Chapter 8
I carried on going to and from school and doing practice papers like usual.
One night, I was so tired from studying that I fell asleep. When I woke up again, it was already dark and all the lights in the school were out.
Suddenly, I heard rustling noises at the door. I quickly hid behind a pile of classroom junk and held my breath.
Then, I saw Emmet quietly open the door and sneak in. Behind him, another man followed.}
Emmet called him cousin and asked, “Did you get the papers?“}
His cousin said, “Yeah. My buddy was the one driving the exam paper transport van. We used a little trick to swipe the papers. The truck’s still stalled on the road. You guys better memorize the answers fast, once you’re done, I need to sneak the papers back without anyone knowing.”
In the darkness, my eyes widened in shock. They actually had the guts to steal the college entrance exam questions!}}
Just when I thought it was just Emmet and his cousin’s cheating scheme, Emmet suddenly opened the classroom door again and called out, “Come in, everyone.”
One by one, silhouettes entered. To my horror, I realized, nearly the whole class had shown up.
Emmet held up the exam papers and said, “Here are the questions. Split into groups of five. Each group memorizes different sections, hurry, hurry!”
Under his command, the classmates rushed to get moving. But soon, they ran into a problem.
They said, “These questions are way too hard! Even if I memorize them, I won’t be able to solve them!“}]
Another student chimed in, “Yeah! We’re all just average students, that’s why we were betting on stealing the test to boost our scores. But if we can’t answer or aren’t sure we’re right, it’s al! pointless!“}
At that moment, someone sighed and said, “Man, if only Jessica were part of this plan. She’s so smart, she’d definitely know all the answers!”
Other student said, “Yeah, Emmet, you and Jessica are close. Why didn’t you get her in on this?”
Emmet frowned, “Use your pig brain for once. Jessica’s so good she can get into Glasgow University or Glasgow Caledonian on her own. Why would she risk cheating?“}
“Besides, I picked you all because your families have connections. We’re stronger in numbers. But she’s just a poor farmer’s daughter, what help would she be?” he said again.
While everyone sighed, someone suddenly spotted my eye peeking out from the pile of junk.
That person yelled, “Who’s there!“}
I instinctively tried to run, but of course, they caught me.>
One of them shouted, “Jessica? It’s you! How long were you hiding? What did you hear?”
‘Idiot, she’s been here a while. She heard everything!” Some of them got so worked up they grabbed a shovel from the back of the classroom and tried to hit me.”
A girl cried out, “She knows our plan. We need to take care of her!“}
“Wait! I have a better idea.” Emmet looked at me and ordered, “Come here. Solve all these exam questions.”
Threatened by the shovel, I unwillingly sat down at the desk.
Meanwhile, my classmates debated what to do with me.
One of them said, “If you ask me, we should just kill her after she finishes. Her family’s got no connections, her dad’s sick, her mom’s just an ordinary village woman. If she dies, no one will care.”
“At least we were classmates once. Besides, killing someone means paying with your own life.” Another voice chimed in.
A boy also said, “Not if there’s a crowd! We all stole the papers so we could cover for each other, using every family’s influence to suppress the truth. That same strategy could work on Jessica too.”
