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Catherine, still in a bit of a daze, looked at Bryan with a faintly annoyed expression. “Help me with this,” she said, pointing at the exercise she had thrown toward him.
Bryan, now fully awake and alert, hurried to pick up the exercise. He flipped through it and quickly realized that the questions were far from simple for the average student. They were challenging, but Catherine had handled them effortlessly, tossing the paper aside like it was nothing.
Without a word, Bryan took a seat beside her, trying to suppress his awe. He wasn’t sure what Catherine was capable of, but he could see that she wasn’t as clueless as everyone thought. “I’ll help with whatever you need, but… how do you know how to do these so easily?” he asked, his voice laced with curiosity.
Catherine, still half-sleepy but undeniably sharp, glanced at him coldly. “It’s simple,” she said dismissively, as if the questions were child’s play. “You can’t expect me to learn from these idiots.”
Bryan blinked, his mind racing. “Wait… you’ve already solved these questions in your head, haven’t you?”
Catherine shrugged, seemingly indifferent to his astonishment. “Why bother wasting time?” she muttered, leaning back in her seat again, clearly ready to drift off to sleep once more.
Bryan, stunned by the ease with which she had solved the exercises, couldn’t help but be impressed. He watched Catherine for a moment, still unsure of how to fully comprehend what he had just witnessed. He had thought of her as someone who barely understood the basics, but now it seemed she could very well outperform the entire class.
At the same time, he felt a twinge of unease. He wasn’t sure whether Catherine was trying to act aloof or if she genuinely didn’t care about impressing anyone. Either way, her confidence was undeniable, and it was starting to shake things up in Class 8.
As Bryan sat back in his seat, pondering what just happened, he heard the hushed voices of his classmates whispering in the background. Some of them were still murmuring about how Catherine was going to ruin their class’s reputation. Others were gossiping about her being a “jinx” or “trouble” – but those whispers were starting to lose their edge. The more Bryan thought about it, the more he realized they were underestimating Catherine.
Just then, Liana’s voice cut through the chatter like a sharp knife. “She’s just trying to show off,” she sneered, making sure her voice carried. “She’ll never make it in Class 8. We all know she doesn’t belong here.”
Bryan’s eyes narrowed at Liana’s words, and he stood up again, his patience thinning. “You should be more careful about what you say,” he warned, his voice cold.
Liana glanced at him with a smirk. “Oh, don’t worry. We all know that Catherine is just a waste of space. Let’s see if she can live up to all her nonsense.”
Bryan turned away, deciding not to engage. Instead, he focused on Catherine again, whose posture hadn’t changed. She was still half-leaning on her desk, a quiet confidence exuding from her.
This time, he couldn’t hold back his curiosity. “Catherine,” he started cautiously, “how did you even… know how to solve those problems?”
Catherine glanced up briefly, her eyes cold and distant. “I’ve seen worse,” she said cryptically, before sinking back into her chair.
Bryan’s curiosity was piqued, but he didn’t push further. There was something mysterious about Catherine, and it only intrigued him more. He was beginning to realize that maybe he was standing next to someone far more capable than anyone in this class had given her credit for. And it wasn’t just about the math; it was about the quiet, almost unsettling air she carried with her.
What was Catherine really capable of? Bryan wasn’t sure, but he had a feeling that this challenge with the test was just the beginning of a much bigger story.