The Million-Dollar Heart (Percival and Vivienne) novel Chapter 70

For the next two days, the progress of Class Eighteen visibly shot up, and the students were buzzing with enthusiasm.

Even the ones who used to hate going to class were now so engrossed in studying that they didn't want to rest when the bell rang.

Mr. James was over the moon after seeing this. Taking over Class Eighteen had initially been a daunting task, but now he felt like he was on top of the world.

I mean, who wouldn't be stoked to see students, who once couldn't be bothered to study, now making leaps and bounds under his tutelage?

Meanwhile, Vivienne was also up to her eyeballs in work. She personally kept tabs on Class Eighteen's progress. Although she wasn't the one teaching, she had a ton of other stuff to deal with.

Particularly, she was tutoring Charlotte Redwood one-on-one.

Charlotte was lagging way behind the others, so Vivienne had to start from scratch with her.

But Charlotte was sharp as a tack. Once Vivienne taught her something, it stuck. Charlotte's previous problem was simply a lack of supervision. If someone kept an eye on her, she'd ace any test.

On Friday, a school-wide assembly was held.

At the beginning of every semester, the school would hold a big meeting. This one was originally scheduled for Monday, but because Class Eighteen swapped homeroom teachers and got Mr. James, it was pushed back to Friday.

At the assembly, the principal and some top-notch teachers would give speeches.

Lysander Harper invited Vivienne to speak, but she turned him down.

Halfway through the assembly, some people in uniforms walked in. One of them said to Lysander, "Sorry to butt in. We've got a report that one of your teachers has forged a certificate. We need to take them in for questioning."

Lysander was taken aback and stood up. "Are you sure there's no mix-up? All our teachers were hired through proper procedures. Their certificates were verified by the relevant departments. How could anyone have a fake one?"

"We understand the reported person is your new teacher, Vivienne." The man continued, "Where's Vivienne?"

"I'm here." Vivienne, who was sitting with the students of Class Eighteen, stood up and responded calmly.

"Please hand over your diploma. We need to verify it." The man said.

After hearing this, chatter broke out among the teachers and students.

"Is Ms. Vivienne's diploma fake? Forging a diploma is pretty ballsy."

"I heard Ms. Vivienne and Lysander are tight. He personally hired her. Maybe he's in on this fake certificate thing too."

"Oh my God, this is shocking. Lysander always seemed so nice. Who knew he was such a sneaky snake?"

Upon hearing the whispers, Vivienne's face turned serious.

Lysander also looked like he had swallowed a sour lemon.

He had let Vivienne register her diploma to avoid issues with some angry parents. He never thought the authorities would come knocking during a school-wide assembly.

Teachers only needed to register their diplomas, so he hadn't made Vivienne's public, making her stick out like a sore thumb.

Vivienne was not a fan of drama, and he had tried to keep her out of it.

But the authorities showed up at the assembly and aired Vivienne's dirty laundry to the entire school. Clearly, someone couldn't stomach the idea that Vivienne got her job through connections.

Lysander was seething as he thought about this.

Just as he was about to speak, he heard Vivienne speak to the officials, "Didn't you check my info in the system before investigating me?"

The official was taken aback. "We came as soon as we got the report. Please cooperate and provide your diploma."

"Funny!" Vivienne leisurely spoke, with her hand in her pocket, "You got a report, and instead of checking its validity, you came to verify my diploma?"

The official seemed embarrassed but maintained his composure. "We follow procedures. Please cooperate."