Chapter 45

Alice and Hannah thought that after hearing this, Mason would look into Shermaine’s alleged cheating and hold her accountable. But to their surprise, he just sat there with a stern face, seemingly disappointed with their nonsense. He slammed his hand on the desk and said, “Since you’re all model students, I’ll pretend you never brought up this cheating thing. Now, go back to class.”

No one expected this kind of outcome. Fidgeting nervously with her sleeve, Alice said, “Mr. Moe, we’re telling the truth. You don’t believe us?”

“Yeah, Mr. Moe, if you check, you’ll find something for sure,” Hannah chimed in.

Of course, Mason wouldn’t look into it. After the bet was made, Shermaine might have anticipated that if she scored too high, Mason, the teachers, and all the students would suspect she had cheated. To avoid any trouble, she had Mason personally monitor her exams through the surveillance cameras.

Besides, Mason, being extra cautious, had secretly swapped the A version of the test for the B version, which was stored in the secure vault. With all these precautions in place, there was no way Shermaine could cheat.

Honestly, if Mason hadn’t been so biased against Shermaine because of her background and everything her mother said, and hadn’t treated her so coldly when she first arrived, things might have turned out differently. Shermaine would have completed the test he assigned, and he would’ve seen her true academic abilities. Then, he wouldn’t have rushed to put her in a regular class.

He still couldn’t forget the shock he felt watching Shermaine tackle the math exam. She breezed through the multiple-choice questions without needing scrap paper to calculate. Before long, she was already onto the long-form problems, solving them with ease and writing out the simplest solutions. They looked simple, but the formulas she used were advanced knowledge that wasn’t even taught until university.

That day, Mason felt like his world had been turned upside down. He regretted dismissing Shermaine as a poor student so easily. Now, he saw her in a new light—not only was she brilliant academically, but she was also exceptional in ways he hadn’t expected. Her values were more solid than his, too.

Mason had a glaring flaw. He had always favored students with good grades, treating them like precious gems, unwilling to criticize them too harshly, no matter what they did. But with average students, he would push them and hold them accountable when they did something wrong.

In his mind, only good grades mattered—they were the only thing that could earn his leniency. He knew this wasn’t right, but he couldn’t help it. His bias was exactly why there was so much tension between average students and high-performing ones.

It often led to conflicts, and in the past, some low-achieving students had even sent him hate letters after the SAT, cursing him and claiming he didn’t deserve to be an educator. He couldn’t care less about that before.

Over the past few days, he had been reflecting on his actions. While his treatment may have motivated average students to do better, it also created countless problems. Shermaine was right—he shouldn’t treat students differently based on their grades.

And just now, the model students whom he had always favored had slandered another student for cheating without any evidence, driven purely by jealousy and spite.

From that, Mason realized that academic excellence wasn’t everything—character mattered just as much. A student with only good grades and questionable morals would be nothing but a disaster to society after graduation.

Mason was furious. “Enough! I can tell you for sure, Shermaine did not cheat. If you keep spouting nonsense, I’ll have no choice but to give you a demerit. If you put half as much effort into studying as you do scheming, would your grades have dropped so much this time?”

His outburst startled Alice and Hannah. They lowered their heads, not daring to say another word. But inside, they were furious and thought, ‘Why did Mr. Moe’s attitude shift so drastically? What’s going on?’

They might be young, but they were quite shrewd. They felt there had to be some hidden agenda behind the sudden change.

It was the first class of the day—math class. The math teacher walked up to the podium, holding the math papers, looking in a good mood. She instinctively glanced at Shermaine, smiling warmly. She hadn’t expected that one of her students would be this amazing.

“I’m sure by now, you all know how you did on your exams,” she said.

“Yeah. And we all know Sheary got straight A’s!” someone exclaimed excitedly.

“Yep, that’s right. Shermaine’s amazing. The rest of you all did okay, but you could’ve done better. Now, I’ll pass back your papers. And we’ll review the test together,” said the math teacher.

Shermaine’s paper was right on top. The teacher glanced at it repeatedly, a proud smile spreading across her face.

Then she said to Shermaine, “You did an excellent job. But don’t get too cocky. Keep up the good work, and next year, you’ll surely be the top scorer on the SAT.”

Shermaine smiled lightly and nodded.

