chapter320

Everyone crowded into the monitoring room and, after following the usual steps, brought up the footage from Lydia's exam room.

Ms. Santoro looked as unimpressed as ever. She had taught Lydia all through senior year and was familiar with her grades from the earlier years, too. Lydia had always been at the bottom of the class. Someone like her, the classic underachiever, could never have gotten a perfect score on her own. No way.

If the Smith family wasn't the richest in Lakeview Town, Lydia wouldn't have even set foot in Silverpine High. And now, not only did she slack off, she had the nerve to cheat. And not even subtly. She went straight for a perfect score. It was honestly ridiculous.

The footage finally loaded. Lydia sat in the corner of the classroom. The camera didn't catch her face, but you could clearly see her movements. Even through a screen, her cool and confident energy stood out.

She moved fast. After skimming the questions, she started writing right away. Before half an hour was up, she was already handing in her paper.

That's right. She just turned it in.

Her speed made it seem like the answers were already printed out in her head. She barely paused to think about anything. The wildest part was that she didn't use a single sheet of scratch paper-not once. She just wrote everything straight onto the test.

The proctor had even asked if she wanted to double-check her work, but Lydia just shook her head, said it wasn't necessary, and walked out with total confidence.

Seeing all this, Ms. Santoro doubled down. "Everyone, look carefully. Lydia handed in her exam in under half an hour. Tell me, does that sound possible to you? This is clear cheating. She must have known the answers ahead of time or was using some kind of electronic device we couldn't detect."

Mr. Colton turned to the education officials. "Judging by how she acted, I have to admit, the possibility of cheating is pretty high."

Everything about Lydia's behavior was out of the ordinary.

First, how quickly she finished.

Second, the way she solved the problems.

Third, the huge gap between her usual grades and her exam results.

Aiden let out a laugh. You really think that's proof of cheating? Is that all you've got?"

Ms. Santoro shot back, "Isn't it obvious? No one can finish a whole exam in thirty minutes. And she didn't use any scratch paper at all. How is that possible? She had to be cheating."

Andrew, who had been quiet until now, gave Ms. Santoro a sharp look. "Why can't someone finish an exam in half an hour? Do you

terryears ago,

rs ago, the Norwood *** brothers? They both finished their exams in about thirty minutes and tied for top score that year."

People across the country had talked about that for ages.

Mr. Colton and Ms. Santoro were both caught off guard.

Minister Grayson nodded. "That's right. The Norwood brothers are basically geniuses. They really did hand in their papers after about thirty minutes. I never heard if they used scratch paper or not."

Ms. Santoro snapped out of her shock right away. "But, everyone knows the Norwood brothers are geniuses. They had amazing grades from childhood and got perfect scores all the time. They're true prodigies What about Lydia? Just look at her report cards. She's never even scored above four hundred. How could someone like that

possibly get a perfect score?"

Aiden gave a cold laugh. What if she just never wanted to try before?"

From his point of view, Lydia probably never cared about those little quizzes. She only showed her real skills at finals. After all, the

Norwood kids were allogenet

Wasn't Lydia just like a younger

Blake or Arthur?

Ms. Santoro burst out laughing, staring at Aiden in disbelief. "Didn't want to? What

kind of student is that talented and chooses to hold back?"