Last Place, First Choice

"Now, I'd like to invite the parent of the lowest-scoring student in the class to come up and share her experience." The classroom fell completely silent during the parent-teacher meeting. Then, mocking laughter broke out from every corner. My daughter's name was circled at the very bottom of the class rankings on the blackboard. Her single-digit score was written beside it in bright red chalk. The 50 parents sitting below stared at me with cruel smiles. The homeroom teacher tapped the podium and sneered impatiently. "Mrs. Montgomery, don't waste everyone's time. Come up here and say a few words." I picked up my handbag and calmly walked to the front of the classroom. They had no idea that inside my bag was a special admission letter from the National Academy of Sciences, personally offered to my daughter as a gifted young genius. Chapter 1 As soon as I stepped onto the stage, I placed my handbag beside the desk. The teacher, Isla Carter, pulled out a math test and slapped it down in front of me. A huge red "9" was written across the front of the test, making the score impossible to miss. Isla's voice cut through the room as she repeatedly tapped the test paper with her finger, making it smack loudly against the desk. "Just look at your daughter's grades. She guessed every answer on the multiple-choice section. She left every written problem blank. During class, she's always got her head down, scribbling random things on her paper. She dragged our class average down by three points and ruined our chances of winning the monthly class award again!" The parents sitting below immediately became angry. One of the parents in the front row, Eleanor Sterling, pointed toward the stage and shouted. "Do you have any idea how competitive this school is? Why should someone like her be taking up a seat? She needs to be expelled! What if being in the same class as someone like her hurts our children's chances?" The shouting grew louder, but I ignored them. I simply lowered my head and turned the test paper over. There was no blank space on the back. Instead, it was covered in extremely complex formulas and calculations from non-Euclidean geometry. They were the core algorithms used to develop the school's competition robot. What ordinary people saw as random scribbles was actually the world of advanced calculations inside my daughter Sylvana Montgomery's high-functioning autistic mind. Basic middle school math was far too easy for her, so of course she had no interest in answering it. When Isla saw me staring at the back of the test, she walked over and tried to pull the paper away. "Stop looking at that! This nonsense is only disrupting the learning environment for the entire class!" I firmly pressed the paper against the desk. Then I slowly looked around the room before finally turning my eyes toward Isla. I smiled. "Thank you." The noisy classroom fell silent for a moment. Eleanor scoffed from her seat. "Is she pretending to be stupid now that she knows she's in the wrong?" I ignored her and looked straight into Isla's eyes. "Thank you for putting up with Sylvana for the past three years. You were right. This school really isn't the right place for her. I'll transfer her to another school next Monday." Applause suddenly broke out. Eleanor clapped as hard as she could. Isla also let out a sigh of relief before saying smugly, "I'm glad you finally understand. I'll send you the withdrawal papers tonight. Please sign them as soon as possible. Don't get in the way of our class preparing for the final exams." I said nothing. In front of everyone, I tore off the part of the test paper with the red "9" on it. Then I casually tossed it onto the desk. Isla's face changed instantly. "What are you doing?" I carefully folded the back of the paper, the side covered with the non-Euclidean calculations, and slipped it into my pocket. "I'm taking back what belongs to us." With that, I picked up my handbag and walked off the stage, stepping over the scraps of paper on the floor. Chapter 2 As I walked down the aisle, the other parents quickly moved aside, as though being seen near me might somehow rub off on them. But I didn't even look at them as I walked straight out of the classroom. For the past three years, Sylvana had been ignored in this class and always assigned a seat in the very back, right beside the trash can. In the summer, the trash can would stink. In the winter, cold air would blow straight onto her seat. I had gone to Isla countless times and asked her to move Sylvana to another seat. But Isla always brushed me off. "Sylvana doesn't pay attention in class. If she sits in the front, she'll distract the other students. Besides, she's a terrible student anyway. It doesn't matter where she sits." Later, Isla even refused to grade Sylvana's homework. She said grading homework for a student with such a low IQ was an insult to her profession. Yet the girl they called an idiot had brought honor to the entire class. Eleanor's son, Aaron Sterling, was the top student in the class and one of the school's star members of its technology innovation team. Last year, he won first place in the National Youth Science and Technology Competition with an obstacle-avoiding robot. The school received a huge prize for it, and Isla became an award-winning teacher. But no one