Chapter 173

“Mr. Baker, they’re here.”
Eleanor stepped aside after speaking, worry written all over her face as she watched the three students in front of her. Shirley and Andrew were being accused of cheating. Charlotte, on the other hand, was facing expulsion because she’d only scored sixty on the exam. All three of them were from her class. If they got punished, she would be held responsible too.
She couldn’t believe Shirley or Andrew would cheat, and the last thing she wanted was to see Charlotte kicked out.
“Mr. Baker, I don’t believe my students would cheat. And about Charlotte’s exam-”
“Ms. Adams.” Ronald cut her off, standing up from his chair. He clasped his hands behind his back and let his gaze wander slowly over the three students, a cold smirk tugging at his lips. “They’re your students. As their advisor, of course you’re going to defend them.”
“Since everyone’s here and Mr. Baker is present, why don’t I handle the questions?”
Eleanor frowned, about to protest, but Mr. Baker spoke before she could. “Mr. Lee, go ahead.”
“Don’t worry, Ms. Adams. I’ll be completely fair,” Ronald said, sending her a smug little glance before turning to Andrew and holding out his test paper.
“Andrew, is this your exam?” His voice was suddenly soft, almost friendly.
Eleanor couldn’t stand the way he sucked up to the powerful and picked on the vulnerable. She turned away, her whole body trembling with anger.
Andrew glanced at the paper. The big red 67 at the top made his eyes go wide. Sixty-seven? He had actually passed?
His first thought was that he wouldn’t have to deal with Anthony’s disappointed looks, and his legs were safe for now. “Yeah, it’s mine. So?”
Andrew had never liked Ronald. The way Ronald always targeted Charlotte made him even more unbearable.
“You think I cheated?”
Ronald chuckled, waving his hand as
if the idea was ridiculous. “No, not at all. You just made a huge improvement this time. The other teachers are curious about how you managed to boost your score so quickly.”
Truth was, since the start of his final year, Andrew rarely scored over fifty in physics. Passing, let alone getting a sixty-seven, was pretty shocking. Plus he’d been hanging out with Shirley a lot lately People were bound to get suspicious.
But Andrew was Anthony’s brother. Ronald couldn’t afford to get on his bad side.
“I did a ton of practice problems and memorized the key points,” Andrew answered honestly. He actually owed Shirley for this. She’d
explained the problems to himel
practically forced him to cram
formulas all night by threatening him with Charlotte.
“Is that so Ronald smiled and randomly pointed to an easy question. “Why don’t you walk me through how you solved this one?”
Andrew shifted, looking bored, and rattled off the solution without missing a beat.
Ronald’s smile faltered. He’d picked one Andrew actually knew.
“And this one?” He pointed to another question.
Andrew answered with the same confidence, explaining it clearly.
Ronald still wasn’t convinced. He flipped to the hardest question Andrew had gotten right and pointed at it. “What about this one?”
“Mr. Lee, if you don’t believe me, I can just redo the whole test for you right now.” Andrew really didn’t want to stand there listening to Ronald drone on, especially with his coffee breath.
Ronald looked awkward, staring at Andrew like he couldn’t decide what to believe. But it really did seem like Andrew had done the work himself.
“Alright, you’re clear. No cheating,” he said at last.
Mr. Baker nodded, looking satisfied. Even though she’d expected this outcome, Eleanor was still a little surprised by how well Andrew handled himself.