Chapter 140

As Queenie worked, she marveled at Juniper’s predictions. She had truly pinpointed the most crucial topics. The people who wrote the university entrance exam study guides should just hire Juniper. It would be a game-changer.
At the front of the room, the proctor—a teacher temporarily pulled from the sophomore division-happened to notice Juniper dozing off. Although he’d never had her in class, he was well aware of her reputation, especially the infamous story about her driving the physics teacher mad. He knew her attitude toward her studies was poor and that her teachers had collectively protested her presence.
This quiz was her last chance; if she ranked at the bottom, she’d be expelled. For a student who’d skipped her sophomore year and joined in the middle of her senior year to suddenly get good grades would be a miracle.
The proctor shook his head. She was on her way out anyway. He decided not to wake her, to avoid disturbing the other students, especially the top-ranked student sitting in front of her.
“Tch.” Jolene, whose own paper was half-empty, sneered. Even though she was a poor student herself, she despised those who were even worse.
With expulsion on the line, how could Juniper have the nerve to sleep? What a freak.
Then again, maybe she was just so hopelessly out of her depth that she’d decided to give up entirely.
The thought made Jolene feel a little better. She couldn’t wait for the scores to be posted so she could watch Juniper get kicked out in disgrace.
…
Two and a half hours later, the final bell rang. Juniper straightened her exam paper and waited for the proctor to collect it. When he reached her desk, he did a double- take. When had she filled the whole thing out? It was written on, sure, but he wondered how many points it was actually worth.
“Juniper, why did you fall asleep?” Qadir bounced over to her desk as soon as the papers were collected, his brow furrowed with worry.
“I was bored.” Juniper leaned back, took out her bottle for a sip of water, and popped a candy into her mouth. “Go get Queenie and Dolce. We’re getting fondue for lunch.”
“You got it!” Qadir immediately trotted off to find them.
“Juniper Queenie fell into step beside her as they walked out. “It looked like you finished the exam in an hour today.”
Most people struggled to even finish the essay on the Literature exam in two and a half hours. She knew Juniper was brilliant, but an hour… wasn’t that a bit of an exaggeration?
“Yeah,” Juniper said, stuffing her hands in her pockets. She turned to Queenie with a lazy expression. “I was actually going slow this time. I’m usually faster.”
It was mainly because of her injured right hand. Shanley had told her not to strain it, so she hadn’t written as quickly as she could have.
Usually faster?
Queenie’s mouth fell open, unable to form a reply. This was completely beyond her comprehension.
The afternoon exam was Math, which lasted for two hours. After that, they could go home without staying for the evening study session. Juniper was in high spirits.
Having learned from her morning of boredom-induced napping, she deliberately slowed her pace on the math test. First, she did all the calculations in her head, which took about thirty minutes. Then, she painstakingly wrote each answer on the answer sheet, which took another thirty. In total, she was done in an hour, with a full hour left to spare.
She looked at the clock, exasperated. She’d slept enough that morning and wasn’t tired anymore. But if she just sat there staring into space, her mind would inevitably wander to a certain someone…
After a moment of silence, Juniper took out a blank piece of scratch paper and began to idly sketch jewelry designs.
Perfect. J-Five Studio had been nagging her for new drafts anyway. She might as well toss them a couple of ideas now. Otherwise, their constant whining would drive
her crazy.