Unveiling Samantha by Veronica Wright

Chapter 23 

Samantha breezed through the schoolyard and got to 9th-grade homeroom just in the nick of time. The second she hit the door, a chorus of voices hit her ears-class was already in full swing, students standing and reciting to shake off the morning sleepies. The place was buzzing. 

She zigzagged to her desk, and Zachary, sly as ever, slipped her note. It was short and sweet: all the top students aced the test. Samantha’s face was a mask of cool. She shot Zach a tiny no and tossed the note back. 

It happened to be time for literature class. As Casey walked in, she squinted, surprised to see yesterday’s noisy crowd now as quiet as a mouse. She took a step back and looked at the classroom sign. It was Class Nine. Casey entered the classroom carrying a stack of test papers to the podium. While pleased to see the students working diligently to make progress, she had. to stop them and told them to prepare for an exam. Before she could ask the students to stop, everyone became silent and sat down uniformly. 

Whispers circled that Samantha wasn’t big on memorizing stuff out loud and that she thought the long school days were plenty. 

“Okay, folks, Casey chimed, “Today, we’re doubling down: two pop quizzes. Casey spread the tests out and declared, “You’ve had your heads in the clouds too long. Let’s see what sticks.” 

Some groans, some kids trying to look invisible. They barely learned anything. Samantha was the only hope, However, they were unsure if they could apply what they had memorized. 

The class was unreasonably quiet, completely different from yesterday’s noisy class. It seemed everyone had changedly 

overnight. When Casey saw that, she looked in Samantha’s direction and saw she was sleeping on the desk. Casey could smile helplessly. 

The students were either scratching their heads or looking happy. The test paper’s content was based largely on an archaic poem Casey had asked the class to recite at the beginning of the semester. It was also the poem Samantha had asked the class to recite. It was a total giveaway question for some students who did what Samantha asked. 

However, the students sitting behind Samantha’s table felt anxious when they found her lying on her table. The class would end in twenty minutes, and they wondered why Samantha hadn’t started writing yet. Could it be Samantha’s grades are actually worse than my?’ one of the students thought. But he dropped his thought soon and kept writing for the clock was ticking. 

After two minutes, Samantha finally got up: 

and wrote down her name. Then, she began to answer the paper slowly 

As the final bell rang, the papers flew to the front. The winners and losers could be spot in an instant. But talk about the test quickly turned to recitation. 

As Zach peered over at Samantha, he cracked, “Hiding your strength, huh?” 

Samantha just opened the window, letting the breeze play with her perfectly messy hair, and grabbed some chips. “I mean, as long as I pass,” she mumbled through a yawn. 

Zachary nodded in agreement, thinking, ‘Can Samantha just pass the exam? If that’s the case, will I perform better than her?” 

The sound of the recitation got louder and louder. Samantha le the recitation racket behind and wandered out munching on her chips. 

Halfway there, she bumped into Christopher. 

A pint-sized girl was in his face, seeming to be pleading for something. He dodged her like a pro. As his eyes met 

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Chapter 23 

Samantha’s, the icy stare melted into a kind of goofy grin. 

Samantha’s attention returned to the girl, wondering, “Why does she look like Adrienne?’ Her hair was tied up, so Samantha didn’t recognize her for the moment. 

Samantha caught Adrienne glaring at her. With hardly anyone else around. Adrienne’s jealousy was out in the open. 

Feeling a bit rattled, Samantha tossed her trash and strolled over to the mini-mart, hands buried in her pockets. For the past few days, Samantha had been dealing with low blood sugar and bad run out of her emergency lollipops. Time to stock up on 

treats. 

Christopher, eyeing the whole scene, shot Adrienne a warning look before tailing Samantha. 

Adrienne fumed. ‘Really? Samantha shows up, and suddenly she’s all Christopher cares about? I’ve been here for years, and I’m like invisible to him! She was dead set on not letting Samantha stick around. 

As the halls filled up, Adrienne forced herself to play it cool and made her way to class, turning heads as she walked. 

Samantha, pushing a cart piled high with snacks in the mini-mart, felt Christopher’s eyes on her. 

The onlookers were itching to snap pics until Christopher shot them that don’t-you-dare stare. 

Finally, Samantha spun around. “What’s the deal? You following me?” 

Christopher just smiled, all chill. “Sorry, just here for some snacks. Got no clue what’s good, so I figured I’d check out what you’re getting. 

She eyed him skeptically. Christopher didn’t strike her as the junk food type. After a tense moment, she popped the question. “You into bold flavors or do you keep it light?” 

“I’m easy,” he shrugged, game to try any snack Samantha was into 

Seeing that, she pulled out a pack of beef jerky. “It’s savory. Came straight from Angevin University. Quality ingredients, nothing sketchy,” she said, pretty proud of the find. She reached for another snack and started chatting it up, but by the third one, she cut herself off. It suddenly felt like she was giving a sales pitch. Samantha glanced up to see Christopher grinning and quickly wheeled the cart to the checkout. 

Knowing he’d rubbed Samantha the wrong way, Christopher kept quiet and stayed a few steps behind. 

She didn’t shoot Christopher so much as a glance until they were back in class. 

Come test time, Samantha had a stash of snacks at the ready. But once that test hit her desk, she keeled over and crashed 

hard. 

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