Chapter 21 Henry Meets Alice Again

Hayes pushed up his glasses and said, "Alright, folks, you got twenty minutes to tackle the problems on the board. After that, I'll pick someone to come up and write the answers. Ready? Go!"

Staring at the board, an idea popped into her head.

Twenty minutes later, Hayes stood at the front, eyeing the students with their heads buried in their work. "Any volunteer? Get it right, and it counts as your final exam grade!"

Sarah piped up, "Mr. Gray, what if we mess it up?"

Everyone turned to Hayes, who grinned, "Then you flunk the course, duh!"

Heads dropped back down in a flash.

Sarah stood up. "Mr. Gray, I'll do it, but I want Alice to come up with me."

Hayes remembered Alice. He'd heard she was a party girl with a bunch of bad habits. He couldn't stand people like her, thought they were the worst.

He didn't need a test to know she'd bomb it.

Today was the perfect chance to make her fail for real!

"Alright! Alice, get up here!" He scanned the room. "Is Alice not here? Skipping class, huh? How did a loser like her get into Loshanda University?"

Just then, Alice stood up. "I'm here! Mr. Gray, maybe you need new glasses. And calling people losers? Not cool for a teacher."

"You're Alice?" Hayes paused. This Alice was nothing like the one he knew.

"Need a DNA test?" Alice didn't waste time. She glanced at Sarah and walked up to the front.

Clara tugged on Sarah's arm. "Sarah, what are you gonna do?"

"Relax! The principal's my uncle; he won't let me fail!" Sarah smirked and joined Alice at the front.

The room was dead silent except for the sound of chalk on the board.

Everyone watched as Alice quickly scribbled down multiple solutions, their jaws dropping.

After nailing her problem, Alice moved over to Sarah's and solved it in three different ways.

In under ten minutes, she'd cracked two tough problems with multiple methods.

Alice turned and tossed the chalk onto the podium, staring at Hayes. "I recorded everything you said. For the final exam, I wanna see Sarah fail! Even if she has to retake the course, I'll apply to proctor the exam. I believe Loshanda University won't play favorites, even if Sarah's related to the principal!"

Hayes went quiet.

Sarah went quiet.

Everyone did.

Alice headed back to her desk, grabbed her bag, and walked to the front, looking at Hayes. "Since this counts as the final exam grade, no point in me sticking around."

She turned to Sarah, who was still in shock, shaking her phone. "I posted the video on the campus network. I'll be waiting for you to fail the final!"

As Alice walked out the door, Sarah stomped her foot in anger and yelled at Hayes, "I don't care! I can't fail! What kind of problems did you give?"

Hayes was fuming. "Did I ask you to come up? Didn't you volunteer? Oh, I get it now. You don't know how to solve the problems! You just wanted Alice to fail, but she nailed it with different methods. Now you're trying to use the principal to strong-arm me! Well, guess what? You're definitely failing the final! And by the way, the problems I gave were all from my lectures, and Alice's solutions were way beyond what I taught!"

He was so shocked by his own words that he quickly turned to the board. Alice's approach was rare, sharp, and tricky. How did she pull it off?

Everyone was puzzled. Wasn't Alice from the countryside? Didn't they say she hadn't even graduated from elementary school? Unbelievable!

Two days later, the video of the advanced math class went viral on the campus network. The school tried to get tech staff to delete it, but the video had a virus. Any attempt to delete it would crash the computer.

The school had no choice but to let it be.

Now everyone on campus knew Sarah was going to bomb her final math exam.

So, Sarah cried and dragged Clara and three other classmates into the principal's office. "Uncle, you can't leave me hang! That Alice even slapped me twice in public yesterday."

Wesley Bennett frowned. "Why didn't you give me a heads-up before coming?"

Sarah, used to being arrogant, said, "So what? Can't I speak?"

Wesley gave her a look.

Sarah glanced inside and saw a man in a perfectly pressed suit sitting on the guest sofa with his legs crossed. He had an aura of nobility that made Sarah feel small under his presence.

Her heart raced, and her breathing quickened.

If she had known Henry was here, she would've kept her cool.

Clara's eyes lit up as she walked forward and said respectfully, "Uncle Henry, you're here too!"

Sarah followed, blushing, and extended her hand. "Mr. Howard, hello, I'm Sarah, the principal's niece."

Henry glanced at Sarah's outstretched hand and just nodded.

Sarah awkwardly withdrew her hand and smiled, "Mr. Howard, sorry to interrupt. We'll wait outside."

"No need, the lab donation will take a while to discuss. You can handle your issue first." Henry looked at Wesley.

Wesley felt frustrated. The lab donation was way more important, but now he had to deal with this nonsense.

He looked at Sarah and asked, "What's going on?"

Sarah immediately put on a pitiful face. "It's that new girl, Alice. She's bullying me. She forced me to go up and compete with her in solving problems. Uncle, I don't want to fail. She even said that if I retake the course, she'll apply to proctor the exam. Why? She's targeting me!"

Wesley frowned. "Why is she targeting you?"

"Because I stood up for my friend! So Alice holds a grudge against me." She then looked at Henry. "Mr. Howard, that Alice is really too much! Clara and Oliver are a couple, but she insists on getting between them and marrying Oliver. Can you believe how shameless Alice is?"

"Is that so?" Henry chuckled, a playful interest spreading across his handsome face. "Then let's call this shameless person here to confront her."

Hearing Henry's words, Wesley immediately asked the department head to contact Alice and have her come to the principal's office.

Ten minutes later, Alice walked into the office.