Chapter 263.

Chapter 263.

Chapter 263. Am I in trouble? (1/4)

The winter semester midterms came and went in a flash. Alicia somehow maintained her position at the top among second years despite working part-time.

Rosa did quite well herself. She’d made some careless mistakes, but those didn’t seem to bother her. She got full marks in one of the elective courses she’d taken with me and above ninety in all her other subjects.

Meanwhile, I received 75% on everything as usual.

It was Monday, a week after the incident in the washroom at the university with Izora.

I’d filled Alicia in on the details of my plan to play pretend boyfriend and reveal to Zale I was two-timing. She freaked out at first, but when I told her I’d be going in a new disguise Izora would prepare using the theatre club stuff she had access to, she calmed down. I also explained Izora would be in disguise with a completely different image and asked her to not panic when she saw her.

The contrasting image between what she looked like at school and in her gothic punk state was quite shocking after all. She asked me about it, but I didn’t try to explain because it was too hard to swallow. It was impossible to believe if simply told about it. Seeing was believing.

I just said she’d understand when she saw her with me that day. The less Alicia knew about the plan, the better. She was too easy to read. It was to keep her reactions authentic and natural.

Now, the entire field trip ordeal was a matter reserved for this Friday.

As for Rosa... I didn’t hide what happened with Izora from her. As for what happened... well... she took full advantage of the situation to get another ‘anything goes’ request out of me. She didn’t even look upset, rather, she seemed more than happy to get another one of those requests out of me. Honestly, I felt stupid for even revealing it to her. Hell, she was just taking advantage of my guilty conscience at this point.

Haaaaah. Anyway... today, I had another matter to attend to now that the midterms were over. I’d... been called to the staff lounge at lunch for a talk with Mr. Oz, my home room teacher.

What could it be for?

Was it about my fake chronic illness?

Had they discovered the flaw? They’d already contacted me on the temporary number I provided them with and I impersonated a real doctor from one of the city’s hospitals at that time.

Did they possibly contact the hospital directly after that and talk to the real doctor? Though that doctor’s phone number wasn’t publically available, it was entirely possible they could have contacted the hospital which patched them through to him.

I’d be in a bit of hot water if the lie had been seen through. I probably wouldn’t be expelled, but a suspension was definitely possible. They might also want to try to speak to my nonexistent guardian in person. I could just say they were unavailable and force them to have that conversation over the phone. Alternatively... I could have Irene play the role.

Haaaah. Forget it. Maybe I’m wrong and this isn’t about my fake chronic illness. Maybe it’s something else entirely.

Could it be about the incident at the school dance where I locked the doors?

Or maybe they’ve realized I’m in a relationship with two girls and they’re trying to do some counseling to correct my behavior.

Oh no, what if they figured out I’m working part-time while still underage?

That would be disastrous.

“Haaaaaaah. Well, the part about misplacing your midterm was a lie. He still has it.”

As expected.

“If he has it, then great. I don’t need to retake it then.”

“No. You need to retake it or you may face expulsion for academic dishonesty.”

“Academic dishonesty? You mean he thinks I’m cheating?” I was dumbfounded. When I actually cheated I didn’t get caught, when I didn’t cheat I was accused of cheating? What the hell is with this crap?

“Yes.”

“What evidence is there to suggest I’m cheating?”

“I cannot say. You will need to take this math midterm again or you could really face expulsion.”

It had to be related to getting 75% on everything. But it couldn’t just be that though, there had to be another factor that led to this accusation.

“Fine, I get it. I just need to take the midterm again and prove I’m not cheating, right?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, I’ll do it then.”

“Good. I personally don’t think you’re cheating, but this teacher is convinced you are. That’s why I agreed to oversee you taking it.”

He actually believed in me? What a great teacher.

While thinking that, Mr. Oz slid the blank math midterm over to me.

I looked down, flipped through the pages, and scanned through all the questions. I verified the questions were all essentially identical. The only difference was that both sides of the equations had been multiplied or divided by a factor or rearranged to look like they were different than they really were. The questions were also scrambled.

It seemed pretty low effort. Why give me the same midterm with such cheap changes to it?

I decided to change my approach this time. Rather than only complete 75% of the test, I opted to complete all of it in the allotted time instead. However, every few questions I answered, I randomly selected one to get wrong.

I worked it out to ensure I’d still get the same 75%.

However, I came across one question that I noticed was different. It wasn’t simply multiplied or divided by a factor on both sides of the equation. It was the exact same question, but one number was increased by one. I frowned when I noticed it. When I solved for the solution in my head, the answer was a really nasty-looking fraction that couldn’t be simplified rather than the simplistic one it came out to be the first time around.

Teachers in high school math often made the answer come out to be something simple in the end. It was a way for the student to feel more confident they’d arrived at the correct answer during the test. Some university professors did that too, but there were times where the answer looked absolutely disgusting and you’d begin to doubt you really got the correct answer.