Once everyone had their papers, the teacher started going over the questions. The class listened carefully, but halfway through, the math teacher suddenly had to use the restroom and paused for five minutes. When she returned, she was surprised to find that Shermaine had taken over and was explaining the problems.

She decided to just sit at the back and listen to Shermaine. She had to admit that Shermaine’s way of explaining the problems was clearer and more concise than hers, and it was easier for the students to understand. Shermaine quickly drew them into the world of mathematics.

As the class was about to end, Mason entered the classroom, looking a little awkward. He cleared his throat before saying, “I’m here today to apologize to the few boys I accused the other day.

“I didn’t handle things properly and unfairly blamed you. I’m sorry. Honestly, each of you has faced a lot of challenges. I want to assure you all that I’ll be fair and just from now on, and I won’t let anything like that happen again.”

When he finished, some of the students applauded. Though they still didn’t like Mason, his willingness to admit his mistake and correct it earned their respect.

The bell rang.

Afterward, Mason pulled Shermaine aside and said, “It’s a bit of a waste for you to take regular classes. With your grades, you could take honors classes and AP classes. What do you think?”

Hearing this, the math teacher couldn’t help but think, ‘Typical Mr. Moe, always putting so much emphasis on grades. But Shermaine should do it. It’ll give her a better chance to improve herself.

‘How Shermaine explained the problems earlier is remarkable. She definitely deserves advanced lessons. Her level is far beyond what we can offer.

‘It might sound unfair to the teachers with master’s degrees, but that’s the undeniable truth I’ve realized after listening to Shermaine’s class.’

Shermaine calmly declined. “No need. Regular classes are fine, and I really like my classmates here,” she said. Her classmates were simple, kind-hearted, and easy to get along with. More importantly, they needed her. Besides, she had already mastered the high school knowledge and skills required, so she wouldn’t be taking any other classes.

“Alright then,” Mason said before leaving.

Shermaine’s classmates were overjoyed that she wasn’t going anywhere.

Despite that, rumors about Shermaine cheating on the exam started circulating in the school. And as with all rumors, they only spread further. Whether in the cafeteria, the convenience store, or on the sports field, Shermaine’s classmates could overhear the gossip.

“What idiots, just believing whatever they hear,” someone muttered. “I wish Shermaine could tutor them once—let them know what a genius looks like. Besides, if she did cheat, do they think the school would just let it slide?”

Naturally, some of them wanted to confront the gossipers, but Shermaine stopped them, saying that instead of wasting their time arguing, they might as well focus on their studies.

That evening, Shermaine headed to the Jean residence.

Janice, who had traveled all the way from the suburbs to Basterel, had no plans to leave anytime soon. She hadn’t even seen her grandson yet, and she wanted to spend more time with Shermaine to strengthen their bond. So, Shermaine planned to stay for a little while and keep her grandmother company.

After school, the driver took Shermaine straight to the Jean residence, where Janice had been waiting. As soon as Shermaine arrived, Janice rushed over to take her schoolbag, but Shermaine stopped her.

She said, “Grandma, I’m not a kid anymore. The bag’s heavy—don’t strain yourself.” She set it down on the couch, planning to take it upstairs later. Janice chuckled warmly. “I’ve prepared some fruit for you. You must be tired after a whole day of classes, right? Have a bite to hold you over.”

Shermaine wasn’t tired, but she couldn’t turn down her grandmother’s kind gesture, so she agreed.

At dinner, the table was filled with delicious dishes Shermaine loved. It didn’t take much guessing to know that Janice had asked the chef to prepare them.

At this point, Janice was eagerly recommending the food to Shermaine. Meanwhile, Wendelyn, who had never been treated like this, could only watch with a sour expression and no appetite.

Ever since her humiliating experience, Wendelyn had been staying in her apartment off-campus for several days. She had finally come to terms with the fact that she would never win Joshua’s heart.

But the thought of such a man willingly marrying Shermaine filled her with a destructive rage. If she couldn’t have him, she’d make sure Shermaine couldn’t either.

Wendelyn took a sip of soup and asked, “Shermaine, I heard from Leslie that you had midterms this week. The results should be out today, right?”

Shermaine replied, “Yeah.”

Wendelyn gave a half-smile. “How did you do?”

Shermaine responded flatly, “Not very good. I just got straight A’s.”

Wendelyn and Ruth were dumbfounded.

Chapter 46