Chapter 6

Anna played the victim to win sympathy, and Joseph fell for it completely. His face darkened as he asked, "Did Jessica bully you again?"

"Jessica didn't push me on purpose. I'm just too stupid — my grades aren't as good as hers, and now I can't even enter the competition." Anna sobbed softly, pretending to accidentally expose the ugly wound on her knee. Once she was sure Joseph had seen it, she made an exaggerated show of trying to cover it up.

"How did you fall this badly?" Joseph took the bait and quickly grabbed the first aid kit to treat her wound.

"Joseph, am I really that stupid?" Anna asked quietly, watching him tend to her with his head down.

"Nonsense! You're the smartest girl I've ever met." Joseph looked at Anna with nothing but tenderness in his eyes, while his disgust for Jessica hit an all-time high.

"It's just a competition spot — what's there to be so smug about! Small-town girl who's never seen anything good. Don't worry, I've already taken care of it. Your ranking will be higher than Jessica's!"

"Really?" Anna's face lit up with disbelief.

"Of course. When have I ever lied to you?" Joseph said, patting his chest with full confidence.

Anna got so excited that she threw her arms around him and said coyly, "I knew Joseph always treats me the best!"

It was worth hurting herself to pull this off. The only thing that bothered her was that Jessica had moved out, so she never got to vent her anger directly. That still didn't sit right with her.

Anna turned her head away to hide the dark look on her face.

…………

For two straight weeks, Jessica had been preparing for the competition. Without the Whitmore family dragging her down, she was improving fast — so fast that even her mentor, Marlon Rojas, was taken aback by her extraordinary talent.

If her early education hadn't been so limited, she probably would have been picked up by the national physics competition team long ago. But it wasn't too late, and everything was moving forward steadily.

"Jessica, have you been checking the school forum lately?"

Jessica had stayed in the library until closing time again before heading back to the dorm. Her roommate, seeing that she looked ready to study through the night, felt bad and spoke up.

"No, why?" Jessica turned around. Seeing her roommate hesitate, she asked, "What's going on?"

"You should probably go look." Her roommate didn't want to get dragged into trouble at a time like this, and after saying that, she pulled her bed curtain shut.

Jessica sensed something was off. She took out her phone and opened the school forum. The top trending post had a headline that hit her like a slap: "Shocking! Second-year physics student caught faking grades!"

The post was from an anonymous account, running several thousand words accusing the student selected to represent the school in the domestic qualifier for the International Young Physicists' Tournament of plagiarism and grade fraud — and hinting at an inappropriate relationship with her mentor.

Along with a paper that showed over 80% similarity to her previous research data, the post included several photos that had been deliberately blurred in strategic places — blurred just enough to make people's imaginations run wild.

Jessica was the only student the school had publicly listed as a competition representative. The post had already crossed 100,000 views, and the comments section was going wild.

"Is this real? Jessica doesn't seem like that kind of person."

"You never know. If someone's willing to do whatever it takes, they can get any spot they want."

"I actually feel bad for the person who posted this. Getting treated like that by both of them..."

…………

Jessica scrolled through the comments one by one, her brow tightening.

"Are you okay? We actually believe you — you just need to clear things up." Another roommate noticed Jessica's dark expression and quietly tried to comfort her.

They had all watched how hard Jessica worked. They just didn't have enough influence to do anything, and they didn't want to get caught up in the drama, so they had stayed neutral.

"Thank you." Jessica had only just moved in, and they were barely more than acquaintances, so she was already grateful they had given her a heads-up.

But clearing her name wasn't the most urgent thing right now.

Under the pale glow of her screen, the emotion in Jessica's eyes was hidden behind her long lashes.

The next morning, the moment Jessica walked into the classroom, the noise died down instantly. Eyes swept over her from every direction — some curious, some unfriendly.

"Find a seat quickly, class is about to start." The teacher at the front pushed up his glasses and said impatiently.

Jessica found a spot in the corner. Before she could even sit down, the girl next to her jumped up like she'd been shocked. "I'm not sitting next to a cheating slut!"

Jessica said nothing. She picked up her books and tried to move somewhere else, but other students immediately blocked the nearby seats with their bags and textbooks.

Even after all that, when Jessica still didn't leave, a few students in the front rows lost their patience.

"Can you just get out? If you're already sleeping with your professor, why bother coming to class? You're ruining it for everyone."

"You don't get it — she has to put on a show and pretend everything's normal."

"I feel sick just being in the same room as someone like her."

Everyone chimed in, one comment after another, all pushing Jessica to leave on her own.

"Jessica, as you can see, people are uncomfortable with you being here. Maybe it's better if you step out for now?"

The teacher was a new hire that year. He'd heard about the plagiarism allegations, and seeing how strongly the students felt about it, his attitude toward Jessica was cold at best — he was basically asking her to leave without saying it outright.

Jessica took a deep breath, walked up to the microphone at the front of the classroom in a few quick strides.

The room went quiet, waiting for her to speak.

"Everyone, I—"

Before she could get another word out, the principal's secretary walked in late. "Jessica, Mr. Blair wants to see you in his office."

She had no choice but to leave and head toward the principal's office.

"Mr. Blair, you wanted to see me." She knocked and entered. Her mentor Marlon was already there. When he saw her, he managed a pained smile despite being well past fifty.

"Jessica, I'm sure you've seen what's been going on in the school forum." Emilio Blair paused and let out a long sigh. "Due to the public pressure, the school has decided to suspend Marlon from his duties pending an investigation. We'll be arranging a new mentor to take you to the competition, but the thing is—"

With Jessica at the center of the storm, no one was willing to touch this.

"Mr. Blair! That post is just one person's side of the story — there's no real evidence. You can't suspend Professor Rojas." Jessica was getting anxious.

Being suspended right now was basically the same as telling the whole school that Marlon was guilty of favoritism. That could follow him for the rest of his career.

"Personally, I absolutely believe Marlon is innocent! But there's also no evidence proving either of you are in the clear!" Emilio knew exactly what was at stake, but with things this far out of hand, the school couldn't just do nothing. "This isn't what I want either."

"If I can prove I didn't plagiarize, will the school drop the suspension against Professor Rojas?" Jessica looked up at Emilio, her eyes steady and clear.