Chapter 11

No matter how talented Bailey was at learning new things, she was still too new to the game to beat a seasoned player like Stephen. She was basically eviscerated. Stephen was mean too. He didn't care that Bailey was a novice. He gave it his all without showing her any mercy. After losing ten rounds in a row, Bailey couldn't take it anymore. Feeling upset, she scrunched up her face, her lips trembling. Her eyes started misting over. Stephen had cruelly dashed all her hopes of becoming a professional gamer. Only then did he realize he had gone a bit overboard. "Are you mad?" he asked. "Nope!" she answered. "I should've gone easy on you for a couple of rounds." "I don't need you to go easy on me!" Bailey declared before turning away defiantly. Stephen scratched his head. Be it in his previous life or this one, he had no experience in placating a young woman. "Well… shall we go then?" he suggested. "Yeah." After heading out of the arcade, Stephen hailed a cab and gave the driver Bailey's address. During the ride, neither one of them spoke. Once they arrived, they got out of the cab, and Stephen said with a wave of his hand, "You should head inside now." Bailey said nothing. She simply stood there, looking a little spirited. "What is it?" he asked. "Stephen, I was… a bit mad earlier, but… I'm not anymore," Bailey said before chuckling, a bright smile blooming across her face. "I had a lot of fun today. Thanks for taking me out to play," she continued. Smiling, Stephen said, "Of course. Go on. Head in." The sky was slowly darkening, but the glow of the evening sun glowed like the naivete of a young woman and the stirring heart of a young man. It couldn't be extinguished. Even the gentlest breeze seemed to lift the leaves all the way up into the sky. … When Stephen got home, he found Sara and Jerry sitting on the couch waiting for him. The dining table was already set, and the food was still steaming. They had clearly prepared dinner but were waiting to eat with him. "Mom, Dad," Stephen called out. Sara waved at him. "You've been gone all day. Who knows what you've been up to today? Come on. Wash up, and we can have dinner." "Got it." Stephen saluted Sara before hurrying off to wash his hands. Once done, he took a seat at the dining table. Sara had already started serving the food. Ever since senior year started, Stephen's standing in the family shot up. The three of them chatted pleasantly while they ate, and the atmosphere was a cozy one. As with all families with senior-year students, grades were a perennial topic at the dining table—especially when the mock exam just ended. While loading up Stephen's plate, Sara pretended to ask nonchalantly about how the exams went. Jerry wasn't pleased about that. He rolled his eyes at her. "Why are you asking about it? It's over anyway. Plus, you know what Steph's grades usually are. We'd be thanking our lucky stars if he gets into a top-tier university. Don't tell me you expect him to get into somewhere like Harvard or Yale." Sara glared at Jerry, but she stopped asking Stephen about it. After mulling it over, Stephen decided to play it safe. "I think I did alright, Mom—probably a little better than the previous mock exam." Sara and Jerry both exhaled in relief. If he did better than the previous mock exam, he should be able to get into a top-tier university. Meanwhile, Stephen smiled. He wondered how his parents would react when they saw his true results. As it was, he was employing a trick here by lowering their expectations first. By delivering the good news later, he would be able to make sure they feel even happier about it then. … Sunday passed, and Monday came along. Stephen and Zachary both arrived at their classroom just before the bell rang. They exchanged looks, feeling smug with themselves. Even the smallest things were a joy in high school. During the morning self-study period, Stephen could sense the nervous tension in the classroom. Today, the results of the mock exam were going to be released. Stephen wasn't nervous, of course. On the contrary, he was rather tickled. He figured he could even get into the top ten of his year this time around. Compared to his usual grades, this was an improvement of gargantuan proportions! He'd be going from a middling student to one of the top-scorers. True enough, during the first period, Mindy came in with a thick stack of exam papers and a stern expression. As her heels clacked against the floor, the students tensed up. They were really getting their results now. After marching in with a straight face, Mindy remained silent. She swept her gaze across the classroom, her expression so grim that dark clouds seemed to hang over her head. Everyone's hearts clenched. "Goodness me. She's Mindy Hellspawn, alright. Look at her. She's exuding such an intimidating air," Stephen murmured to himself. Wasn't Mindy going a bit far with