Chapter 2

This time around, Liam and Mia couldn't even be bothered to keep up appearances.

Liam leaned against the locker next to mine, reeking of a heavy mix of marijuana and sour tequila.

Mia clung to him like she had no bones.

She shot me a smug look before turning back to Liam. "Baby, didn't you say you had something to tell Chloe?"

Liam finally looked at me, a mocking smirk tugging at his lips.

"Honestly, Chloe, hanging out with you is like being stuck in a damn prep class. It's boring as hell. Mia makes me feel alive. She's actually fun."

"Stop bothering me. Even pretending to tolerate you is a waste of my time."

"Excuse me."

Ignoring his taunts, I pulled my textbooks from the locker and walked away without looking back.

I threw every ounce of my time and energy into my AP classes and prepping for the Hackathon.

Dying had erased too many of my high school memories.

In my last life, as long as Liam won, I never even entertained the thought of taking first place. But this time, if I wanted to get into Stanford and win this competition, I had to rebuild my entire foundational knowledge from scratch.

While everyone else was still sleeping at dawn, I was grinding through practice exams. During lunch, I locked myself in the computer lab to review underlying algorithms. Every night, I stayed up late memorizing dense, complex algorithmic models.

During the school's Hackathon qualifiers, Liam's demo crashed completely on stage. Confronted by the judges, his answers were irrelevant and his logic was an absolute mess.

Meanwhile, the solo AI model I submitted ran flawlessly.

When the results were posted, Liam had been outright disqualified. I, on the other hand, took first place in both the Hackathon qualifier and the AP Computer Science midterm.

It was the first time my name wasn't listed underneath Liam's.

Shortly after, Mia and Liam sparked a massive fire during a secret party.

The incident spiraled completely out of control, prompting full investigations by both the school board and the police.

Richard Walsh—school board director and Liam's father, intentionally summoned me—the new top student—to the office, clearly using my success as a weapon to humiliate his son.

The moment Liam and Mia walked in, a heavy crystal ashtray went flying, grazing Liam's forehead before shattering against the floor.

"You brain-dead, drug-addled moron!" roared a furious Richard.

"Illegal substances! Arson! How many more times are you going to drag the Walsh family name through the mud?!"

Pale with terror, Liam subconsciously took a step back, yet still stubbornly shielded Mia behind him.

"Why are you yelling at him?" Mia shot back without a hint of fear.

"The fire was an accident! Besides, Liam is sick of your suffocating elite expectations. He just wants some freedom!"

Richard let out a dark, furious laugh, glaring at her bitterly. "A clout-chasing parasite who feeds off the bottom of the barrel and extreme internet drama actually has the nerve to lecture me about freedom? You used your cheap, vulgar tricks to drag the elite heir I cultivated into a weed-reeking piece of trash!"

Mia wasn't entirely unfazed. "Why don't you directly ask your precious son what he wants? He did all this willingly! If you can't keep your own son on a leash, don't use me as a punching bag!"

"Cut off all ties with this woman immediately," Richard ordered, refusing to even look at her as he issued his ultimatum to Liam. "Then get the hell back to your desk and study!"

"No!" Liam yelled, gripping Mia's hand tightly. "I will never abandon Mia! I'm going to take care of her for the rest of my life. I swear to you I can make it big on my own in this life!"

Richard stared fiercely at his delusional son, his chest heaving violently.

After a long pause, he suddenly turned around, his sharp gaze locking onto me as I stood silently in the corner.

"I seem to recall a time when you were little, swearing up and down that you were going to marry Chloe and go to a top university together. So why now must you follow an influencer and set your own life on fire?"

The moment those words left his mouth, every nerve in my body went taut.

This had absolutely never happened in my past life.

Before, Richard had nothing but contempt for a working-class girl like me.

He only tolerated my presence next to Liam because I was a useful sidekick.

Thanks to my constant interventions last time, Liam had managed to maintain at least a façade of competence, so Richard had never once brought up that ridiculous childhood "marriage promise" in public.

But this time, because I had washed my hands of him completely, Liam was spiraling into the abyss much faster. Seeing things spiral so drastically out of control, Richard didn't hesitate to drag me right back into the center of the chessboard.

Liam snapped his head toward me, glaring with raw hostility.

In an instant, it was as if he'd found the perfect scapegoat for all of his spectacular failures.

He clenched his fists, his eyes locking venomously onto my right eye. "You're the rat who told on us, aren't you?"

"I guess the punishment you got back then was too light. Still hasn't taught you to mind your own damn business."

"Shut your mouth, Liam!" Richard snapped, cutting him off ruthlessly. "Chloe hasn't said a single word! Campus security, the fire department, the cops were all there—the police report is literally in the news! Do you seriously think I need an informant to tell me what happens?!"