b10 /bvouchers

A few minuteste. Troy thought in disbelief, ‘and she wants to blow the whole thing up? Hiring her was ba /bserious mistake.

The students started whispering among themselves. Hallie felt a hot flush of humiliation creep up her neck. Thinking fast, she changed her strategy.

“Mr. ckwell, if you’re going to y favorites, I can’t stop you,” she said, her voice dripping with false sincerity. “But she is a stain on this institution.

“What happens when she takes the SAT and fails? It’ll be a ck mark on our record. So let me be clear, Mr. ckwell. It’s her or me. This program isn’t big enough for both of us.”

Troy frowned. He was in a tough spot. He waspletely on Olivia’s side, but he was still responsible for the other students.

On one hand, Hallie was an expensive hire, and firing her would be a costly headache. On the other hand, Olivia waspletely in the right.

Troy knew why Olivia never went to high school. And he knew it was the fault of two assholes from the Sherman family.

They had stolen her chance at a normal education. With Olivia’s brilliant mind, Troy had no doubt she would have excelled at any high school she chose.

Olivia saw the conflict on Troy’s face. After a moment’s thought, she turned to Hallie. “So, what do you want?”

“You see that, Mr. ckwell? That’s the disrespect I’m talking about.” Olivia’s calm question only made Hallie angrier. “In all my years, I have never encountered a student with such aplete and utterck of respect.”

“Enough,” Troy snapped, mming his hand on the desk. His patience was gone. “Olivia is trying to give you a way out of this, so stop the drama. Let me make myself clear: I will fire you before I allow her to leave this program.”

A wave of shock silenced the ssroom. No one could understand who Olivia was to make Troy defend her like that. Some even started to wonder if Olivia was a secret daughter of the ckwell family.

Troy pinned Hallie with an icy stare. “Either do your job or get out. Believe me, there’s a long line of teachers who would kill for your spot.”

Troy had made up his mind. ‘Losing Hallie is nothing,’ he thought. ‘I can hire another teacher tomorrow. But finding a genius like Olivia’s? That’s impossible.

‘Besides, Hallie started this whole thing. And instead of admitting she was wrong, she tries to threaten me with quitting? Seriously? In a country of over a billion people, she thinks I can’t find another Englorian tutor?‘

Troy’s words hit Hallie like a physical p, making her head spin. ‘Did I hear him right?‘ she thought, panicking. ‘He’s really going to fire me over this little brat? No. No way!

“That ispletely unfair, Mr. ckwell,” Hallie shrieked. “You can’t just fire me to shut me up. It doesn’t

b651 /b

10 vouchers

change the fact that she never went to high school. If you let her stay, this elite SAT prep course bes aughingstock.”

The students started whispering again, their voices filled with doubt. fnbe39 N?w ?ovel chapt?rs are published on FιndＮovel/fnbe39

“Ms. Brown’s right… This is a prep course for top scorers. Why is a person who never went to high school here?” one of them muttered.

“Exactly. She hasn’t even taken the sses we have. How is she going to keep up? She’s dragging us all down,” another chimed in.

But another voice cut through. “Are we forgetting she’s the one who exposed that the test was a fraud? She seems to know the material better than the teacher…”

“Ms. Brown, you-” Troy clutched at his heart, feeling his blood pressure skyrocket. “What is your endgame here?”

‘What is Hallie’s problem?‘ he thought. ‘Why is she so determined to destroy Olivia?‘

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