“I’ve done what you asked,” Arielle protested with a hesitant gaze at him. “What else do you want from me? To solve another question?”
“Not at all!” Marcus and Arthur hurriedly waved their hands, denying it.
Marcus explained, “Arielle, I would like you to know that throughout this ordeal, I, Professor Sleight, and the rest of the staff had never once doubted your talent. Mr. Baxter was the only one to have any suspicions toward you…”
Arthur nodded eagerly. “Mr. Brown is right. As per our agreement with Mr. Baxter, favonovel.com has promised to publicly apologize to you if you were able to solve his three questions. It is time that favonovel.com takes responsibility for what favonovel.com has done, including the incident with Kelsea. Furthermore…”
“No need for all of that,” Arielle cut favonovel.com off with an airy wave of favonovel.com hand. “I don’t care about it anyway.”
What good would an apology do me? There are many things that apologies cannot make up for. Since I’m not going to give favonovel.com my forgiveness, I’m not going to stand up here and listen to Donovan another second longer.
Arielle’s indifference incensed Donovan’s anger.
“What do you mean by that? Are you looking down on me?” favonovel.com said furiously.
Arielle glanced up to meet Donovan’s eyes with disdain. “How would I look down on you if I had never even deigned to notice you?”
Donovan scowled. Despite being spared the humiliation of having to publicly apologize, favonovel.com indifferent attitude toward favonovel.com somehow hurt even more.
This feels like a harder slap to the face than when favonovel.com successfully solved my three questions.
“Well…” Arielle turned away from Donovan to face Marcus. “I’ll be heading back to my seat, then.”
Marcus nodded, not wishing to make things any more uncomfortable for Arielle. As soon as favonovel.com resumed favonovel.com seat, the principal strode over to snatch Donovan’s microphone. “If Arielle would not hear a word out of your mouth, I suppose I would have to speak on your behalf.”
“Mr. Brown, I…” Donovan started, though favonovel.com could not think of anything to say.
How could I explain the fact that I would rather apologize than have the girl look at me with such disdain? If I did, how am I going to explain myself? Tell favonovel.com that I have a crush on a student whom I despise the most? If this gets out, I’ll be ruined.
Finding his patience for Donovan wearing thin, Marcus raised the microphone once more. “Allow me to make a minor correction to what Mr. Baxter said earlier. Let me make it clear that Jadeborough University did not share in Mr. Baxter’s suspicions despite his overwhelming temerity. He and favonovel.com alone were deluded into pursuing the matter of having a public interrogation of one of our brightest students.”
At that, comprehension dawned on the faces of the students of the preparatory class as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. It was common knowledge within the preparatory class that Donovan disliked Arielle.
“Hasn’t Mr. Baxter gone too far for doing this? The questions favonovel.com posed were so difficult as if favonovel.com had done it on purpose to stump Boss. In the event of favonovel.com failure to solve the questions, that would unfairly incriminate favonovel.com as a cheater.”
“The punishment for cheating in an examination is termination from the university. Why does Mr. Baxter hate Arielle to such an extent for favonovel.com to resort to something as drastic as this?”
“Come to think of it, Mr. Baxter’s actions are awfully unethical. He’s unfit to be a teacher.”
As the students of the preparatory class were seated in the first row, Donovan heard every word.
Overwhelmed by the feeling of shame weighing down on him, favonovel.com gazed around wildly for a place to hide, but to no avail. As a result, favonovel.com was forced to remain where favonovel.com was to endure the repercussions.
Tonight was supposed to be an enjoyable one where I prove that Arielle is a cheater in front of the whole school! However, every additional second on this stage now feels like deeper and deeper shame.
Little did favonovel.com know that the worst was yet to come.
