"If the value of X is equivalent…" She trailed off and slammed her head lightly on the desk again. "Nope. I give up."
Math had never been her strength. Numbers made her head ache, but throw in letters and the problems might as well have been written in another language.
The clock told her thirty minutes remained.
But when the door creaked open behind her, she arranged her booklet, certain it was Principal Brown coming to collect her paper. As she footsteps approached, she straightened quickly, shoving her exam forward on the desk.
"If I'm going to fail anyway, I may as well head to the rooftop now," she murmured to herself. "Easier to end it there."
But when she turned, it wasn't the principal.
"I didn't know people ended their lives over exams," Hayden said lightly, his tone mockingly calm. "I thought I had seen every kind of psychological breakdown. But then there's you. A whole new species of human."
"Thank you," Stephanie said with a crooked smile, pretending to take it as a compliment.
He shook his head and slid into the seat beside her.
"How's the exam treating you?" he asked.
She gestured helplessly at her near-empty booklet. "I couldn't solve anything. Thanks to you."
He ran his hand through his jet-black hair, the gesture so effortless that she found herself staring at him instead of staying angry.
"I gave you the wrong questions on purpose," he admitted. His voice carried something like remorse, though she doubted its sincerity.
"Why would you do that?" she asked quietly.
"Because I don't like you."
His bluntness stung, but curiosity won over. "Then why tell me now?"
"Because I feel bad." He reached over, lifted her exam booklet from her desk, and studied the page as if it were his own.
"What are you doing?" she asked, though her heart already knew.
"Call it repayment," he said, drawing a pen from the pocket of his uniform jacket. "For what you did for me back in the car."
Her pulse quickened as he began to write. Danger had always thrilled her, but this—this was different. Cheating was not her kind of danger.
If she was caught, she wouldn't just be expelled. She would be blacklisted from every other school worth attending. No academy would take a student thrown out of the top one.
"This is cheating," she whispered urgently, her eyes fixed on the door. "If they catch us, I'm finished."
"Relax," Hayden said without looking up. "We're not doing anything wrong."
She glared. "Not doing anything wrong? You're literally writing in my exam book!"
"It's only this once. Stop shaking."
"is that what you said when you stole the rival team's playbook?" she muttered.
His hand paused, and his eyes lifted sharply to meet hers. "Keep talking, and your exam will suffer for it."
Stephanie pressed her lips together and tucked her hair nervously behind her ear.
Hayden smirked as he bent over her paper again. "You should try relaxing. He's not coming. Principal Lee only stays when he intends to watch. If he left, it means he wants you to cheat. He doesn't even believe in you."
Stephanie scoffed, but her hand trembled anyway.