All Chapters of Banned from The Bus, I Arrived First: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

“Tessa, you can’t get on the bus! I just realized your exam venue is on the east side. Both of our buses are headed west!”On the morning of the college entrance exam, I had barely stepped onto the bus when someone yanked me back down.Arielle Sanders’ grip was stronger than I expected. I stumbled backward and slammed straight into a telephone pole.However, I did not have time to worry about the pain. I hurried to the front of the bus and checked the destination signs. Sure enough, both buses were marked ‘West'.I held out my hand toward Arielle. “If you only realized this now, give me the assignment list for the exam venues. I’d like to confirm.”Her eyes slowly turned red. “I left it at home.”“You actually forgot something that important?”I stared at her, unable to keep my voice from rising. “If you left it at home, how did you even realize my exam venue is different from everyone else’s?”Arielle took two steps back, biting her lip stubbornly.Then, she suddenly raised h

Chapter 2

“Actually, I realized something was wrong around 3:00 am, but I was so exhausted that I accidentally fell asleep. I only remembered just now… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone to sleep…”She just said a few lines, but it was clear she was guilt-tripping me. However, that trick did not work on me.Still, it worked on Dylan and the others.He turned to her and gently reassured her.“How were you supposed to take the exam properly if you hadn't gotten any sleep? Everyone’s responsible for their own exams. It was kind of you to help everyone, but you can’t ruin your own future over it.”Arielle blinked at him, and two fat tears rolled down her cheeks.Dylan’s brows knitted with concern. He pulled me aside and lowered his voice. “Tessa, you’ve been spoiled rotten. You’re selfish, and you have zero empathy. Honestly, I can’t even imagine what it’ll be like being married to you.“Let me make this crystal clear. The Lowe family doesn’t want a spoiled princess like you as their daughter-i

Chapter 3

I sucked in a breath and quickly picked up my phone. The screen was completely black. The glass was shattered beyond repair.“Did you do that on purpose?” I narrowed my eyes and looked up at Arielle.She immediately pulled her hand back and shrank away. “I-I… was just trying to apologize…”Dylan came rushing over and yanked her behind him.“What the hell are you making a fuss about now? She came over to apologize to you, and you dropped your own phone. How dare you blame her? When did you become so damn nasty?”He yelled at me furiously, and the other students gathered around us.“She’s seriously getting worse. She dropped it herself, but she’s blaming someone else.”“Maybe it's the same with this whole exam venue thing."“Before Arielle even started organizing everything, our homeroom teacher had already posted the exam venue assignment list in the class group chat. She’s always so calculating. I bet she saw it, realized her exam venue was different from ours, and deliberately

Chapter 4

“No wonder she’s always bullying Arielle. She’s even making a scene over the exam venue assignments. She’s obviously jealous that Dylan and Arielle have gotten so close.”“She just can’t stand seeing them together. Otherwise, why would she keep targeting Arielle?”“But this is the most important time of our senior year! Even if the Lane family has money, she can’t screw around with the future of our entire class!”Every word reached my ears, leaving a knot in my chest. To them, everything was my fault. However, if I kept arguing, I could end up ruining my own future too.Hence, I said nothing more and turned to flag down a cab.I had barely taken a step when Arielle cried out behind me.“Tessa, don’t go! My parents taught me that you should never owe anyone anything! I’ve already lost everything. All I can do is give you my old phone to make up for yours!”Then, right behind me, she smashed her own phone onto the ground.I turned around and saw Arielle crouched on the pavement,

Chapter 5

When I got my exam papers, my hands were still shaking, my palms slick with cold sweat. I rubbed them hard against my pants until they were finally dry.After taking a few deep breaths, I could faintly hear Mrs. Zane still yelling outside.“Arielle said to head to the west side, so you just went to the west side? Do you people have no common sense? She’s not even a class officer! Why would anything she says be official?“I posted everyone’s exam venue assignments in the class group chat! Not a single one of you checked it. You just took her word for it? Fine! Why are you even here now? They’re not letting anyone into the exam hall anymore!“What good is crying going to do? I’m more upset about this than any of you!"The exam proctor heard the shouting and stepped outside. A few minutes later, everything finally went quiet.I licked my dry lips and forced myself to focus on the exam.When the first paper for English was over, my palms were still slightly damp with sweat as I hand

