Chapter 85

The first lesson of the day was math, taught by John Everton. Class 18 was usually well-behaved during John's lessons. John returned the papers he had marked to the students. He rubbed his temples with a troubled expression at Lily's paper before calling out her name, "Lily Brooks." She went to the podium to retrieve her paper. He patted her on the shoulder and offered some concerned advice. "Math isn't that tough. You can master it if you put in the effort. Do you want me to offer you some extra tuition?" He was in the dark about Lily's entrance exam scores. According to Joseph, Lily did pass Ember Creek's entrance exam, but teachers across different subjects had been discussing her poor academic performance lately. In fact, she had scored zeroes for most of her papers. John refused to believe in their words until he marked her math paper. Lily clearly did not know how to solve even one of the math questions. He checked in with the teaching assistants, who informed him that Lily