“Wait.”
I stopped her.
“The monthly exam results came out today. Don’t you have any questions you need help with?”
She froze mid-step, staring at me in disbelief.
“It’s not just you, if anyone in Class Thirteen has trouble with their studies, they can come ask me.”
I draped an arm over their shoulders with a smile.
“We’re a team now. And if we’re going to survive here, we need to stick together and help each other improve. Don’t you think?”
In this world, the odds of someone from a rough background climbing the social ladder were nearly impossible—like winning the lottery.
More often than not, people like Sophie and the others, ordinary students from struggling families, neither exceptionally talented nor privileged, had to fight just to survive.
For them, simply making it through each day took everything they had.
And yet, they still had to endure the oppression and humiliation of people like Nicholas.
“But why should they?”
In the dim light of the equipment room, I met their eyes—flickering with a growing spark like embers flickering in the dark.
I looked at them and spoke, enunciating every word.
“This world was never meant to belong to the privileged few. It belongs to us—the ordinary people.”
…
The next day, Nicholas didn’t show up at school.
I knew why. The Scott family’s internal power struggle had reached its peak.
He had far bigger problems to deal with than tormenting me, which meant I could take over Class Thirteen’s self-study period without any interference.
The time that Nicholas and his gang would have spent making a spectacle of themselves, disrupting the class and ensuring no one could study in peace became my time.
I got the chance to tutor the others.
In both my past and present lives, I poured everything I had into learning.
I stayed up late, burning the midnight oil to compile key exercises and problem sets.
After printing them out, I distributed them to the class.
They threw themselves into the work, solving problem after problem.
Whenever they got stuck, they noted their questions down, collecting them into a list.
The next day, I would go through each one and explain them in detail.
During this time, Nicholas’ usual lackeys tried to stir up trouble.
They laughed and splattered paint across my neatly written notes on the board, then turned to me with smug, taunting expressions.
“Don’t think you can do whatever you want just because Nick isn’t here. The day he comes back will be the day you’re finished.”
At my silent cue, Sophie’s deskmate, a girl named Jenna Smith, quietly walked over and locked both the front and back doors of the classroom.
Then, one by one, the students stood up.
They slowly stepped forward, closing in on the troublemakers.
“You guys still don’t get it, do you?”
I raised my cup, then swung it with full force, smashing it straight into the face of the ringleader.