at the school knew that the core code of Aaron's award-winning robot had been taken from someone else. Every day after class, he would sneak to the back of the classroom and pick up the discarded sheets of paper Sylvana had thrown into the trash can. Aaron could only build a pretty robot by putting together ready-made parts. But the robot's core movement algorithms and gyroscope balance system all came from Sylvana's discarded notes. I discovered the truth two weeks ago. The next day, I took a complete set of blueprints Sylvana had drawn and went to see Isla. "Ms. Carter, the core technology in Aaron's award-winning project belongs to Sylvana." Isla didn't even look at the blueprints. She simply threw the entire stack into the trash can under her desk. "Mrs. Montgomery, are you delusional, or do you really believe your daughter belongs here? A kid who can't even score above single digits on her exams thinks she can compare herself to the top student in the grade? What a joke." She continued mocking me, "Do you even know who Aaron's father is? His family owns two technology companies. Do you really think he needs to steal something from an idiot?" I held back my anger and pointed at the computer screen. "There are very specific patterns in the underlying code. You can have an expert compare them." Isla slammed her laptop shut and lowered her voice. "Stop wasting my time. Even if Sylvana really did draw those things, so what? Aaron was the one who turned them into something valuable. I'm warning you. Aaron is about to win the national championship and receive a guaranteed spot at a top college. Don't even think about ruining this for him at such a critical moment. Our school will never side with the parent of a failing student like you." I looked at Isla's arrogant and selfish face. Then I walked straight out of her office. After leaving the school, I called Alexander Foster, a mentor at the National Academy of Sciences. Alexander was one of the country's leading experts in AI architecture. "Mr. Foster, I think there may be a child you'd be very interested in." I took pictures of several of Sylvana's sketches and sent them to him. Three minutes later, Alexander called me back. Chapter 3 He asked in a trembling voice, "Who came up with this? A redundant logic problem that had been stuck at the supercomputer center for a whole month was solved by these few sheets of paper!" I smiled and answered, "My daughter. She's 12." Three days later, three PhD advisors from the National Academy of Sciences personally delivered a verified special admission letter to our home. The day after the parent-teacher meeting, I went to the school to complete Sylvana's transfer. The process went smoothly. Isla was afraid I would change my mind. At 11 that night, she couldn't wait to send the withdrawal papers to me on WhatsApp. She even sent three voice messages in a row, reminding me that I had to come to the school the next day. After completing the first step at the administration office, I headed straight to Sylvana's classroom. It was break time, so the classroom was chaotic. I walked to the seat in the back, right beside the trash can. Sylvana's desk had been shoved into the corner, and her desk drawer was filled with random junk. I was about to take out her books when Aaron suddenly rushed over and shoved me aside. He stood in front of Sylvana's desk, nervously glancing at her drawer. He was also holding a crumpled piece of white paper. "What are you doing? This is Sylvana's seat." I stared at him coldly. Aaron was sweating heavily, and he wouldn't meet my eyes. "I... I just wanted to help Sylvana pack her things." I sneered. "I don't need your help. Get lost." I pushed Aaron aside, then pulled a small portable paper shredder out of my canvas bag. I plugged it into a portable power bank and turned it on. I opened Sylvana's desk drawer and took out all the scrap paper, notebooks, and calculation books covered in strange symbols. I didn't bother sorting out which ones were schoolwork and which ones were drafts. Right in front of Aaron, I fed the papers straight into the shredder. Aaron panicked. His eyes locked onto one of the notebooks filled with complicated circuit diagrams. "Don't tear that one up. Please leave that notebook!" He rushed over to grab it. I slapped the back of his hand hard. Aaron grabbed his hand and screamed. "Why did you hit me?" I glared at him. "These are my daughter's things. I'll do whatever I want with them." Aaron's face turned bright red with anger. But he had no idea how to argue back. The commotion also caught Eleanor's attention in the hallway. She was at the school that day as the head of the Parent-Teacher Association to discuss the ceremony for the upcoming competition. Eleanor rushed into the classroom and immediately shielded Aaron behind her. Then she pointed at me and shouted. "Beatrice, have you lost your mind? You're the mother of a failing student who was kicked out of this school, and you actually dare to bully one of our top students? I'm calling the police!" I didn't even look at her. I continued feeding the last stack of draft papers into the shredder. Aaron stared at the shredded pieces with bloodshot eyes. I put my bag on my shoulder, picked up the trash bag, and looked at Eleanor with a mocking smile. "Eleanor, teach your son some manners. Don't