Chapter 4

St. Andrews Academy turned out to be even more extravagant than I had imagined.

The cars dropping students off at the front gate were more luxurious with each arrival, and while everyone's uniforms looked identical at first glance, the shoes and watches might as well have been competing for a prize.

When I walked into the classroom carrying my new backpack, the entire room fell silent for about two seconds before every pair of eyes turned to me.

I recognized those looks all too well, curious, judgmental, and dripping with that particular brand of condescension that comes from people who have never had to want for anything.

Sophia stood up and came over to greet me, her face breaking into a smile as sweet as honey. "Charlotte, over here."

I walked over and examined the seat she had saved for me. It was against the wall, in the very last row, right next to the trash can.

Once I sat down, the curly-haired girl in front of me turned around with a deliberately innocent look. "So, Sophia, this is your sister? She seems pretty spirited."

Sophia lowered her voice, though clearly not so much that others couldn't hear. "My sister has actually had a pretty difficult life. Her circumstances before weren't great, so she can be a little sensitive. Just try not to take anything she says too personally."

I rested my chin on my hand and listened until she finished, then gave the curly-haired girl a small smile. "You know, I actually feel sorry for you too."

She blinked in confusion. "What did you say?"

I said, "You came to school with your hair fried like that, which means no one ever taught you what good taste looks like. Don't worry. I won't hold it against you."

The classroom went still for a moment before someone let out a laugh they clearly hadn't meant to.

The girl's face flushed a deep crimson. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Maybe," I said with a nod. "I have this condition where I can't stand idiots. So do me a favor and keep your distance, or you might catch it."

Sophia's composure cracked slightly, and she reached out to touch my arm. "Charlotte, please don't be like this."

I removed her hand from my arm and kept my voice perfectly level. "You can stop too, you know. That little speech you just gave sounded like you were defending me, but you were just tearing me down from beginning to end.

"Next time you decide to put on a performance, at least give me a cue so I know when to applaud."

The first class of the day was a placement test.

When the math paper landed on my desk, one glance was all it took to know where I stood.

The problems were fairly standard, nothing special, and honestly a notch below the joint exams I had taken back at my old high school.

I put my head down, worked through the questions methodically, and handed in my paper forty minutes later.

The proctor gave me a quick look but didn't say a word.

Once class let out, word started making the rounds that I was putting on airs, just trying to show off the minute I walked through the door.

I could not have cared less, so I simply leaned back in my chair and took a nap.

When the scores came out that afternoon, the whole class erupted.

I had scored a hundred while Sophia had scored a seventy-two.

She had always carried herself as the academic overachiever and the school's sweetheart, but at that moment, the smile on her face was visibly starting to crack.

The curly-haired girl was the first to cry foul. "Excuse me, Miss, but she just transferred here. How is it even possible she got a perfect score? What if she had access to the test beforehand?"

I did not even bother lifting my head off the desk. "So, because you didn't do well, the only explanation is that someone else cheated? With reasoning like that, you might want to wear a helmet when you go out, just so people know there's nothing going on upstairs."

The teacher had been about to smooth things over, but my remark caught her off guard, and she could not quite hide a smile.

And then, right at that moment, Sophia noticed that her bracelet was missing.

It was a limited edition, and pretty much everyone in the class knew about it.

She searched all around her desk, and finally stood up with red-rimmed eyes. "I know I left it right in my drawer."

The curly-haired girl immediately pointed a finger at me. "She was going through your desk earlier!"

Every pair of eyes in the room turned to me at once.

I sat up straight, looked at the two of them, and said nothing yet.

Sophia bit her lower lip and spoke in a small, wounded voice. "Charlotte, if you like that kind of thing, I could give you something else. Please don't just take my things."

She really knew how to phrase things. With that one sentence, she had painted me into a corner. If I got defensive, I would look guilty, and if I stayed calm, they would just keep walking all over me.

I stood up and dumped my backpack out onto the desk. Books, notebooks, and my pencil case went everywhere.

Then, with a soft clink, a diamond bracelet rolled out of one of the inner pockets and landed on the floor.

The entire classroom gasped.

The curly-haired girl immediately seized on it like she'd just caught me red-handed. Her voice shot up, sharp and eager. "See? I told you she stole it!"

Sophia burst into tears right there, staring at me with this wounded look, as if I'd just stabbed her in the back.

I bent down, picked up the bracelet, and glanced at it.

Then I laughed. "If you're going to set me up, at least try to make it convincing. You literally posted this exact bracelet on your story yesterday, and now you're shoving it into my bag? What, you think I'm blind? Or that the cameras don't exist?"

Sophia's crying stopped dead.