The Return of the Scholar: I am a Beautiful Rose

My brain had turned into a storage pocket.

I answered the difficult math problem assigned by the teacher nicknamed "Taskmaster", and from that point on, I became a top student.

I went from being the worst in the entire school to the best in the whole city, and my younger sister Hailie Wright accused me of cheating.

She was right. I did cheat. I brought the book into the exam room.

But I brought it inside my head.

"Does no one know the answer to this?"

Ms. Rowe, our math teacher, also known as the Taskmaster, scanned the classroom with her sharp eyes through glasses.

"No one knows? But you're the top class. How do you expect to compete with the neighboring school? If you can't solve this problem, don't even think about leaving class! Solve it!"

"The square root of two over two."

"What?"

"The square root of two over two!" I raised my voice.

She looked a bit shocked. "Who? Who said that? That's correct! Who was it?"

I raised my hand timidly from the back row, where I'd been standing as punishment for not bringing my book. "It was me."

"How did you figure it out? Was it a guess?"

Math had always been my worst enemy. I could usually get an F in math exams, and I was always at the bottom among the two hundred students in the school.

It would be a miracle if she believed I could solve the problem.

"No, it's from page sixty-eight of the math textbook. It's just a variation of the example problem. The approach is basically the same, as long as you..."

Ms. Rowe's expression softened. "It seems you've been working hard lately."

"I just happened to review it. I'm so dumb, so I need to spend more time on it," I muttered softly.

I couldn't let anyone know my secret, that I'd suddenly become a math genius.

I couldn't tell them that every problem in the math book was now permanently engraved in my mind.

Whenever I shook my head, I could almost hear the pages flipping in my brain.

I had stuffed all the textbooks into my head!

Ms. Rowe adjusted her glasses. "Look at Eliza! She's been working hard, while the rest of you are still slacking off.

"If she beats you all in the next monthly exam, I wonder how you'll face yourselves!"

Ms. Rowe had been rehired by our school to specifically teach the top class in math.

After she finished speaking, all the good students in the front row turned to look at me.

Some had admiration in their eyes, and some were full of resentment, determined to catch up...

And then there was my younger sister, Hailie.

She sat in the front row, turning around to look at me, standing in the very last row.

Her gaze was calm yet cold as ice.

Throughout the day, I answered all the questions posed by six teachers in eight different subjects.

It wasn't just Ms. Rowe. Even the warm and gentle, newly graduated physics teacher, who was everyone's favorite, smiled at me.

"Good, good! I knew Eliza had potential when she joined this class. I knew she could catch up!"

Physics was Hailie's best subject.

She liked the young, dashing physics teacher a lot.

But now, she couldn't hide her unease when she looked at me.

Before the next class, Hailie stood in front of my desk.

A classmate joked, "Here to tutor your sister again? Hailie is amazing. She's even managed to teach her sister. When will you teach the rest of us too?"

Hailie was always kind and gentle to others, but today her smile seemed a bit strained.

In front of everyone, she asked me, "Eliza, did you sneak into the office and steal the test questions?"

Her words created a ripple of shock.

Everyone around me stared at us in disbelief.

Their expressions were clear. It all made sense now.

No wonder I'd suddenly become a star student overnight; I must have stolen the test questions.

Hailie's voice was urgent and worried, "Eliza, do you realize how hard that problem was? If you didn't steal the test questions, how could you possibly have known the answer?"

With that, she grabbed my hand. "Come with me. Let's go confess to the teacher. It's not too late."

I stayed glued to my seat, not moving an inch. Hailie got anxious. "Eliza! It's one thing to be bad at school, but if you cheat, it's a serious issue. You could get expelled and sent home!"

"I didn't cheat," I said.

Hailie froze. "Eliza, be realistic, okay? Don't I know your abilities? Doesn't everyone know?

"You didn't even touch the practice book I gave you yesterday. How could you possibly figure out all these problems?"