All Chapters of Labeled as Losers, Awakened as Legends: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

"Number-one spot?" Ethan Hoppe stared at me doubtfully. "You're thinking about cheating? No!"He stood up abruptly and raised his hand, wanting to switch places. "I'm not sitting with you." Our homeroom teacher, Janet Bennett, shot him an impatient glance. "You're in your senior year now. You were transferred from the lower-performing class into mine, which has already increased my workload. The advanced class is different from your previous one. Don't bring your old habits here."Faint laughter rippled through the classroom.Ms. Bennett scolded, "What are you laughing at? Watch yourselves. Don't let their bad habits rub off on you."Ethan's voice dropped. "I didn't…"Ms. Bennett looked down at Ethan and me. "Everyone's time is valuable, okay?"Ethan froze, and he slowly retracted his hand.I slouched over my desk and gave him a lazy glance. "Grades are all that matter here. I've been in this class for a month now, and you've only been here a week, so it's normal that you don'

Chapter 2

The class president, Caden Kushner, announced to the room. "Study materials for every subject have been posted to the group chat. Make sure to review them."Voices echoed throughout the classroom.I looked up from the key question types Ethan had marked. "What group? Did you join?"Ethan shook his head. "No."I raised my voice to get Caden's attention. "Caden, we're not in the group yet." When he didn't hear us, I called out again.Caden replied coldly, "That's our class group chat."I pressed on. "Aren't you going to add us?""I don't have permission to add people. You should ask Ms. Bennett."A few student leaders huddled together, whispering among themselves. Every now and then, they glanced our way."One's dead last, the other's second to last. Can they even understand our study materials?""He just got here, and he's already forcing his way into our group chat. Doesn't he know his place?"Anger flared up inside me.Ethan nudged me with his elbow and lowered his voice

Chapter 3

Ms. Bennett stared at me, and I straightened my posture in response."Are you sure you did well?" Ms. Bennett laughed. "You? Do well? I'll believe it when I see it."Then she pulled my papers and Ethan's from the stack of ungraded ones and asked a few teachers to grade them.For a while, the only sound in the office was the rustling of papers.20 minutes later, they were done. Once the scores were tallied, I had come out ahead of Ethan by a single point.The office fell silent as everyone turned to look at Ms. Bennett.Mr. Thorpe glanced at her. "What was the top score on the last school-wide exam?"Ms. Bennett said nothing.Another teacher answered for her. "I think it was the class president from Ms. Bennett's class. His score was just below that."Nothing more was said. But somehow, everything had been said.Ms. Bennett swiveled around to face us, her tone suddenly changing. "Sam Dunn, Ethan Hoppe, how dare you two cheat on the exam?"We were stunned."You were in the sa

Chapter 4

Ethan and I returned to the classroom.Caden was tallying the number of people for the school outing, and everyone had already paid in the class group chat except us."The competition team won't be joining this outing. Everyone, have a good time, okay?"Cheers immediately erupted."Go for it, everyone!""Caden, don't forget to treat us to a meal when you get into a top college!"The chatter stopped the moment I stepped through the door. The same hostile looks returned. This time, they were followed by a confrontation."Did you bully Ms. Bennett?"Ms. Bennett sat silently at the front of the room. She must have told them something.Caden called our names. "Your presence here has seriously disrupted our study atmosphere. All the class leaders voted to put you two in charge of keeping our class' designated area clean."Every class had an area they were responsible for keeping clean. Our class had been assigned to the gym—a huge space that took more than a dozen students to clean

Chapter 5

"We weren't invited on the school outing, so we decided to have some fun here instead."Ethan and I looked totally at ease in our shirts and shorts, unlike the others, who wore tidy uniforms and kept a serious demeanor. Our school competition badges were not even pinned to our chests.It really looked like we were on a school outing.Ms. Bennett's expression hardened, and she lowered her voice. "This is an academic competition. You're making me look bad!""We didn't list your name as our coach, so this won't make you look bad."Ms. Bennett visibly relaxed, but she was still frustrated that we had acted without her permission. "It still reflects poorly on our school! What are you still doing here? Leave now!"Complaints rang out from the class leaders standing behind Ms. Bennett."They were already dragging down our class average, and now they're going to embarrass our school at this competition too.""Why are they still hanging around here? I really don't want to admit they're

Chapter 6

Everyone looked at us like we were idiots."Did cleaning the gym turn you into idiots?" Caden rolled his eyes. "Perfect. I was already dreading the thought of you two representing our class and making us look bad."I gave him a thoughtful look. "Is your class that great? Well, I don't think so. Nobody taught us anything, but Ethan and I got first and second place, right?"The crowd around kept growing. Even teachers from other schools came over to see what was going on.Ms. Bennett tried to keep her anger in check, but soon her eyes reddened. "You weren't even supposed to be in my class! I had to agree because Mr. Thorpe kept insisting. Is this how you repay me? By badmouthing me and disrupting my class? And now, you two joined this competition just to spite me, haven't you? In all my years of teaching, I've never met students as malicious as you two!"Tears rolled down Ms. Bennett's cheeks. She looked utterly devastated.Caden quickly offered her a tissue. "I'll vouch for Ms. Be

Chapter 7

If the first place were disqualified, everyone else on the list would move up a spot. Since Ms. Bennett wasn't going to side with us, the others had no reason not to add fuel to the fire."Yeah, it doesn't make sense.""We all underwent intensive training for half a year or at least three months. These two have never even competed before. How could they possibly take first place?""Did the organizers leak the question to them in advance?"I looked straight into Ms. Bennett's eyes. "Ms. Bennett, you've already slandered us once. Are you going to do it again?"Her eyes flickered with guilt. "You got lucky last time. We've been training for so long. How could you possibly have outdone the rest of them? Something's not right!"Of course Ms. Bennett refused to accept it.We had won first place fair and square. If she accepted defeat so easily, it would mean all the effort she'd poured into her students, all that condescending disdain she'd shown us, had been nothing but a joke.The

Chapter 8

Ms. Bennett's smile began to crack.The crowd who had witnessed the whole spectacle looked at her with knowing smiles.I slowly leaned toward the microphone. "I have no one to thank but myself. I want to thank myself for not giving up when I was shoved into the back row. For keeping up with my studying even after I was dumped with the class' cleaning duties. And for staying confident even when the entire class turned against me."Ethan also flashed a faint, sarcastic smile at the camera. "If there's one real advantage to our school, it's the gym lounge. It's incredibly quiet. No one bothers you, so it's great for studying. But they really should install some AC in there. That way, it wouldn't be so cold when we studied there in the winter."His words sent the room into an uproar. "That's how Cedar High treats its students? They kick them out of class and make them clean, and they can only study in the gym lounge?""I always thought the teachers at Cedar High were pretty decent.

Chapter 9

After that competition, Ethan and I were suddenly the talk of the school. All our teachers started paying attention to us.Keeping a low profile was basically impossible now.Even though I still felt drowsy whenever we covered a subject I struggled with, I couldn't even slip in a little daydreaming because all the teachers were now monitoring me.Then, after class, Ethan and I would race against the clock to work on our weaker subjects.Ethan held up my math test and gave it a once-over. "You got this question wrong too? Sam, you're seriously bad at this."I crossed my legs and picked up his language test, scoffing. "Seriously? I've explained this type of question to you five times already. It's painfully obvious just how terrible you are at this."We kept trash-talking each other, but neither of us slacked off.There never seemed to be enough hours in the day. We had to figure out every problem before we moved on. Practice problems piled up, weak subjects got hammered away at,

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