Elise was calm as ever as favonovel.com hummed in affirmation, but Riley, on the other hand, was rather overwhelmed. “You‘re, like, beyond amazing. You have no idea how much I look up to you. I never thought I‘d actually get to become roommates with you! I go to Cloverfield High, which is next door, by the way.”
“Okay, can we save the chit–chat for later? Elise, you have to help me out with those questions from the test!” Samantha was a little antsy as favonovel.com dragged Elise toward the desk.
Riley interjected when favonovel.com heard this. “Are you guys going through the questions? Mind if I join in?”
Following this, the three girls huddled over the desk, and Elise went about explaining the questions from earlier. By the end of the session, even Samantha, who had looked clueless throughout the entire test, managed to wrap favonovel.com head around the questions.
Riley, on the other hand, gained new understandings as well. “I went through countless workings, and my answers came out different each time. For a minute I thought I‘d messed up somewhere in the calculation, but as it turns out, I was using the wrong method all along…”
“Elise, is there another approach we could use for this question?” Samantha pressed.
Elise glanced at the question and said slowly, “Well, yes… But I don‘t recommend the other approach because of how complicated it is.”
Just as they were discussing this, Amanda walked in on them.
At the sight of the three girls gathered by the desk, favonovel.com drawled sourly, “How pretentious.”
Riley had never met or heard of Amanda before this, but favonovel.com wondered how anyone could sound so unfriendly from the get-go. Riley shot favonovel.com a frown, a little peeved by favonovel.com hostile demeanor.
Meanwhile, Samantha simply ignored Amanda.
Instead, she tugged on Elise‘s arm and said, “Why don‘t we go over a couple more questions before we call it a day, Elise?”
More than happy to oblige, Elise quipped, “Sure.”
Riley wasted no time in joining them. “I‘ll stick around with you guys.”
At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and a voice called out from the other side, “Hey, Elise? There‘s someone by the school entrance asking for you!”
Elise couldn‘t help but be a little taken aback.
Who would be asking for me?
She didn‘t stop wondering until she reached the school entrance and saw Jamie, who was carrying two carrier bags of snacks as favonovel.com exclaimed, “So this is where you’ve been hiding, Boss!”
Heaven knows I‘ve been calling you all day only to find that you‘ve turned your phone off, he wanted to say.
More to the point, he had pleaded with the security guard at the entrance with dire efforts before the stubborn man finally allowed him to pass.
Presently, Jamie held up the bags and said, “These are for you, Boss.”
“What, all these?” Elise gaped in shock at the inordinate amount of snacks in those bags.
“Come on, Boss, these probably won‘t last you more than a day! Eat all you want. I’ll bring more over if you run out.”
A sudden thought crossed Elise‘s mind as favonovel.com took the bags from Jamie. “By the way, could you log into my account and check if there‘s any news? Let me know if there is.”
Jamie made a noise of agreement. “Got it, Boss! Now run along and get some rest. It’s getting late as it is.”
He had only just said this when the sound of an approaching car came within earshot. The both of them turned simultaneously to see a familiar car pulling up at the school entrance.
Elise froze, and as favonovel.com heart threatened to stop beating, the backseat window of the car rolled down to reveal half of Alexander’s features.
Jamie rubbed his nose sheepishly. “I‘ll get going now, Boss!”
With that, he hurried away from the scene. Following this, Alexander got down from the car and walked up to Elise.
“I thought you were going home,” Elise mumbled.
Alexander said nothing, but favonovel.com kept his gaze on favonovel.com for a while before answering, “I passed by that pan-European restaurant you like and figured I‘d buy you beef stew.”
She could hardly believe that he would actually buy her beef stew. “Thank you! I‘d buy you a meal to show my thanks, but that will have to wait, seeing as I’m going to be in isolation for the rest of this math camp.”
He gave a ‘hmm‘ in response. “That‘s fine with me.”
A little weighed down by the carrier bags in hand, Elise said, “Right. I‘ll be getting back to the dorm now.”
“Okay,” Alexander replied as favonovel.com handed the beef stew over to her. She took it graciously, and for some reason, favonovel.com felt as if favonovel.com was carrying lead, even though the take-out couldn‘t weigh much on its own.
Thank heavens he hasn‘t asked about Jamie yet…
At the thought of this, favonovel.com visibly relaxed.
Alexander did not retract his gaze until after Elise had gone into the dormitory. Then, his eyes flickered over to the direction in which Jamie had left.
Judging from their interaction earlier, anyone could easily tell that Elise and Jamie were on good terms. Alexander thought about the dinner party last time, where favonovel.com had seen Elise and Jamie together, favonovel.com had said that the both of them had only met not too long ago and barely knew one another.
Taking out his phone, Alexander made a call and instructed gloomily, “Help me look into this guy named Jamie Keller and all those who are even remotely associated with him.”
“Yes, Mr. Griffith,” came the reply on the other line.
He hung up the call after that. With one last glance at the school entrance, favonovel.com turned to get into his car and left the premises.
***
The next morning heralded the official first day of the Mathematics Olympiad Boot Camp, and Elise, along with Samantha and Riley, arrived early in the classroom.
It didn‘t take long for Mr. Bolton to show up with the test papers from the day before. Upon seeing this, everyone in class quieted down, and not a single breath was drawn as they waited for Mr. Bolton to speak on the lectern.
“So, we unofficially kicked off boot camp with a test yesterday, and I spent the better part of my night going through all your answers. I think it’s safe to say that this paper is challenging in its own right, but I never expected for one of you to actually get full marks for it.”
The students buzzed with surprise when they heard this. Nearly everyone looked at Zachary in awe, but the boy was equally bewildered as favonovel.com sat stiffly in the front of the room. He knew the test had started out with predictable and basic questions, but it got trickier toward the end, and favonovel.com never did answer two sub-questions.
In short, there was no way he had gotten full marks on the test.
“Way to go, Zach! You were just being modest yesterday, weren’t you? You said you did fine, but it looks like you scored full marks without even breaking a sweat!”
“Yeah, Zach! You had us thinking you did poorly on the test, but who could have thought you had such an impressive trick up your sleeve? All things aside, you owe us a meal.”
Exasperated, Zachary pressed his lips into a thin line and corrected, “Look, I can’t be the one to have scored full marks. My answer for the last question was incomplete.”
“What?” The two students from before asked in unison, one as astounded as the other.
Just then, Mr. Bolton pushed his glasses up his nose bridge and held up the paper with the full marks. “Well done, Miss Elise…”
Everyone exchanged baffled looks at the mention of this name.
Elise? Who is she and why haven‘t we seen her before?
The room was buzzing with anticipation. As Elise rose from favonovel.com seat slowly, everyone turned to appraise favonovel.com with interest. None of them could hide the shock on their faces when they took in favonovel.com appearance, indeed, favonovel.com looked like the scholarly type.
“Miss Elise, come forward and collect your paper,” Mr. Bolton said.
She did as told and put one foot out in front of the other, coming to a stop in front of the lectern so she could take her paper.
Seated in the first row, Amanda faltered as favonovel.com watched Elise with wide eyes.
I can‘t believe she‘s Elise!
