Chapter 2

The others chimed in too.

"I want to study with the great Selene too!"

"Selene, you're too kind. If you tutored outside of school, you could easily charge hundreds an hour."

"There's always someone better out there. Summer, you can finally take a break and focus on yourself."

I watched everyone crowd around Selene and shower her with praise.

My chest ached as if a needle had pricked it, yet at the same time, I felt strangely relieved.

"Sure," I agreed without hesitation.

Maybe it was for the best. For the past two years, I had stayed up until dawn organizing lecture notes, sacrificed my own study time to answer questions, and paid for printed materials out of my own pocket. I was sick of all of it.

I said nothing more, but the class president approached me in private. "Selene's just blunt. Don't take it to heart. Still, everyone wants to raise their scores quickly.

"Why don't you improve your methods? If you can be more efficient than her, we'd still rather study with you. After all, we've got two years of history together."

I laughed. Even a backstab had to sound like they were doing me a favor.

Who they chose to study with was none of my business. I had people of my own who genuinely wanted to learn from me.

"No," I refused without hesitation.

The class president turned around and made an announcement to the class. "From now on, tutoring is Selene's job. Summer, fill Selene in on everyone's academic situation so she can get up to speed.

"Also, let's have Selene take over as study group leader. She's kind enough to tutor everyone for free. It wouldn't be right to leave her without a title."

I had founded that study group and led it for two years, yet a single sentence was all it took to kick me out.

I did not fight for it. I only gave them one word. "Okay."

Denise Austin, the classmate who sat beside me and whom I got along with well, poked me. "Summer, don't be too upset."

The classmates sitting nearby crowded around too.

"Summer, don't take it to heart either. Selene came from a top school in the city. Her methods are bound to be more reliable."

"Yeah, nobody meant to replace you. Everyone just wants to raise their scores quickly. The college entrance exam doesn't leave us any time to waste."

"You've worked hard for the past two years too. You might as well rest now. With Selene leading us, you don't have to bother anymore."

They called it comfort, but every word was a veiled provocation.

Fortunately, none of it bothered me in the slightest.

I put away the half-finished math problem set on my desk and packed up to leave for the day.

Good materials and carefully organized problem sets deserved to go to people who actually valued them.

Denise saw me packing up and asked, "Summer, why are you leaving so early today?"

I answered flatly, "It's just the normal time school lets out, isn't it?"

That left the whole group speechless.

School officially let out at 6:00 p.m. I had commuted from home for the past two years, yet because I tutored the entire class, I had never once gone home on time.

Every day, I stayed behind until 10:00 p.m. to work through problems with them and answer their questions. Then I walked home alone in the dark with only a flashlight to light my way.

On my way home, my phone suddenly buzzed with a friend request. It was from Selene.

Selene: [Summer, it's Selene. Send me the study materials you used to tutor everyone, along with the print shop you usually use. I want to compare prices.]

She added a hugging emoji at the end, as if the two of us were close.

The sheer absurdity of it almost made me laugh.

She had publicly dismissed my tutoring as useless. Now she was demanding every resource I had poured my time and effort into, as if she had every right to them.

At first, I typed out a long paragraph because I wanted to argue back. After a moment's thought, I deleted every word.

In the end, I only sent her links to the materials I usually used.

Not long after, Selene's messages came flooding in.

Selene: [What?! There's this much? I'd have to work through every single problem myself and organize everything. How much time would that waste?]

Selene: [And it's all so expensive. Am I supposed to pay for this myself?]