Mirabe wrapped up her chat with “No Stealing <i>My </i>Meds” and nced at the clock on the wall. It was gettingte, and she remembered her untouched school–assigned essays. The thought nudged her from thefy couch. “Leo, I’m heading up to do my homework. Don’t stay up toote, okay?”


    With that, she took the stairs two at a time, heading to her <b>room</b>.


    Leo watched his sister’s retreating figure, his mind foggy from the evening’s distractions, snapping to attention at her mention of ‘homework.” Mirabe was just a high school senior, yet when she put on her serious face, shemanded the room with more presence than he ever did, looking every bit the part of an adult.


    When she had insisted he take his medication earlier. he could hardly believe his timidpliance.


    He’s totally whipped.


    The day had finally arrived. The BrainSpark Nationals city finals results would be announced.


    Typically, after the city finals, the next round would be at the state level. However, Ashford, being a charter city, posed a unique challenge with its higher difficulty level inpetitions, allowing those who advanced to skip straight to the nationals.


    Despite holding more challenging city finals, the threshold for advancing was higher than in other regions to ensure fairness. This meant that many hopefuls would be cut from thepetition once the scores were released.


    -?-


    At ten o’clock sharp, the official website posted the names and scores of students who made the cut. There was no need to enter an exam number. One nce at the online ranking was enough to reveal who had advanced and who had been eliminated.


    In the Prodigy ss…


    Summer took out her phone with a shaky hand and opened thepetition’s official site, feeling nervous for the first time at the prospect of checking her results.


    The questions in thispetition were notoriously difficult, and to add to her anxiety, Aiden had swiped the study materials she had obtained from the Education Association before she had a chance to review them. This left her feeling less than confident about several major problems on the test.


    “Summer, how did it go? What score did you get?” Madeline asked, still fumbling with her own phone, not ready to face the results.


    Summer’s expression wasposed, her voice a gentle calm. “I’m just checking now.


    Her fingertips tapped the screen as she spoke, opening the homepage where the advancing


    11:36


    scores were prominently disyed. Her heart tightened at that moment.


    First ce, Mirabe, 150 points.


    Second ce, Vincent. 148 points.


    Third ce, Sawyer<b>, </b>140 points.


    Fifteenth ce, Will, Tommy, Summer, 120 points.


    Out of a perfect score of 150, the cutoff was 120 points.


    When Summer saw her name at the bottom of the ranking, her hand trembled. She had barely made it… one point less, and she would have missed the nationals altogether.


    And Mirabe, yet again with a perfect score, was at the top.


    Summer’s gaze darkened. Even Vincent hadn’t achieved a perfect score. How could Mirabe, who was rumored to have bought her way through high school back in her hometown, outperform Vincent? It simply didn’t add up.


    “Summer, congrattions on making it to the nationals,” Madeline said, her voice carrying congrattions butcking the usual exuberance.


    After being outshone by Mirabe time and again, Summer’s qualification for the nationals. even with her best effort, seemed ratherckluster byparison.


    Summer could sense the shift in Madeline’s attitude and felt an increasing irritation. She opened her mouth to respond when her phone vibrated incessantly. ncing down at the screen, she saw messages from her agent and her girl group members.