Part 3Avoiding the Trap in the Comments

Everyone witnessed me slacking off in school.

When my classmates realized that my score kept getting higher despite my increasing laziness, they initially said that I was simply very smart and gifted. But this didn't seem to achieve Alexandria's goal, and it made her somewhat unhappy.

Then, on my birthday, Thomas suddenly gave me a phone as a gift.

"It's your birthday gift. Do you like it?"

It was the latest iPhone, and I knew that he could never have afforded to buy it for me with his financial situation.

"It's from Alexandria, isn't it?" I asked, exposing him right away.

He didn't hide it from me, though. He just nodded and said, "You've been distancing yourself from me a lot lately. Is it because you're misunderstanding my relationship with her?"

I didn't answer his question. However, he continued explaining, "I'm not in that kind of relationship with her, Lia. She's a good person. See? She isn't just treating me well. She even gave you a gift when she found out that it was your birthday. She's just a really good person overall."

Of course, I was going to accept this free iPhone. If not, then Alexandria wouldn't be able to carry out the rest of her plan.

As expected, rumors soon spread throughout the school that I had sold my body to buy the latest iPhone. Students also began discussing my grades and scores.

"Cecilia always placed second when she didn't have the phone, but the moment she got the new phone, her grades improved drastically. Wanna bet how she managed to 'improve' her grades?"

"What's there to speculate? She cheated, that's that!"

"She isn't that smart after all. Look how much she studied back then! I bet I would be able to score better than her if I worked as hard as she did."

"I bet she was just jealous that she couldn't beat Alex in class, so she resorted to cheating to beat her instead. We'll see what happens during the actual SATs!"

I overheard students saying this in the classrooms, in the toilets, and even at the school cafeteria. After all, Alexandria's father was the CEO of the biggest factory in Addington, and it was too easy for them to spread whatever rumor they wanted, whether true or false.

At this point, everyone began keeping their distance from me. Thomas also stopped walking home with me.

He could have stood up for me and told everyone where I got my iPhone from, but he chose to remain silent.

Judging from how he managed to get such good grades at school by his own hard work, Thomas wasn't a dumb person at all. He could have easily put two and two together—Alexandria giving me the iPhone, followed by the false rumors everywhere—but she still chose not to say anything about it.

While unlocking the door to my home, he suddenly appeared behind me again, seemingly offering me advice as he said solemnly, "Don't let the rumors turn out to be true. Remember, doing well in the SATs is your only way out."

I turned around and smiled at him.

"You're right. Education is my only way out of my current situation. But it's not your only way out now."

For a long time after that, we never spoke another word to each other again and treated each other like strangers.

Thomas just couldn't understand why there was this massive feud between me and Alexandria. But we were different. He was a male student. He was a male student who did well in his exams and had outstanding looks.

As for me, I was just a female student who also did well in my exams, but came from a very poor family.

In the countless days in the past when we didn't walk home together, Alexandria would corner me in the alley after school and lock me up in the public toilets.

I hadn't wanted to tell Thomas about it because I was afraid that he would offend the Johnson family by defending me from her. But now, there was no point telling him about it anymore because he no longer cared anyway.

…

"The SAT results are going to be released today! We all agreed that we'd be checking it together here at the party. Why isn't Cecilia here yet?"

It just took one question from Alexandria to make me the center of everyone's topic once again.

Jennie didn't hold back and said, "Well, since the cheater didn't manage to cheat on the SATs, I bet she's too scared to even attend the party today."

"Don't say it like that. Maybe she flunked her exams and felt terrible about it. We're going to have to properly comfort her later if she comes," Alexandria responded.

Yet, the more she pretended to be kind toward me with her words, the more her admirers would jeer at me.

"You're too kind, Alex. Cecilia can never compare to you. Look at how much of a diva she's still pretending to be at a time like this!"