Chapter 55

Grace Miller had disliked Elise for a long time. Elise had embarrassed her in front of their classmates, and then nearly beaten her by a crushing margin in the vote for the sports-day flag bearer. Grace had only won because Elise withdrew.

She'd got the position she'd wanted, but instead of feeling satisfied, she'd felt humiliated. It was as though Elise had graciously handed her something she no longer wanted. Seeing Elise anger the physics teacher was a welcome change.

It was a particularly bad day to be caught reading another subject. The monthly assessments were in two days, and Mr. Lewis was rushing them through the material, picking important problem types from the workbook to explain.

Elise stood obediently, looking suitably sorry, but he had no intention of letting her off. The approaching tests made him even more anxious than his students. Several others had physics books open and were obviously daydreaming too. Now that he had caught Elise, he could make an example of her.

He clasped his hands behind his back and walked down from the lectern. Students stiffened as he passed.

“So you do know this is physics. What were you reading?”

Elise had seen him lose his temper before. Conscious that she was in the wrong, she nervously pulled the essay collection from her desk.

Mr. Lewis looked it over and gave an unreadable smile. “Leisure reading?”

The room fell still. Everyone recognized the calm before the storm.

Elise almost objected. It was study material, after all. But most of it consisted of model essays, with little actual instruction. To Mr. Lewis, that probably amounted to leisure reading. Arguing would only make him angrier.

“So you've decided you don't need points in physics?”

“I'm sorry,” she said.

He walked around the classroom until nobody dared meet his eyes, then returned to the front and slammed the book onto the lectern.

“Was summer vacation not long enough? The assessments are in two days! And I'm not just talking about her. I know what the rest of you are doing down there. If you don't start reviewing now, it'll be too late to regret it when the results come out!

“This class ranks second in the grade. If your average falls below Class Three or Class Four, the whole grade will laugh at you. Even if you're not embarrassed, I will be!”

His anger swept up the entire class. At first Elise had been frightened, but after standing there for a while and watching him scold everyone, she began to grow used to it. Nora, who was timid to begin with, kept her head down, her heart pounding.

At last Mr. Lewis pointed at Elise. “You've studied enough physics, have you? You don't need this lesson? Fine. Come up and teach it.”

He had just marked the problems he planned to work through; he hadn't explained any of them yet. The class looked up in surprise. Even if Elise could solve every problem, she would still have to explain her reasoning. One mistake would give him another opening to lecture them.

Several students looked at her sympathetically. They had never seen him so angry that he'd made a student teach the class. Grace propped her chin on her hand and looked down at her workbook, unable to suppress her smile. Serves her right.

Elise bit her lip. She had been wrong to read during his lesson, and she'd chosen the worst possible moment. Still, she had already worked through the problems in the workbook on her own. Explaining them shouldn't be difficult.

“Come on,” Mr. Lewis said. “Show everyone how well you know physics, since you're so unconcerned about the test.”

He was ready to use her mistakes to bring the class back to its senses, then step in and explain the correct answers himself. “If you get them all right, you can read whatever you like in my lessons from now on. I won't stop you. That goes for everyone here. Anyone who can solve all the problems I've marked and explain every step correctly can do whatever they want in my class. Read novels, play on your phone. I won't interfere.”

The students nearly groaned. Some of the marked problems were difficult, and even getting the answers right didn't mean they could explain their reasoning clearly. As for actually playing on a phone in Mr. Lewis's class, who would dare?

He moved to the side of the lectern and waited. Elise reluctantly picked up her workbook and walked to the front. Her classmates watched her with sympathy. She gave a helpless little smile, opened the book, and turned to him.

“Which problems?”

His face darkened. She hadn't even heard which ones he'd marked.

He told her, his voice cold. Then Elise found the first problem.

“Two ramps have the same height and mass but different inclines, and they're placed on a smooth horizontal surface. Objects start from rest at the top and slide down. The answer is B. Horizontal momentum is conserved for the system of block and ramp.”

Mr. Lewis gripped his workbook in one hand and his ruler in the other, waiting for a mistake. She had the first answer right. Had she guessed?

“Problem two...” Elise turned the page.

He tapped the lectern with the ruler. “Your reasoning.”

She remembered that she was supposed to explain, not simply give the answer, and turned back. After thinking for a moment, she described the conservation of mechanical energy and worked through the other options, explaining why each was wrong. She even pointed out where the relevant principles appeared in the textbook.

At some point Mr. Lewis lowered the hand holding his ruler. He still frowned, but now he kept glancing at her in puzzlement. When Elise transferred, Ms. Parker had asked him to look after her. She had come from an ordinary school, and Parker worried she might struggle to keep up. Yet Elise had solved this problem and explained it so thoroughly that he wasn't sure he could have covered it better himself.

Was she really a transfer from an ordinary school?

Her classmates were just as surprised. Mr. Lewis might have skipped a step on the grounds that he'd taught it before. Elise laid out each part in order, and it was easy to follow. Wasn't she supposed to be a poor student?

They all knew about her bet with Grace over the assessment results. Grace was the physics representative; Elise was the transfer student whose old grades were said to be average. Everyone had expected Elise to lose.

Mr. Lewis said nothing, so Elise assumed her explanation had been correct. She went on to the second problem. As she continued, the students' confusion gave way to interest. When she reached a principle they had struggled with, several nodded along.

By the third problem, Mr. Lewis had shifted his stance several times. He had expected to catch her out and turn the mistake into a warning, but her explanations left him nothing to add. Perhaps she had simply paid attention to the earlier lessons. The later problems were harder. Surely she couldn't explain all of those too.

“There are two cases where the torque of a force about an axis is zero,” Elise said steadily. “When its line of action passes through the axis, and when the force is parallel to the axis...”

