Chapter 197
âLook, as a student myself, I think youâre unfair. Who says Cordeliaâs grades are bad? And life isnât just hitting the books
âBut as , itâs crunch time for the SATs. Sure, lifeâs not all about studying, but stage has its own priorities. Right now, hitting those books is about smoothing out the road aheadâ
âOffâtopic, guys, but I just realized how smart Sweetheart is! Iâm even more of a fan now. Gorgeous, high GPA, and sheâs a whiz at gaming? Sheâs like some kind of angel!â
Admiration for intellectuals with stellar academic achievements was common, and Sweetheartâs popularity had taken a hit after yesterdayâs debacle. But today, with her educational credentials out in the open, her popularity had rebounded
Merry glanced at the chat room. âAfter all that Sweetheartâs stream is even more popular nowâ
Little Parrot snorted, âSome no name university from Ontoky City, and she dares to compare with you? Preposterous! Lia, letâs show them!â
Cordelia, the subject of their discussion, was indifferent. âBoring.â
Ever since that livestream incident with Little Parrot, she had seen the irresponsible nature of online attacks, where words were thrown without , often wounding deeply. No wonder they called it online exposure.
She continued reading, unconcerned by the online chatter. Her âlife friends knew her as a straightâA student. Why worry about faceless netizens?
To her, it was all noise.
Seeing Cordeliaâs cool response, Merry suddenly felt her own agitation was rather pointless.
But just because Lia wasnât into the online scene didnât mean Merry wasnât.
Fuming, Merry logged into an alt account and waded into the online fray:
âYou think Liaâs a bad student? FYI, sheâs Ivy League material, aiming for Superiority College!â
â âDreaming, are we? Superiority
not Greenmeadow Academyâ
College arenât that easy. Besides, itâs always Greenmeadow Highâs students who get those,
ââBig talk, everyone can do that, Iâm Harvardâbound then!â
Trying to pick a fight with Sweetheart? Even getting into a regular Ontoky University is a stretch for her,â
â âDoesnât Greenmeadow Academy focus on international studies? Barely anyone there takes the SATs, right?â
The world was a battlefield, and Merry was in the thick of it, her heart aching as she read the brainless attacks
She was about to share the posts in the âFlame Unionâ group, rallying her online allies to join her crusade, when her phone
chimed.
Distracted by the recent chat in Flame Union, she mistook the first chat window for the group and didnât realize she had messaged the wrong place in her indignation.
Merry texted, [Guys, I need backup! Theyâre trashing my Lia, have they forgotten our millionâstrong army?]
[I can take a hundred of them, no sweat!]
[Insult me all you want, but back off Lia! I want everyone in on this, or youâre dead to me!]
I
[After post the tweet, send me screenshots, Iâll like it, buy likes if I have to. If you can get over ten thousand likes and retweets with your own army, youâre my dad!]
After sending the messages, she returned to her Twitter offensive, unaware of her mistake. The deal for Liaâs university. placement was done, but without tangible proof handy, and certainly not something to flaunt online, Merry felt helpless
While Merry was deep into her sevenâhundredth reply, another message popped up.
This time, she saw clearly it was Brandon, her crush, with a screenshot attached.
Startled, Merry hurried back to the chat. Brandon had shared a screenshot from his own popular Twitter account
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Chapter 197
Bland said, âActress Cordelia has indeed been accepted to Superiority College on a scholarship. I can vouch for that. Please keep discussions civil and refrain from commenting on matters youâre not fully informed about.â
The was barely two old and had thousands of retweets.
As Merry processing this, Brandon messaged again, [Now, call me dad.]
Merry froze, then rapidly scrolled through the messages she had mistakenly sent him.
Brandon had first asked, [Are you in class?]
Then came her barrage of messagesâ¦.
Merryâs heart sank. Her phone dropped from her grasp as she buried her face in her textbook, a wave of mortification washing
over her.
Her carefully constructed image of composure and grace had crumbled.
And then, Brandon sent another message, [Never mind, I donât want to be your dad.]
On impulse, Merry typed back, [Then what do you want to be to me?
She hit send before the gravity of her words hit her, and she scrambled to retract them, but it was too late. Brandon had seen it, and now he sent a voice message. Normally, she would have waited to listen, but this was from her idolâ¦.
She quickly scanned the room, plugged in her earbuds, and pressed play. Brandonâs deep, resonant voice tickled her eardrums, âWell, how about you call me âoppaâ instead?â
Oppa⦠She felt like sheâd died and gone to heaven. The sweetness was overwhelming!
So there was Cordelia, witnessing the sight of Little Parrot who, in the first half of class, had been all fired up, battling it out like some kind of superhero for hundreds of rounds. But in the latter half, she was grinning like a goofball.
The English teacher caught her not paying attention and told her to stand at the back of the room to listen. To everyoneâs surprise, she stood up with a smileâ¦
When the class was over, Merry returned to her desk.
Thatâs when she noticed that Blandâs latest tweet was also receiving some skeptical comments:
ââBland already vouched for her last time, and now heâs doing it again? Why do I smell a scandal brewing â
ââCordelia has a boyfriend, and heâs quite the looker!
the season
âIs it just me, or is this hilarious? Guaranteed admission to Superiority College? As far Iâm aware, itâs not even th for that yet. Arenât they afraid their bluff will be called?â
Meanwhile, in Sweetheartâs gaming livestreamâ¦.
She was playing games and looking at the chat, which was filled with compliments for her and digs at Cordelia. She was having a blast.
But then, she saw a message scroll by saying that Bland had posted something to clear Learnerâs name.
Sweetheart checked it out and laughed. She knew the drill, having been through the SATS herself, âGuaranteed admission? Maybe at other schools, but Superiority College? The timing is quite sensitive, you knowâall the competitions havenât even started yet. But I did notice that this year, Superiority College has only guaranteed admission to one student. You guys can do a bit of digging. It was all over the trending topics not too long agoâ¦â