Chapter 6

I had not thought much of it at first.As long as we were all assigned to Eastside No. 1 High School, the route was basically the same. Whether the driver took me there personally or we all rode a bus together, it made no difference to me.However, right before we got on, Arielle suddenly told me I was supposed to go to the east side while everyone else was headed west.I froze for a moment. It was not because she had gotten my exam venue wrong, but because I had assumed both buses were going to the east side before I ever stepped on.Then I saw the signs on the front of the buses that clearly read 'West'.That was when it clicked. She had done it on purpose.She wanted me to become the odd one out, to separate me from everyone else and send me to the exam venue alone while the rest of the class stayed together, safely riding the bus.She had just mixed up the two sides, east and west.Once I figured it out, I did not want to make a big deal about it. The college entrance exam

Chapter 7

One of the girls shot back at Dylan. “How were we supposed to know she was this clueless? How do you even mix up the east side and west side?!”“Exactly! The only reason we agreed to take the buses was that you said your family would cover the cost of both!”“You two were backing each other up this whole time, saying the buses would make it easier for us to study. And now, we’ve missed an entire subject! The second something goes wrong, neither of you wants to take responsibility!”Dylan’s face flushed, then went pale. His lips moved a few times, but after struggling for words, all he could say was, “She didn’t do it on purpose. She just got it wrong! Do you really have to talk about her like that? She feels even worse about this than you do!”Arielle slowly got to her feet, tears streaking down her face. Her voice was hoarse. “I’m sorry, everyone… This is all my fault… I really did get it wrong. I thought our whole class was assigned to the west side…”I yawned and casually cut h

Chapter 8

Now that the truth was right in front of them, everyone started blaming Arielle instead. Still, not a single one of them stepped forward to apologize to me.That afternoon, I arrived at the exam venue ten minutes early and waited outside the exam hall. The rest of my classmates were there even earlier. Perhaps they had not gone home at all.Just before I went inside, Dylan came running over. “Tessa, wait.”I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye.He swallowed hard before lowering his voice, almost pleading.“Tessa, could you please talk to whoever’s in charge? You’re the only one in our class who actually got to take the first paper. Just tell them we were misled. We didn’t do it on purpose.“Put in a good word for us. Maybe they’ll make an exception and let us retake the English paper?”I gripped the strap of my backpack and let out a quiet scoff. “Dylan, wasn’t it you who said this morning that I couldn’t go to the same college as you and Arielle? “Congratulations. You

Chapter 9

“I already called the school district. They said they’ll look into it. But what good is an investigation going to do? Can it give my kids’ scores back?!”Mrs. Zane kept apologizing with an awkward smile, trying desperately to calm everyone down. However, just like the parents said, an investigation would not change anything, nor would an apology.As the arguing continued, one of the parents suddenly asked, “Where’s Arielle? My kid told me this whole mess happened because of her!”Arielle was huddled beside the exam bus. Her mother, dressed in worn-out clothes, had an arm around her shoulders. Both of them were crying.Dylan stood a few feet away with his head down while his father angrily tore into him.One of the parents stormed over, pointed a finger right in Dylan’s face, and shouted.“You’re the one who kept sticking up for Arielle, right? You two are in this together! My kid told me that they couldn’t get a decent score, and your family promised to pay to send them overseas

Chapter 10

“Tessa, congratulations! I heard you did really well.” Mr. Lowe said as he started to walk inside.My mother came out from the living room, took one look at them, and did not invite them in.Mr. Lowe had no choice but to stay at the doorway. “Mrs. Lane, I’m here because of the two kids. Dylan said stupid things before. He was young and immature. You can’t take what he said seriously.“The engagement should stay as it was. The kids grew up together. We can’t let one moment of impulsiveness ruin their future…”“Mr. Lowe, that’s not quite right.” My father stepped out of his study. “Your son was the one who said the engagement was off. He also said he wanted to cut off all business between our families. And now, you’re saying everything should go back to the way it was?”The smile on Mr. Lowe’s face stiffened. “He was just being immature. Besides, our business relationship wasn’t affected, was it?”My father let out a cold laugh. “It wasn’t affected because most of the business is

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