Chapter 4

I let out an incredulous laugh.

The sheer audacity and double standards of this boy were staggering.

I crossed my arms, looking around the gathering crowd.

"You publicly accuse me of theft, and when you're proven wrong, you demand I apologize to her? What kind of warped logic is that?"

Thankfully, there were plenty of sane people in the crowd, and they immediately spoke up for me.

"Seriously! That girl was just standing in line minding her own business, and he started screaming at her for no reason."

"Are they trying to mess up her head before the test? Smell their breath. They reek of alcohol! Who gets drunk the night before the SAT?!"

"And that Lilah girl was clearly trying to frame her earlier, and now she's playing the victim!"

Seeing the tide turn against her niece, Mrs. Frost cleared her throat hurriedly to defuse the situation.

"All right, all right! It was just a misunderstanding. You're all classmates. Let's not make a scene."

"The SAT is the priority today. Everyone, get inside the testing hall!"

Carter shot me a venomous glare, as if saying, You got lucky this time.

With the drama temporarily settled, the line began moving quickly.

Carter turned to Lilah, holding his hand out with a relieved smile.

"Lilah, we're up next. Give me my ID."

Lilah tilted her chin up playfully.

"Nope! You have to read the special note I wrote for you before I give it back!"

Carter chuckled softly, playing along.

"My bad, my bad. I'll read it right now."

Right there in front of the testing hall, he opened the folded love letter she handed him and began reading it with a silly grin.

The surrounding students exchanged bewildered, disgusted looks.

Are you serious? We're about to take the SAT, and you're reading a love letter in the check-in line?

Five painful minutes crawled by before Carter finally finished reading.

Lilah smirked, finally satisfied.

She unzipped her backpack and began rummaging through it.

A few seconds later, her hands froze. A flicker of sheer panic crossed her face.

A terrible dread struck Carter's chest, wiping the smile clean off his face.

"Lilah... stop messing around. Give me the ID!"

Cold sweat beaded on Lilah's forehead. She couldn't say a word.

Carter completely lost it. He snatched her backpack out of her hands, dumping everything onto the sidewalk.

Lipstick, notebooks, pens, perfume bottles...

There was no ID.

Only Lilah's own photo ID lay on the concrete.

Carter's eyes turned bloodshot. He grabbed Lilah's wrist with brutal force.

"Lilah Bennett! WHERE IS MY ID?!"

Terrified by his manic rage, Lilah trembled, stammering.

"I... I think I might have accidentally left it at home..."

"Carter, don't yell at me! You're scaring me... I didn't mean to!"

Carter's world shattered. All the color drained from his face as he dropped to his knees on the pavement.

"Lilah... of all the things to mess with, you messed with my SAT ID?!"

He roared in her face.

"If you know you're an idiot, STOP DOING STUPID THINGS!"

Right at that moment, a group of our classmates stumbled up to the gate, looking like walking corpses.

They marched straight toward Lilah with furious expressions.

"Lilah! It's all your fault for pushing us to drink last night! I woke up feeling like my head was being split open with an axe! How the hell am I supposed to test like this?!"

"Same here! If my parents hadn't literally dragged me out of bed, I would have slept right through the exam!"

"You're a walking curse! Everyone who hung out with you is completely screwed today. Only Harper avoided this disaster!"

Their faces were a toxic mix of hangover exhaustion and volcanic rage.

When the parents in the crowd heard that these kids drank before the SAT, they started openly condemning Lilah as a reckless menace.