Chapter 68
Gary looked at Nicole coldly as his eyes burned with disgust and confusion. If one looked closely, one could see a hint of disappointment in Gary’s eyes as well. Nicole did not bother about the way everyone looked at her. She just rested her chin on her hand lazily as she played with her pen.
The class started, and Ms. Emerson walked in with a sour expression. She did not look at Nicole throughout the entire class.
When the class ended, she called Nicole and Gary over to the office. Firstly, she told Gary to work hard and prepare himself for the competition to bring an award back to school. Then, she turned to Nicole and sighed before speaking.
“Nicole, I asked you to join the competition because I trusted your ability. But Mr. Louis told me that you actually scored a zero on a mock assessment. Can you explain yourself?”
Nicole figured that Ms. Emerson looked for both her and Gary because she wanted to talk to them about this issue. Nicole looked up at Ms. Emerson, but a peculiar voice rang behind her when she was just about to speak.
“Oh, Ms. Emerson. Isn’t this the genius who scored a zero for the Math Olympiad assessment from your class? What’s wrong? Are you trying to talk to her?”
It was Mr. Kennedy. He was walking toward them with his thermos cup as he gloated.
“Is there no one else in Class B? One of your candidates is the third-lowest scoring student in the class. The other one is even worse; she actually scored a zero. This has really enlightened me! Why aren’t you pulling your students out from the competition when their levels are this
low?”
The two candidates from Mr. Kennedy’s class were top students in the school: one was the first place and the other second. Mr. Kennedy thought, ‘The Math Olympiad competition award will go to my students!’ He looked at Ms. Emerson even more disdainfully upon having this thought. Ms. Emerson was really angered by him. “I’ve seen how good Nicole and Gary are in Mathematics. Don’t look down on people based on their grades!”
Me. Kennedy could not help but scoff when he saw Ms. Emerson, who used to always swallow her anger, talking back to him. “You’ve got to be clear about this, Ms. Emerson. If you send both of these students to participate in the competition and they get bad results, they will bring down the name of our school. So it isn’t your personal matter!”
Ms. Emerson did not want to give in and wanted to clap back. But when Nicole heard what Mr. Kennedy said, she turned to tell Ms. Emerson, “Ms. Emerson, I want to drop out of the competition.”
Mr. Kennedy heard Nicole and smiled until his small eyes behind his glasses were squinted.” Look at how wise Nicole is. She knows her place. She did not want to trouble the school, so she asked to be pulled out of the competition!”
Ms. Emerson felt an indescribable sense of grievance when she heard Nicole’s fast decision to drop out of the competition. However, when she thought about Nicole getting a zero for the assessment, she perceived that Nicole might not be able to catch up, so she did not want to force Nicole.
Ms. Emerson calmed herself down and said, “Nicole, if it’s too challenging, it’s okay to withdraw yourself from the competition.” Nicole looked at her and smiled faintly, “No, Ms. Emerson. I want to withdraw from the competition because the questions are just too simple. I want to challenge something harder.” After she said that, not only Ms. Emerson and Mr. Kennedy were shocked, but Gary was also stunned.
Subsequently, an unexplainable fit of anger rose within Gary. ‘Nicole is bluffing again! She said the assessment was too easy last time, yet she got a zero in the end!’
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: My Wife Act Differently Behind Me