I Never Wanted Your Score

I'd been second in my grade forever, until I got tied to an exchange system.

A stream of comments floated across my vision:

[Oh no, oh no the vicious supporting girl's definitely jealous of dear heroine's top rank; she'll use the system to swap her exam score!]

[Good thing the heroine can hear the system and the supporting girl talk. She'll go slack, live her youth, and sleep through the big exam!]

[What's the point of the supporting girl scheming? She'll end up with a zero! Then the heroine just donates a building to Harvard and lives her best life!]

Vicious supporting girl?

Me?

Butwho said I wanted to swap the heroine's college exam score?

What I wanted to swap was something far more precious.

[Congratulations, host. You're bound to the Exchange System. You have one and only one exchange opportunity.]

I asked, "Can I swap anything? Including exam scores?"

[Of course. Please name your exchange target.]

"Caitlin Harrington."

The moment I said it, Caitlin Harrington, sitting not far away, clenched her fists.

The look she leveled at me was scornful and teasing.

As the comments said, she could hear the system and me.

Caitlin's grades had been top of the grade for years; I'd been the school laughingstock's eternal second.

She came from a rich family, even my mother worked as a housekeeper for her family.

My mother used to scold me, "Caitlin's born with a silver spoon. Who do you think you can compete with her for the first place?"

When she heard I'd been locked in a bathroom and bullied by Caitlin's clique, my mother didn't even care.

"You must've made her mad. You're a nobodywhat right do you have to complain?"

Back then I thought she behaved that way just to keep her job with the Harringtons.

Until the comment feed spillled the beans...

[The supporting girl's pathetic supposedly a true heiress but was maliciously switched at birth. Her 'maid-mom' is actually Caitlin's biological mother]

[Pathetic? No! She deserves it! She even tried to swap Caitlin's exam scores! Lucky for Caitlin, she deliberately got a zero so the supporting girl's plan would fail!]

[After the exam and a recognition back into the family, Caitlin's parents will despise her for the shame. Our glorious Caitlin will crush her from every angle. So even if the supporting girl is the real heiress, no one will love her. She will be isolated, alone, and depressed, and then suicide she deserves it!]

Isolated?

Depressed?

Suicide?

Too bad none of that was going to happen.

Because what I wanted to swap wasn't Caitlin's exam score at all.

It was something far more valuable.

After class, Caitlin came to my desk, wearing that poisonous smile.

"Penny Stone, you're still second this time. Is there something that I can help?"

Penny Stone that was the name my mother gave me.

I'd protested when I was little, saying the sound of it invited cheap jokes.

She snorted. "What, you think you're better than the name I gave you? You little gutter rat your dad died when you were born. I called you Penny Stone to do you a favor."

Because of that name, Caitlin's clique shoved me into the school toilets more times than I can count and pressed my head down.

"You're Penny Stone, right? Come on, smell how fragrant this shit is!"

They laughed while I choked. Caitlin's smile in those moments looked exactly like the one she wore now.

I looked down, saying, "No thanks. Miss Harrington's time is precious. Just mind your own business."

"Oh? Penny Stone, so thoughtful of me."

She thought she could read my mind she assumed I wanted to swap her scores.

She was happy to play along and plan the blow that'd land on me later.

"Don't worry," she said in a conspiracy tone.

"I'm not coming to school tomorrow. My family hired five top-tier tutors. One-on-one for every subjects. By the time the exams come, the gap between us'll be huge!"

She said it with smug satisfaction. The comment feed immediately applauded:

[Caitlin's so clever! She said she hired five star tutors to trick the supporting girl into swapping scores!]

[In reality, our Caitlin's not studying at all! She's going full slack-mode, living a chill life, and the supporting girl will end up empty-handed!]

[And if Caitlin's filthy rich, can't she just buy an overseas offer? Big main character energy!]

Sure enough, after that day Caitlin stopped coming to school.

Following the comment feed's cues, I snuck off to a bar to see her.

Caitlin was wrapped up with a pack of blond guys. They flirted under tinted lights, drank in the haze, kissed, then headed off to a nearby hotel for a wild night.

I said nothing. We were adults; people made their own choices.

I kept wearing oversized school shirts and black-framed glasses, hitting my two-point-one-line routine.

With Caitlin no longer bullying me, I had more time to study but I knew she had eyes everywhere.

So I pretended to slack off and then slipped away after class to an unused classroom to study.

If Caitlin wanted to stage a show, I'd play along.

I was curious how would she behave when she realized the score swap hadn't happened?

The big exam day came fast. I went to the exam center alone.

At the school gate I bumped into Caitlin, surrounded by a crowd her parents, a whole entourage of people seeing her off and my mother, Martha Stone.

Everyone looked at Caitlin like she was the sun.

Martha never looked at me that way. She hadn't even come home the past six months.

She'd left me in our rundown neighborhood to take care of Caitlin at the Harrington house, leaving me not a single cent.

If I hadn't squirreled away money working odd jobs the last two years, I'd have been stranded.

Maybe it was better she'd been gone. When she was around, she'd boss me and sabotage my studies; she feared I might outdo Caitlin.

I hadn't known why before, but after reading the comment feeds and seeing this whole scene, everything fell into place.

[I feel sorry for the supporting girl The foster mother favors Caitlin but denigrates her. Even after being recognized by the Harringtons she'll be spurned by her birth parents. The supporting girl's unloved.]

[I don't care supporting girl deserved it! If she hadn't tried to swap scores, how could we enjoy the heroine's epic slapdown?]

[But will the supporting girl really swap scores? She seemed so dedicated in the lead-up. The heroine's the one partying with the blond guys she looks like she's really given up]

I laughed softly.

Finally some sensible voices in the feed.

My smile, though, read like something different in Caitlin's eyes. Across the crowd she raised her hand and called, "Penny Stone!"

"What were you laughing at? So confident about the exam?"

she pranced forward like a pet deer. I shrugged. "I'll be fine. You?"

"As if I'd be nervous. I've got tutors. You've never beaten me." She shot me a look that screamed 'I'm baiting you to swap scores.'

I said, calmly, "Caitlin, you better do well."

She gave a sly smile. "Of course. For your sake, I'll do soooo well."

Martha rushed over to block me out like a hen over her chick.

"Penny Stone what are you doing here? Don't bother Miss Harrington!"

Her tone was fierce. Mr. and Mrs. Harrington glanced me up and down with undisguised disdain.

"Caitlin, get to the exam. Don't let anyone influence you."

That was my first real meeting with my birth parents.

Luckily the comment feed had already spoiled the cruel outcome of my 'recognition into the family' arc, so I didn't expect mercy from them.

No expectations, no disappointment.

I turned and went into my exam room.

Eighteen years of suppression had sharpened my resolve.

This time, I was going to win.