Mr. Lewis rapped his knuckle on the lectern. At last.

“That's incomplete. When two forces act at the same time, their combined torque about the axis can also be zero.”

Grace's fingers relaxed around her workbook. She had grown more anxious with each correct explanation, unable to find a single flaw. Now she could breathe again.

Mr. Lewis cleared his throat. “Elise has done fairly well, but there are still gaps in her knowledge. That's why you must pay attention in class. The earlier questions were relatively easy; luck won't necessarily carry you through the harder ones.”

A number of students nodded. Perhaps Elise had only been able to answer because she'd listened in class, and now the increased difficulty had caught her out.

Elise frowned. “But, sir, that point is in the second chapter, third section of the physics material for the spring semester. We haven't covered it yet, and it isn't on this assessment.”

Someone snorted with laughter. Mr. Lewis's expression changed. He had been so intent on finding a flaw that he'd forgotten they hadn't reached that material.

Being corrected in front of the class was bad enough. Then a troubling thought occurred to him. Elise knew exactly where to find the topic in next semester's material. Had she already mastered all of it?

She finished explaining every problem and looked at him. He was still frowning, apparently lost in thought.

“Mr. Lewis?”

He came back to himself and coughed. “Elise did well. She explained even the hardest problem clearly. Did you all understand? Ask if there's anything you didn't follow.”

The class answered together that they understood. Elise had solved every problem and made even the hardest parts clear. Best of all, she had given Mr. Lewis no chance to turn her mistakes into another lecture. His anger had vanished without anyone else having to face it.

He praised her, but his face remained stiff. His plan had failed, and he'd been embarrassed in front of everyone. When the bell rang, he seized his ruler and textbook, relieved to leave.

Before he could take a step, Logan Reed raised his hand. “Sir, did you mean what you said? If someone explained all those problems, you'd let her do whatever she wanted in physics from now on? So Elise can do anything she likes in your class?”

He sounded delighted. Mr. Lewis thought irritably that Logan hadn't solved a single problem himself. What was the boy so pleased about?

“Yes, sir, you said it!” others called. “You can't go back on your word!”

It was rare to see Mr. Lewis bested. Elise had won so completely that the class cheered as if the victory were theirs too.

“I meant what I said,” he snapped, and left.

The moment he was through the door, cheers erupted. Someone flung a book into the air. Students passing Class Two peered in to see what had happened.

Elise returned to her seat. Nora grabbed her arm, excitement overcoming her shyness. “Elise, you were amazing!”

Elise smiled. All the effort she'd put in had not been wasted.

Only Grace's corner of the classroom remained silent. Her closest friend hurried over after the bell.

Grace glanced at Logan and the others. “Do they have to make such a fuss? They're all desperate to flatter her.”

“Forget them,” her friend said. “They're only doing it because she's pretty. She gets a few problems right and they act like she's a genius. It's ridiculous.”

Grace said nothing. She had always been among the best in the class at physics, with only Owen able to compete with her, and there had been one problem today that she couldn't solve. Elise had solved them all.

The stake in their bet mattered less than her pride. Grace wanted to beat Elise, even if only once.

“So what if she's decent at physics?” she said. “What good is that?”

“Exactly. You don't need to be afraid of her. Even if she paid attention in physics, she might not catch up in the other subjects.”

That soothed Grace somewhat. She clenched her teeth. “I'll beat her so badly she won't be able to get back up. I'll make her admit to my face that she isn't as good as me.”

On assessment day, Elise got up early. She had worried about being tired, so she'd put her practice problems aside the previous evening and gone to bed early instead.

Her brothers were already at breakfast when she came downstairs. Once she sat, Daniel brought her a plate: one long piece of fried dough and two eggs, arranged to look like the number 100.

She blinked. “What's this?”

“A perfect score,” Julian said with a smile. “For luck.”

“When did you start believing in that?” She had always thought he would rather spend the time doing a few more problems than rely on superstition.

“I didn't before. Now I want to.” His expression softened.

At first he'd thought the assessment was no great matter, but as it drew closer he'd grown more nervous than he had been for his own college entrance tests. He had watched Elise work hard and wanted her efforts rewarded. If he could take the tests for her, he would. Instead, he'd searched online for advice and found the breakfast idea, then asked Daniel to prepare it.

“You'll do well, Ellie. I've also had a special soup made for you. Daniel will bring it to school at lunchtime.”

“Thank you, Julian.”

“What would you like as a reward if you do well?”

“A reward?” Her eyes brightened. She hadn't thought of that, but she liked presents as much as anyone. “What counts as doing well?”

Julian considered. “A passing grade.”

Her old grades had been average, but she'd passed before, and he believed she could pass now. He set the bar low anyway. If she had an unusually bad day, he didn't want to lose his chance to give her a present.

Elise stared at him. In his eyes, was passing really such an achievement?

“I don't know. I haven't thought about it yet.”

“How about the house by the lake in the mountains?” Julian asked. “You said you liked it.”

She had seen photographs in his study: his vacation house in a quiet wooded setting, with a pool, hot springs and a karaoke room. She'd wanted to take Nora and Jade there, and Julian had already agreed to lend it to her for a visit. Now he wanted to give it to her?

“No, Julian. It's too expensive.” She already had so many properties; she couldn't accept another from him.

He sighed inwardly. She still disliked accepting costly gifts. In fact, he'd transferred the house to her name as soon as she'd asked to borrow it. Since she could use it whenever she liked, he didn't press her.

Adrian had watched the exchange. He scoffed. “Of course you'd give a present that reeks of money. There's no sincerity in it.”

Julian raised an eyebrow. “And what sincere gift have you prepared?”