Chapter 3The Firebrand Scholar: Trading the Scaffold for the Summit

The next day, I took the bus to school, following my memory.

As soon as I arrived, I was called to the office.

"Skylar Hayes, you have the brain of a slug! You’re a scholarship student, but you scored like that? You must have gotten lucky in the midterms!"

"Look at your grades! Seven hundred fifty is a perfect score, and you got three hundred. You're twenty-eighth from the bottom!"

"Even if I had a pig take the test, it would do better than you!"

"Our Class 1 is the 'Rocket Class,' not a place for every waste of space!"

"I've already reported this to the grade level dean. Get out of Class 1 right now!"

"Go to Class 11. That's the trash bin where garbage like you belongs!"

I looked up at the Class 1 homeroom teacher, Ms. Williams.

"Heh! That's not what you said when you were taking the check from the Suttons."

Ms. Williams didn't expect me to talk back. Her lips trembled, ready to unleash a torrent of insults.

I reached out and motioned for her to keep quiet.

"Shh! I'm just a poor student now. I have nothing to lose."

Ms. Williams' face shifted several times, but she ultimately kept her mouth shut.

Under her gloomy glare, I slowly walked away.

At the same time, I had already guessed the reason for her actions.

The Sutton family must have put in a word.

Did they think this would crush me into the dirt, preventing me from ever getting back up?

They severely underestimated me.

In my previous life, I gained knowledge by listening outside a classroom window while tending cattle.

This life was already so much better. It was just a change of classroom.

To me, this was an insignificant distraction.

And the Sutton family would eventually regret their actions today.

I wasn't in a hurry. I had a long life ahead of me.

They could just wait and see.