All Chapters of Not This Time: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"This is so hilarious! The female lead's whole family is putting on such a show just so they can trick the female side character into thinking that she's a rich girl and give up on herself, all so their real princess can shine.""When you think about it, the side character's life is so tragic. She grew up in a family that only valued sons, got beaten, and even starved. When she finally got into a top high school with grades good enough for MIT or Harvard University and change her fate, these scammers had to ruin everything!""She deserved it! This is all because she kept ranking top of the grade. Because of her, our beautiful, proud female lead can only ever be a runner-up. The male lead and the female lead's family just love the female lead more, that's all!""Exactly! She's just a side character meant to be a stepping stone. How dare she try to steal our female lead's spotlight? She's just getting what she deserves!"Lines of comments flashed by in my eyes.I looked at my hands.

Hence, I never dared to slack off. If I wanted to keep my scholarship, I had to be at the top every year. That was how Tessa ended up stuck as the eternal runner-up.It was also because the little heiress had such a strong sense of pride that I got a chance to step into the world of the rich.However, I was nothing like her. Someone like me, who had to dig myself out of the gutter, would never waste any opportunity.I dragged my luggage into the room and closed the door behind me. I lay down on the bed, savoring a rare moment of peace.Then, the comments popped up again, mocking me as I enjoyed the tranquility."What an idiot! No wonder she's just cannon fodder. She's so quick to believe whatever people say!""Do you think she really believes she's an heiress now? Don't tell me she'll just hand in a blank paper for the SAT later!""That would be perfect! Then the female lead can grab her university offer letter and kick her out. Just imagining that scene cracks me up. It's l

Scott's expression changed, and he said impatiently, "I'm doing all this for you! If it weren't for me, would you have ever gotten first place?"Tessa's eyes were red as she shouted back, "But did I ever ask you to sacrifice yourself?" Scott fell silent, then let out a long sigh. "Can you stop? There's only one week left. This whole farce is almost over."As for me, I didn't feel hurt at all. After all, Scott and I were just using each other.Pretending to be a bad student got me months of close, romantic interaction with the school's heartthrob. It was totally worth it!The mock exams came as scheduled. In both rounds, I kept my scores steady at three or four hundred. It wasn't enough even for a normal university, let alone MIT or Harvard.On the day of the SAT, we were all assigned to different exam halls. Before going in, Scott tried to comfort me. "It's okay. Even if you do badly, you still have me."I smiled and nodded, then turned and walked into the exam room—a place t

Tessa, uncaring of the consequences, immediately started a livestream.On camera, she showed my recent exam scores, focusing on my two mock exams. Neither one even broke 400, and I had been at the bottom of the class.As she waved her ID for the camera, she accused me with righteous indignation. "Lucia cheated! With mock exam scores like this, how could she suddenly become the top scorer?"Online discussions exploded.People started tagging me, demanding an explanation. I just laughed, opened up my private YouTube account, and revealed it to the public. There, I had 99 private study vlogs posted. Every video showed me studying until the early hours, notebooks covered in dense notes, even memorizing notes while I was showering or using the bathroom…I smiled at Tessa. "Actually, I should thank you. If I hadn't spent the past months as an heiress, I never would've had such a great environment to study. And with a handsome guy around to have fun with whenever I got tired of s

"You hear that, Tessa? This is the man you always claimed is loyal to you," I said coldly.Scott froze on the spot, confused why I suddenly brought up Tessa. He didn't understand what was going on until a girl burst out from behind a tree and slapped him hard across the face. "Scott! You actually fell for her? I'm telling you now—she has known everything all along! She knows you got close to her with an agenda! She flirted with you, slept with you, and got close to you just to piss me off!"To her, you're like a cheap host. She played with you when she felt like it. Now that she's done with you, you're even thinking of betraying our families? The Walker and Flores families have worked together for years! Do you really think your family will get anything out of this?!"Tessa turned and glared at me, every word laced with hate and venom. "Lucia, you're just a worthless nobody from the gutter. So what if you got top marks or made it into MIT? My family has money. There are a milli