her anything about joining the competition.

"Ms. Walker, can I request a day off from school tomorrow? I'm feeling a bit dizzy."

Ms. Walker sounded impatient. "It's your senior year, and you're still taking days off? Even a slow learner knows they need to work harder to catch up. But you? You're already stupid enough, and you don't even bother trying. With grades like yours, how can you even justify taking a break?"

She kept chewing me out, and I didn't say a word.

Finally, Ms. Walker said, "I'm not approving your day off," and hung up.

My expression didn't change.

Whatever. She didn't have to approve it. I would still go to the competition even if it meant skipping school.

…

The next morning, I arrived at the exam hall early.

The exam began, and I flipped through the pages. The questions weren't easy, and the later problems even took up half a page.

My palms began to burn. I felt so excited looking at these difficult questions that my scalp tingled.

I started with the first question and worked my way through the rest, barely pausing.

The last problem involved an extremely obscure concept. It was something that even regular competitions wouldn't touch, let alone anything in the high school curriculum.

My mind raced as countless formulas and theorems collided and fused, eventually turning into answers on the paper.

I finished everything with plenty of time left to check my work several times. Then, I turned in my paper with ease.

After leaving the exam hall, I waited for my bus on the side of the road when I suddenly heard someone call out to me.

"Tanya? What are you doing? Did you come for the competition?"

I turned around and saw Tammy and the class president, Ben Moore, then replied, "I was just passing by."

Ben gave me a knowing look and scoffed. "She doesn't even have a spot. She can't get into the exam hall. She's probably just jealous and came all the way here to see what it's like."

Tammy flashed me a smug smile. "Oh, that's too bad. But a national competition like this has very high standards. Not everyone can participate."

After saying that, she left with Ben. They'd only gone a few steps when Tammy suddenly seemed to remember something. She turned back, an apologetic smile on her face.

"By the way, Tanya, it's not that we don't want to bring you along. But the school arranged a special ride for us. It's just not… appropriate for you to travel with us."

I watched them walk away, completely baffled.

Did I ask her? Did I say I wanted to leave with her?

When I got back to the classroom, it was buzzing with activity. Tammy and Ben were surrounded by our classmates, recounting stories from today's competition.

Ben pulled an exaggerated face. "You guys, those questions were so hard! I couldn't even understand them. There were a ton of professional terms that I had never seen before."

Tammy smiled and spoke casually, "Yeah, they were pretty hard. But I'd come across a few of the problems in books I read outside of class, so I managed to solve them."

Someone immediately complimented her, "Tammy, you're amazing! If you really get first place, you'll be admitted into Ashford University right away!"

Patrick smiled too. "Tammy loves solving challenging questions. The competition is a piece of cake for her, unlike a certain someone who can only solve questions she's seen before."