her tactics today? Did the class do poorly this time? That seemed unlikely. The fact that he, a student from the honors class, had squeezed his way into the top ten of the year should've been enough to put her in a good mood, right? If even Stephen felt a bit suffocated by Mindy's fearsome presence, Zachary had it far worse. He kept fidgeting in his seat, his complexion pale. He feared getting his name called for doing poorly. The uncanny silence lasted for about 15 seconds before Mindy finally spoke. "Let's start with a summary of the overall results. This time, the class performed a bit better than it did during the previous mock exam. Some of you even performed far better than you usually did, so much so that I could hardly believe it… That being said, some of you did even worse than I'd expected. I won't name names. There's no point. Once the results are out, you'll all be able to see for yourself." She continued, "Also, now that the mock exam is over, you're in your final stage of preparations before the SATs. Now that you're almost there, make sure you don't slack off. You need to do well on your SATs, not just for your parents' sake, but for yours too." As always, after some reminders and admonishments, Mindy started returning the exam papers. She was their language teacher, so she started with those. She called out names, starting with the top scorers, and had the students come up to her desk to take their papers. This process afforded glory to the high scorers and made the lower ones feel pressured to improve. "Ryder, 655… Queenie, 625… Wendy, 605… Natasha, 590… Zachary, 570… Stephen, 505…" Mindy's voice was calm and robotic. She sounded like a recording. When it came to the language subject, Ryder was the best in this class. He had a minor breakthrough by surpassing 85 too. In all honesty, the way Ryder behaved made it clear that many of his family members were government officials. His family could be considered one of the more academically inclined ones in town. Thanks to their influence, he grew up surrounded by books and knowledge too. Even at a young age, he started reading complicated books that even college graduates couldn't quite understand. It didn't matter if he was just putting on an act, or whether he even understood what he was reading. The point was he actually put in the time to do so. In that respect, Stephen admired Ryder's tenacity. Even if to make themselves look good, most high schoolers would simply read a few simple classics—not long-winded and complicated epics that Ryder read. Just how keen was he to make himself appear superior anyway? Upon hearing that he was the top scorer of the class in the language exam, Ryder puffed his chest out like a proud peacock. He even turned around and gave Stephen a taunting look. He'd seen the way Stephen threw herself into his studies lately. Initially, he was worried that Stephen's grades would improve drastically enough to surpass his. He'd be mortified if that happened. But after hearing that Stephen's grades remained the same—at least in language, Ryder felt a lot more at ease. Since the results of Stephen's language exam stayed the same, the rest probably did too. "You didn't do that well, Stephen." Zachary rolled his eyes as well. After the way Stephen had been acting the past few days, he thought Stephen was going to prove himself to be a genius overnight. Yet, that was all Stephen scored. Stephen sensed the derision in Ryder's eyes and saw Zachary rolling his eyes too, much to his amusement. This was merely an age-old trick of building up the tension. He wondered if he should grin and make some kind of scathing remark. Maybe he should say that after three years, the king was finally reclaiming his throne. It was hard for someone to make a sudden improvement in a language subject. Everyone's results were largely as expected, to no surprise. Ryder was a bit miffed by the lack of fanfare. He'd come out on top. Why wasn't he hearing any applause? Why wasn't Mindy praising him? Once Mindy finished distributing the language exam papers, she moved on to math. As always, she started with the top scorer. Everyone was nervous once more. Math was often the most volatile subject in the SATs. After all, a major question could end up costing students tons of points. Most of the time, the ability to complete the toughest questions hinged on that fleeting spark of ingenuity. It was a subject that tested the students' composure as well. "Stephen, 750… Queenie, 655… Zachary, 615… Natasha, 570… Wendy, 545… Ryder, 520…" Overall, the mock exam hadn't been that difficult, but math was still a more challenging subject. "Even Queenie only got 655 for math. I guess math was really difficult this time," one of the students muttered. "Stephen… 750," Mindy repeated as she looked up at Stephen. Everyone in class gasped. They couldn't believe that Stephen got full marks!