Chapter 2

After eating, I sat at my desk and started on my homework.

Beatrice was at her own desk, wearing headphones, pretending to look lazy.

Before, she had worked hard but never cracked the top ten.

Her mom had always yelled at her for it, which made her hate me even more.

After she got that magic system, she stopped trying and still jumped to first place.

Now she just played with her pen, glancing at me from time to time.

I had a plan and started writing answers as usual.

When I finished, I drew a little star at the bottom right corner of my notebook.

*****

The next morning, the first thing I did was check.

Just as I thought—the homework was gone. But the little star was still there.

At breakfast, my dad sat across from me, looking like he wanted to say something.

Beatrice jumped in first, trying to stir up trouble. "Sarah, did you finish your homework? Don't make the teacher angry again by turning in nothing. If this keeps up, he'll call our parents. That'd be so embarrassing."

She said it on purpose, knowing how much our dad cared about appearances. Then she gave him a sweet, innocent look.

Dad's face tightened. But since I'd always been a good student, he didn't snap.

He just said, "Sarah, I know the SAT is coming and you're under pressure, but you still need to finish your homework."

I smiled slightly and picked up my bag. "I know, Dad."

Seeing how calm I was made Beatrice even more smug.

She hurried to grab her bag and followed me out, eager to see me trip up again.

On the bus, we ran into some students from other classes.

They spotted me and started whispering, "Hey, isn't that Sarah? She's the one who's always ranked first, right?"

I'd worn the crown of top student my whole life, and in high school, I was unbeatable.

Everyone looked at me with a mix of admiration and jealousy.

Beatrice used to keep her head down whenever she walked next to me, afraid people would find out she was my stepsister and say the school's number one had a failing sister.

But now that she had the system, she was acting all proud. "Hey, you might want to update your info. Sarah probably isn't number one anymore."

The students hadn't really been paying attention—they just assumed I was still in first place without question.

They pulled out their phones to check, and sure enough, the rankings had changed.

Beatrice was now at the top.

And I crashed to dead last, because of all the blank tests I'd turned in.

The group stared at us in shock, their eyes bouncing back and forth between Beatrice and me.

Beatrice loved every second of her fake success.

But I smiled a little and said, "Want to see who's really better? Easy. Why don't you give us a problem right now? We'll solve it on the spot, no tools, just mental math."

Beatrice froze. Her face went pale, and she immediately started looking nervous.

The students laughed. "Sarah, come on, quit joking! The problems we're doing now aren't just simple addition. With all the formulas, how could anyone keep it all in their head? What? Do you have some kind of system?"

The second the word "system" was mentioned, Beatrice's expression changed again.

I stepped closer, smiling as I said slowly, word by word, "A system? If someone's useless, even with a system, nothing will change."

Then I deliberately narrowed my eyes to Beatrice. "So, what do you say? You up for the challenge?"

Beatrice panicked and tried to brush it off, saying it was boring.

Right then, the bus stopped, and our homeroom teacher, who also taught math, got on.

I walked right up to him. "Sir, we're playing a really fun game. Could you make up a problem for us?"

After hearing what had happened, the math teacher perked up, curious to see if anyone could really solve advanced problems with just mental math.

Beatrice stood frozen to the side, looking grim.

The teacher waved her over. "Beatrice, come on! Your math scores have been improving like crazy lately. I have high expectations for you."

Beatrice didn't move. The teacher had to call her several times before she finally dragged herself over.

The teacher gave us a problem. I glanced at Beatrice and started calculating in my head.

I wasn't doing this just to humiliate Beatrice—I wanted to test her system. Could it only copy what I wrote down, or could it also steal what I thought?

But from the look on her face, it seemed like even with a system, trash was still trash.

Five minutes later, I had the answer. I turned to Beatrice with a smile. "I'm done. What about you?"

Trying to play smart, she said, "How about we both write it down?"

I shook my head right away. "Nope. On the count of three, we'll say it out loud."

Before she could react, I started, "Three, two, one."

I gave my answer. The teacher nodded—it was correct.

Everyone looked at Beatrice. Her face went pale with panic.

She stammered, "I... I got the same answer. I just didn't say it fast enough."

I smiled coldly and calmly started explaining my steps.

Beatrice wanted to claim she'd thought the same thing, but I cut her off.

I picked one of the formulas I'd used and asked, "Not many people would use this one, but you did, huh? Then tell us what you think about it. Let's see if we really solved it the same way."

Beatrice opened her mouth but had nothing to say.

She probably didn't even know what that formula was.

The math teacher and students all stared at her, waiting.

Suddenly, she clutched her stomach, her face twisting. "Ouch! My stomach hurts."