Chapter 61: Chapter 61: Stealing Her Pen

There hadn’t been an official rule like this before. Teachers would simply assign the better seats to students with good grades based on their personal preferences.

Juliana Taylor’s words sent a ripple of whispers through the classroom. But as the exam papers were handed out, the quiet chatter ceased, and everyone immediately focused on their tests.

When Vera Xavier received her paper, she first gave the questions a quick scan. They covered a broad range of topics and were reasonably difficult. She heard a student in front of her let out a quiet sigh of complaint.

Juliana Taylor announced sternly, “No talking during the exam!”

The classroom immediately fell silent again, filled only with the SCRATCHING of pens on paper.

Vera Xavier got ready to write, but when she took out her fountain pen, she discovered the nib had been split at some point. It was completely useless.

She recalled how Cara Preston had come to her room around eleven o’clock the previous night, pretending to offer help with any questions she might have. They had chatted for a bit, during which Cara had been rather evasive, changing the subject frequently. At one point, Vera had gone to the restroom.

When she returned, Cara Preston had put on a concerned expression and said, “It’s getting late. You have an exam tomorrow, so you should get to bed early!”

At the time, she’d thought it was late too, so she hadn’t bothered to check her things. She simply put the pen in her pencil case and went to sleep.

’Looks like I was too careless,’ she thought. ’Cara Preston really spares no effort when it comes to messing with me. To think she’d even sabotage my pen.’

But what Cara Preston could never have dreamed was that Zachary Preston had given Vera a new fountain pen just that morning.

The fountain pen was new. Vera Xavier took the inkwell she had stored in her desk.

Juliana Taylor’s head snapped in her direction, but when she saw Vera was only getting her ink and not cheating, she just gave her a single glance before looking away without a word.

After filling the pen with ink, Vera Xavier began to write.

Once she started, her pen barely stopped moving. Remembering what Vera had said to her on Monday, Juliana Taylor deliberately circled around to the front of Vera’s desk to watch her work.

One look was all it took for Juliana Taylor to be utterly astonished. Not only was Vera Xavier answering at a rapid pace, but her accuracy was exceptionally high. Every single question Juliana could see, Vera had answered correctly.

Juliana Taylor gave Vera a long, searching look. If her face hadn’t been exactly the same, the teacher would have suspected she’d been swapped with an imposter.

Juliana Taylor recalled Vera’s previously abysmal grades, and she couldn’t help but suspect that Vera had been failing on purpose all along.

Because it included an essay, the Language Arts exam was the standard 120 minutes long. With the experience from her past life, writing an essay like this was second nature to Vera. She was the first to finish, and she turned in her paper immediately.

As she walked to the front to hand in her test, Juliana Taylor glanced at her but still said nothing.

Her classmates’ eyes were filled with mockery as they watched her. In their minds, no one could possibly finish the exam that quickly. Vera must have just scribbled nonsense like she always did.

Juliana Taylor, however, picked up Vera’s paper and looked it over carefully. Aside from the essay, every single question was correct. Even her answers to the open-ended summary questions were practically textbook-perfect.

Her eyes were unconsciously drawn to the essay. With just a single glance, she was captivated. Its theme was distinct, its purpose precise, and its structure perfectly clear. It was one of the best essays she had seen in all her years of teaching.

Without realizing it, she spoke a single word aloud: “Good.”

Every student in the room looked up at her. She cleared her throat and said, “Focus on your papers! Take this seriously! You need to treat every test as if it were the college entrance exam!”

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