"Cordelia."
When Mr. Waldron called out her name, the entire class fell silent, all eyes on the star student, waiting for her grades. Queenie was also waiting, but more so for Cordelia to mess up this time. Instead, what they heard from Mr. Waldron was, "Perfect score—300."
Boom!
The classroom exploded in disbelief.
"How much?"
"Did I hear that right?"
"This exam was a beast. Barely anyone scored over 200, and she nailed a perfect score?"
Queenie was gobsmacked: "There must be some mistake?"
Hearing Mr. Waldron, Cordelia had already stood up, walking towards the front to collect her paper. As she walked back, necks were craning to see her score. Seeing the 300 on her paper, admiration was unmistakable in their eyes.
"It's really 300!!"
"Oh my God, Cordelia is just unstoppable! Never lets us down!"
"Ah, if I could score half of what she did, I'd be over the moon!"
"..."
Listening to the chatter, Queenie felt her face burning up, especially after Mr. Waldron handed Cordelia her paper, then called out, "Queenie."
Queenie shot up from her seat.
She was actually pretty confident about her own results. But standing throughout the exam for an hour and then sitting down, feeling utterly drained... As she was pondering, she heard Mr. Waldron say, "129."
Queenie was in shock: "What?"
She couldn't believe it: "That's impossible!"
She knew she was good at math. Despite feeling off that day, she felt she did well. How could she have scored so low?
The exam was tough, but still, most managed scores above 150. 129 was, so far, the lowest!
Daisy couldn't help but mock: "Cordelia, even standing, scored a perfect. Queenie, what about you? Sitting down and you couldn't even score half of hers!"
Queenie was fuming: "She got 300, what's that got to do with you? For all you know, you might not even score 129!"
As if on cue, right after her words, Mr. Waldron called, "Daisy."
Daisy perked up.
She heard Mr. Waldron say, "180."
Daisy's eyes widened in disbelief.
In this tough exam, getting over 200 was rare, and here she was, scoring 180, placing her in the top ranks!
She couldn't believe her luck: "Oh my God, Cordelia, I must've caught your good vibes! I thought I'd scored 160 at most. Must've guessed a few right!"
As she walked back, passing Queenie, she couldn't resist, "Oops, sorry, just casually scored 180!"
Queenie was seething.
Embarrassed and angry, she clenched her fists. Then, hearing Mr. Waldron call out, "Keen."
Cordelia, having collected her perfect score, was curious about Keen's paper, knowing they both had stood during the exam.
Hearing his name, she looked up at Mr. Waldron, only to hear, "Perfect score—300!"
The class gasped again.
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