Chapter 21: What I Want to Say to Mom and Dad 1

Chapter 21: What I Want to Say to Mom and Dad 1

Satisfied with the immediate silence, Mr. Vance walked up to the podium and tapped a thick stack of test booklets against the wood.

"Today is our third-to-last mock exam!" he declared, scanning the room. "This is the ultimate test of your preparation. I expect everyone to give two hundred percent today. Make this school proud! And don't be like certain individuals who anchor the absolute bottom of the rankings every single time. You're really doing a fantastic job of making me proud!"

A wave of quiet chuckles rippled through the room. Everyone knew exactly who "certain individuals" referred to.

Chloe leaned closer to me, whispering under her breath so only I could hear. "Don't listen to him. Show them all what you're capable of."

I gave her a subtle nod.

With fifty percent of Chloe's cognitive learning ability fused into my mind, my retention and analytical speed were lightyears ahead of where I used to be. If I couldn't even score sixty points with half of her genius backing me up, I'd be insulting her belief in me.

"Alright! I'm calling out your assigned exam numbers now," Mr. Vance shouted, handing out testing slips. "Report to your assigned testing rooms immediately. And remember—zero tolerance for cheating! Don't embarrass this academy!"

I grabbed my testing slip and checked the room assignment printed at the top: Testing Room 4, Desk 12.

I walked down the hall toward Testing Room 4 and stepped inside. As I scanned the room for my desk, a familiar, elegant figure walked in right behind me.

It was Chloe.

I checked her testing slip as she sat down—she was assigned to Desk 14, situated less than two meters away from me in the exact same room.

Catching my eye, Chloe flashed a subtle, encouraging smile. I took my seat, picked up my pen, and felt a surge of razor-sharp focus settle over my mind.

The battle was about to begin.

Although this was only a mock exam, the timing, strict difficulty, and testing protocols were identical to the actual National Entrance Exam. It was the most realistic simulation possible.

High-frequency signal jammers hummed quietly in every corner of the testing room, cutting off any possibility of wireless communication. Two stern proctors paced back and forth along the aisles, their sharp eyes scanning every desk to prevent note-passing or sneaky glances.

This level of rigor was unique to Aurelia Academy. Other high schools simply lacked the resources and staff to treat every mock trial like the real deal.

The first paper handed out was Language and Literature—a hundred-point exam where clearing sixty points marked the boundary of a solid passing grade.

In the past, the very first section—the vocabulary, grammar, and etymology breakdown—had been an absolute nightmare for me. My usual strategy was picking options at random and praying to get lucky.

But today was different. Armed with fifty percent of Chloe's cognitive ability fused into my mind, I analyzed the linguistic structures with razor-sharp clarity, instantly narrowing down options with a seventy-five percent confidence rate.

Moving deeper into the paper, every question felt strangely familiar. My frantic review session with Chloe's notes yesterday was already paying massive dividends.

Next came the classical rhetoric and literary citations. Memory recall had always been my weakest suit, and even with half of Chloe's intellect backing me up, one day of review couldn't instantly memorize an entire senior curriculum. Still, I managed to recall around seventy percent of the required quotes with total accuracy—a feat that would have been completely unthinkable twenty-four hours ago.

Then came reading comprehension—the section where I used to lose nearly all my points. In fact, on previous mock tests, I had often handed in completely blank answer sheets out of pure frustration.

When I flipped the page, my jaw nearly dropped.

Both reading passages selected for this exam were topics I had thoroughly analyzed during yesterday's study session using Chloe's notes!

A grin touched my lips. I didn't dare claim I'd get a perfect score, but I was ninety percent sure I could lock in at least eighty percent of the reading comprehension points.

Finally, I reached the final section—the essay.

It was worth forty points out of the total hundred. The essay was notoriously the easiest section to score partial credit on, but simultaneously the hardest section to truly master.

In the past, essay writing had been my eternal nightmare. I rarely understood the core prompt and constantly drifted off-topic. If a prompt asked me to reflect on resilience, I'd end up rambling about video games. If it asked about ambition, I'd write three sentences and leave the rest of the page blank, throwing forty points straight down the drain.

I hadn't cared back then. I had already accepted my role as the class reject, so what difference did a zero make?

But today was different.

I had a bet to win against Tyler. I had to take this seriously. I had to force that arrogant jerk to stand up in front of the entire class and apologize to me and Chloe!

I took a deep breath and carefully analyzed the prompt.

Fortunately, the prompt was straightforward and open-ended—a half-completed phrase:

“I want to say to my parents—”

The rest was left entirely to the student's imagination, requiring at least eight hundred words in any prose style.

What do I actually want to say to my parents? I thought, setting my pen down for a moment to sink into deep reflection.