Solving for Ex

Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

cold-hearted ambition

 

“No, idiot, we’re up first. Yes, the first session. Well, is it my fault you didn’t pay any attention in math class? No, I don’t—well, look up the symbols dictionary again. Well maybe if you had spent more time studying with idiot Ashley instead of flirting with her, you would—oh shut up!”

 Then, when she finally shut up herself, I heard a voice, impossibly, coming out of the space she’d pressed inside her ear. Even through the speaker, I recognized the smooth tenor I hadn’t heard, had avoided hearing on my own phone, ever since I arrived back from Thanksgiving.

“No, it’s broadcasting live. You just have to match the problem to what you see in the system screen and read the solution back to me. Yes, including work. Well then learn the goddamn symbols Vincent, I don’t care how, just do it in the next ten minutes! If you want my allowance from the last month, do it and do it right.”

Shit. Oh, shit.

This was how she’d done it all—going so quickly through the problems, without showing her work.

She and Vincent got the answers ahead of time, and he read them to her in her earpiece. And she was perfectly right every single time.

Half of me wanted to duck out of the classroom, go back to the group, and pretend this never happened. The other half of me wanted a confrontation.

The other half of me, somehow, amazingly, won. I stood up tall and stepped into the classroom.

“Hey, Sofia. Sounds like you’re doing some last-minute studying.”

“Oh, I was just…”

“Listen, save your breath. I heard everything, okay? Including Vincent, your little answer monkey via wireless speaker and freaking local broadcast channel.”

“Oh, please. There’s nothing you can prove.”

“No, but I’ve been watching you. At the very least, I can provide some damn compelling evidence.”

“Listen, you little bitch,” Sofia said, approaching me with one perfectly manicured finger outstretched. “Don’t you say a word of this to Brendan. Or anyone. Do you hear me? I’m going to the college I want to go to, and I’m going to be Brendan’s girlfriend, and if Mathletes is the way do both those things, then yes, I’ll steal answers and cheat at anything I want.”

“And if I do say something?”

“I will personally make your life a living hell. So help me, you will regret the day you were born. Thanks to Vincent, I’ve got half a dozen rumors about you in my back pocket, ready to be fired.” Then she leaned in and whispered, “You know, this is all your fault. If you hadn’t turned Vincent down, there’s no way he’d be helping me do this. So don’t blame me, Ashley. Blame yourself. And learn your fucking place.”

 Finally, she backed up, hoisted her bag over her shoulder, and pushed past me out of the room, and back to the auditorium.

I stood there, frozen for half a second. Then, right as she crossed the threshold to the classroom door, a smile swept across my face.

Someone had made my life a living hell before. And that wasn’t even for anything important—just a stupid guy wanting to look good. I couldn’t stand up for myself back then, but I sure as hell could now.

 I was really only about twenty steps behind Sofia. Just far enough to make her think she’d won her little threat-fest, but close enough for me to still catch her and the team before they went on to do boards.