Chapter 3

The next morning I came downstairs.

Bruce and Wendy were already sitting in the family car.

They'd been horsing around, but the second they saw me they both turned their faces away.

Neither said a word.

"Miss, why don't you take the front seat."

I nodded and reached for the passenger door.

Wendy tossed her bag onto the seat first. "Sorry, my bag needs that spot. If you want a ride, go book your own."

Then, chin high, she ordered the driver.

"What are you waiting for? Drive."

The driver gave me an apologetic look, but he did as he was told.

The car pulled away in front of me.

Exhaust drifted up into my face.

I stepped back on reflex and bumped into a solid chest.

I turned, and Jayden's flat, unreadable face filled my view.

"I'm headed the same way. Want a ride?"

Before I could answer he'd already gotten in.

The window came down, his sharp profile in view. "Are you getting in or not?"

"Oh. Right."

I pulled myself together, opened the door, and climbed in.

The whole way there, it was very quiet.

When the car reached the school gate, I pushed the door open to get out.

He tossed a bag of breakfast into my lap.

"For you."

I looked back, startled.

He acted like nothing had happened at all.

"Thank you."

I took the breakfast and got out.

On the way to the administration office, whispers came at me from every side.

"I heard she's some country relative the Gilberts dragged in."

"One look at her and you know she won't even pass the entrance exam, and she's got the nerve to think she can get into Westfield Prep."

"You know the teachers who proctor the exams are strict. Last time some newly rich guy tried to buy his good-for-nothing son a spot and it didn't work. The dean chewed him out so bad the man cried."

...

In my last life, my sister had been sent to this school too.

She didn't last a single day before withdrawing.

She transferred to a vocational high school out in the suburbs.

That was how welcome people like my sister and me were here.

But then, who was I.

In my last life I was a famous test-taker.

Recruited straight to the top national university at sixteen.

At eighteen I skipped several grades and got into Harvard on special admission.

A little high school entrance exam.

Hardly worth mentioning.

The entrance exam was scheduled for an hour and a half.

I finished every answer sheet in under thirty minutes.

Turned my paper in early.

The proctors froze for a second.

And when they learned I'd turned in an unprecedented perfect score.

Wendy and Bruce panicked and ran straight to the dean's office.

"That's impossible. She must have cheated!"

In front of everyone, Wendy pointed at me, dead certain. "Sir, you don't understand. Carla is a poor relative my grandfather insisted on bringing in from the country. The education she got out there was terrible. She can't even solve a basic high school math problem."

"How could she possibly turn in a perfect paper?"

"She must have cheated!"

Bruce rushed forward and grabbed my hand. "Carla, at this point, are you still going to lie your way out of it?"

"Apologize to the teachers, now!"

"You've completely disgraced the Gilbert family!"

The room broke into chatter.

"I did not cheat!"

While the standoff dragged on with no one giving ground,

Samuel, the third Gilbert son, arrived and slapped me across the face without a word.

"You little wretch! Who taught you to cheat?"

"Just as I thought, you picked up bad habits out in the country and dragged the Gilbert name through the mud!"

My cheek flared with a fierce, stinging pain.

I held my ground. "I didn't cheat. It's my first time here. I don't know a single person in this room. How would I even cheat?"

"If you don't believe me, Uncle, you can have the teachers check the exam-room cameras, or give me new questions to answer. I'll do either one."

"Only, if it proves I did nothing wrong, then I'll ask you to apologize to me in front of everyone."