Chapter 70: First Place

Everyone had heard about the bet between the two class advisors that morning, and the mood was low. Few people seriously followed the text reading.

Rachel, the part-time literature class representative, saw that everyone was unwilling to properly memorize their books. She slammed the table and sternly said, “What are you all doing? None of you are studying properly. What will you do when the exams start next week? Do you want to fail?”

Someone commented, “Who wants to lose? It’s just because someone in our class is dragging us down.”

Rachel, unable to tolerate anyone bullying her deskmate, immediately confronted her, “Who are you saying is holding us back? Make it clear.”

Maureen Perez retorted defiantly, “Who else could it be but Myrna? If it weren’t for her, how would our boss have ended up clashing with Ms. Fowler and making a bet?”

“Was Class B targeted at Myrna? Class B was targeted at our entire Class A!” Rachel leaned on the podium, her face red with anger.

At that moment, Ramon stood up, slammed his book onto the desk, and his gaze swept across the class, lingering on Maureen for a few seconds. Then he said, word by word, “What are you arguing about! Don’t you want to win? Don’t forget, we are all from Class A, we are a team. If we win, we all win; if we lose face, we all lose face.”

Chapter 71: You Should Worry About Yourself

“Back then, who didn’t want to win?”

As he asked this, the students from Class A lowered their heads. No one responded; even Maureen hung her head in guilt—she also wanted to win.

Ramon noticed the class had quieted down, everyone’s attention returned to him. His defiant gaze fell on Myrna. He said, “Myrna, you just transferred here, so it’s normal that everyone doesn’t know your grades. You’ve seen the scores from every test in this class; what rank do you think you can achieve?”

“It’s not that we don’t trust you; we’re all in the same class. You should give us a number so we can have a clear idea. Those who need to go home and catch up on their studies in the next few days should do so, in order to try and bring your and Adrian’s scores up.”

Adrian hadn’t come to school yet. Once Adrian arrived, Ramon would communicate with him privately. After all, Adrian’s previous grades were available, so there was no need to worry too much. The focus was on Myrna.

How many points Myrna could score was very important. Myrna had been leaning against the wall, playing with her phone. At Ramon’s words, she looked up, seemingly pondering for a few seconds.

She hadn’t thought about how many points she should aim for before. Her usual habit was to get a mediocre score—it was easier that way. After all, she didn’t want to stand out; it’s troublesome! But now…it seemed impossible.

Seeing that she hadn’t spoken for a long time, Ramon, considering her relationship with Rachel and assuming her grades were poor, softened his tone. His gaze held no blame, only encouragement. “It’s okay if you didn’t do well on the test. I, Rachel, and everyone else in the class will all work hard to help improve your grades. Ms. Benson has really gone all out for us this time; we don’t want to let her down.”

Myrna squinted, sweeping over the dozens of eager eyes in the class looking at her. For the first time, she felt a sense of responsibility. She opened her blank textbook, thought for a moment, and lazily said, “Let’s go for first place, then.”

Ramon: “Boss, were you not fully awake?”

Ramon was the first to react, his expression serious, his voice lowered. “Myrna, I’m being serious with you.”

Her phone vibrated.

“Dry Martini: Myrna, I was speaking to you seriously.”

Her eyelids twitched violently twice. If she hadn’t been sure that Ramon and Martin didn’t know each other, she would have suspected they were in cahoots. The words spoken were exactly the same!

Myrna tapped her phone, her mind filled with the things she’d asked Martin to look into. Distracted by her thoughts, she responded seriously, “I’m also telling you seriously, I’m first.”

Awesome! It was the first time Ramon wanted to say those two words to someone. Don’t ask; if you ask, it’s the first. The problem is that the consistent top scorer in Class A has always been the top scorer in Melcester Central High School, someone who could also rank at the city level. Has Myrna really figured out the situation?