Chapter 2

The next day, I got dumped straight into the top private school in town, and of course, I landed in the same class as Vanessa.

No question, this whole thing had Vanessa's fingerprints all over it.

They dressed it up as giving me the best education, but they actually wanted me to feel small and insecure in her shadow.

I was dressed in a brand-new designer school uniform that felt stiff and awkward as the teacher walked me into the classroom.

The classroom was buzzing with whispers, eyes all over me—some curious, some judging, but mostly just dismissive.

Vanessa sat up front, giving me her perfect sweet smile.

I slipped into an empty seat in the very back row, keeping my mouth shut.

If a gesture worked, I'd use it. If a nod or shake was enough, I'd stay silent.

Everything was fine until math class rolled around.

Pretty obvious that my family had told the teacher to single me out and put me on the spot.

"Anna, how would you solve this problem?" the teacher asked.

It was an insanely hard math problem. I was just a country kid who had never even seen such complicated problems before. Even the class geniuses would struggle with this one.

I stared at the board, my mind totally blank.

Just as I was about to admit I had no clue, my mouth just started spitting out the whole solution and the final answer, like I was on autopilot.

I even tossed in, "Honestly, if you use the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, it's way cleaner. Or you could just build an auxiliary function and take its derivative."

I kept going for over ten minutes before I finally stopped.

The whole classroom was dead silent.

The math teacher pushed up his thick glasses, staring at the board, then at me, his eyes wide with shock and disbelief.

"T-That's completely correct. Your logic is crystal clear, and your solution is seriously sharp. Anna, have you ever seen problems like this before?" the teacher asked.

I stood there, frozen, my mind racing. If I said I just got possessed by aliens, would the teacher believe me?

I seriously have no idea how my mouth even knows about the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality.

"No," I replied awkwardly. For once, that was the honest truth.

The way my classmates looked at me instantly shifted from pure contempt to shock and suspicion.

Only Vanessa was different. When she looked back at me, her smile looked a bit strained.

As soon as the bell rang, I bolted out of the classroom and hid in the restroom.

Staring at myself in the mirror, I realized this damn mouth of mine didn't just blurt out my real feelings, but it could spit out hard facts, even ones I didn't know I knew.

I was basically a human search engine, huh? And one that was always right.

That realization left me not just panicked, but also secretly a little excited.

Maybe having a cheat-code ability like this wasn't all bad.

But just when I thought things might finally calm down, drama just wouldn't leave me alone.

Vanessa was clearly hell-bent on making my life miserable.

After school, I'd barely stepped out of the gate when she and her little crew blocked my way.

Plenty of students nearby slowed down, ready to watch the drama unfold.

Vanessa put on a look of concern. "Anna, I know you just got back, and you're probably trying to prove yourself. But the way you acted in math class today really made things awkward for the teacher.

"That problem was ridiculously hard. You must've looked up the answer ahead of time, didn't you?"

She made sure her voice was loud enough for everyone around to hear.

Right away, I felt a wave of suspicious and smug stares zero in on me.

I sneered inwardly, 'Trying to spread baseless rumors, huh?'

My mouth just started firing off like a machine gun.

I said, "You're the one getting put on the spot here, Vanessa. You got a handwritten physics cheat sheet in your desk. Want me to pull it out and read it for the whole class?"

Vanessa's face went pale in an instant, and she instinctively glanced back toward the classroom.

I didn't stop there. I turned to her top sidekick, Chloe Summers, who was dressed to impress.

I snapped, "And you, Chloe, quit trying to stir things up. Your boyfriend was busy flirting with three girls at the same time at 10:30 last night. The chat logs are pretty juicy. Want me to remind you of the details? Like how he called one of them 'sweetheart'?"

Chloe's face went ghostly pale, and she shrieked, "Bullshit!"

I pointed at another chubby guy. "Leo, quit snickering. That notebook in your drawer with Vanessa's name on it? Vanessa tossed it in the trash, and you dug it out. She knows, and honestly, she finds it gross."

The crowd went dead silent for a moment, then burst into even more chaos.

The ones I called out looked like they'd seen a ghost, and everyone's eyes snapped to them, full of gossip and shock.

Vanessa was shaking with rage, and she pointed at me. "Y-You're slandering me!"

I blinked innocently. "You all know the truth better than anyone. Anyway, I've got stuff to do, so I'm out."

While they were still reeling from the truth, I slipped out of the crowd and made a quick getaway.

Sure, I didn't let them walk all over me, but I knew if I kept shooting my mouth off without thinking, it was gonna blow up in my face sooner or later.

I had to find myself a good escape route as soon as possible.