Chapter 1

A guaranteed admission spot? Now I was completely dumbfounded.

Before I could even process it, my homeroom teacher, Liam Osborn, sent me a WhatsApp message.

"Courtney Reid, are you in the middle of your exam? There's an urgent notice from the school. Call me back as soon as you see this."

I stared at the message, my fingers trembling uncontrollably. Driven by pure instinct, I dialed Mr. Osborn's number.

He picked up after just one ring.

"Courtney? Didn't the exam just start?" Mr. Osborn asked, his voice laced with surprise.

"Mr. Osborn, my admission ticket was cut into pieces," I replied, my throat dry and my voice so hoarse it didn't sound like my own.

There were two seconds of silence on the other end before his tone turned urgent.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

I gripped my phone, my gaze sweeping over the thinning crowd at the exam hall entrance.

"I'm fine. Mr. Osborn, what was the urgent notice you mentioned?"

He quickly composed himself and replied seriously, "It's about the guaranteed admission spot. Josh came to school yesterday and signed the documents to forfeit his place.

"Everything was finalized this morning. It's been filed with the school district and posted on the school bulletin board. Per the rules, as the student with the second-highest GPA, you automatically take his place."

I froze, my ears filled with the sound of my own frantic heartbeat.

It turned out the bullet comments from earlier weren't hallucinations. Instead, they were hints from some higher power.

Mr. Osborn raised his voice. "Courtney? Are you listening? You need to come to the school right now. The admission officers are coming this afternoon to deliver your pre-admission letter and related documents. We're short on time."

"Okay, I'm on my way."

I hung up and stood there, drawing a deep breath. The panic and despair from moments ago evaporated, leaving only an icy calm.

Josh Hooper and Sara Foster had gone to great lengths to ruin my future, but they probably never imagined that fate itself was on my side.

An hour and a half later, I walked out of the school clutching a sealed file pouch containing all the necessary documents.

Mr. Osborn patted me on the shoulder as he saw me out the gate.

"It's quite a coincidence, really. When Josh signed the papers yesterday, no one could talk him out of it. He was dead set on giving it up. He said he wanted to get in on his own merit so he could go with Sara—"

Mr. Osborn stopped mid-sentence, looking a little embarrassed.

I smiled and said, "Mr. Osborn, I understand. It's his choice."

At 3:00 pm, the admission officers, Norma Doyle and Linda Boyer, knocked on my door. They were right on time.

Both were very polite. The bespectacled Ms. Boyer took a deep red hardcover folder from her briefcase and handed it to my parents with both hands.