let him steal things." With that, I walked away with every piece of the core logic. Chapter 4 I left Aaron with nothing but a complete mess. Since the final step of the withdrawal process required signatures from both the principal and the homeroom teacher, I picked up my things and headed to the principal's office. But before I reached the door, I heard Eleanor's sharp, angry voice coming from inside. "Mr. Blackwood, you have to do something about this! Sylvana is not only a stupid student who drags down the class average, she's also a thief!" I stopped and looked through the half-open office door. Eleanor was sitting on the couch, throwing a fit, while Aaron stood beside her with red eyes, pretending to look pitiful. Isla chimed in, filled with righteous anger. "Sylvana was jealous that Aaron was going to win the national championship, so she secretly copied his core algorithm!" Eleanor gritted her teeth as she accused me. "Her mother even destroyed all the original drafts with a shredder right in front of me! She knows her daughter is useless, so she wants to destroy Aaron too, just to get revenge on the school for winning the national championship!" I listened to them and couldn't help laughing. Then I pushed the door open and walked inside. The moment they saw me, the room fell silent. As soon as Isla saw me, Isla angrily demanded, "Mrs. Montgomery, how dare you come back? Sylvana stole confidential information, and you destroyed the core materials for the competition. Both of you have committed crimes!" Alistair Blackwood slammed his hand on the desk in anger. "Mrs. Montgomery, the reputation of a top-ranked high school like this isn't something we take lightly. Aaron is one of our most promising students, and he has a guaranteed spot at a top college. What you and Sylvana have done out of spite is absolutely disgraceful." I walked straight to his desk and placed the withdrawal form in front of him. "Why don't you check the security cameras before accusing Sylvana of stealing based on nothing but their one-sided stories? But none of that matters anymore. Just sign the form. We're leaving." Eleanor suddenly rushed over and tore the withdrawal form to pieces. "Oh, so your plan is to transfer her and run away from this mess? No way. This isn't over until you've paid us 500,000 dollars in damages!" The more she talked, the more worked up she became. She suddenly grabbed me by the collar and reached for the canvas bag in my hand. "I want to see what else this little thief is hiding in her bag!" I struggled to pull myself free, but she clung to the strap like a madwoman. I turned and looked at Alistair and Isla. Alistair calmly drank his water while staring at the ceiling, pretending he hadn't seen anything. Isla simply stood there with a smug, mocking smile. Eleanor kept pulling until everything inside my bag spilled across the floor. Her eyes immediately landed on a small crystal teddy bear. It was the USB drive containing a backup of Sylvana's core algorithms. Its outer shell had been specially designed to disguise it, so it looked like an ordinary glass figurine. Because the USB drive was extremely important, I had always kept it with me. Eleanor picked up the crystal teddy bear and looked at it with disgust. "Oh, I thought you had gold bars hidden in that bag. And after all that, it's just some cheap plastic toy?" My face darkened. I stared coldly at Eleanor. "Put it down. Now. I warn you, that's not a toy. If you damage it, your entire family won't be able to afford the cost." Chapter 5 Eleanor froze for a moment. Then she burst into exaggerated laughter. Isla snickered. "Oh, Mrs. Montgomery, you've got to be kidding. A kid who gets single-digit scores in every subject picks up a cheap little glass bear from a dollar store, and suddenly it's some priceless treasure?" Aaron chimed in from the side. "Exactly. These poor people have never seen anything good before. They think a piece of junk is a treasure!" Eleanor gave me a nasty look as she played with the crystal teddy bear. "Something our family can't afford? There's nothing in this city that our family can't afford! You destroyed all of Aaron's hard work, so I'll smash your precious little toy too. Consider it payback for my son!" As soon as she finished speaking, she raised the crystal teddy bear, ready to smash it. "Don't!" Without thinking, I lunged forward to snatch the crystal teddy bear back. Slap! Eleanor slapped me hard across the face. Half of my face instantly swelled up, and my ears rang. Before I could even regain my balance, Aaron rushed over and shoved me with all his strength. "Get away from me! Don't touch my mom!" I lost my balance and crashed hard onto the stone floor. Crack! The sound of the crystal shattering rang through the office. Eleanor proudly clapped her hands. "How much could this thing possibly be worth? Was it really worth throwing yourself at me like that? One dollar? Two dollars? I'll transfer the money to you right now." I calmly looked at the shattered chip pieces on the floor. Then I gave her a cold smile. That was an encrypted storage drive with the highest security clearance at the National Academy of Sciences. Inside was the master copy of the 3D modeling core code Sylvana had just completed. I was about to pull out my phone and call the police when the office's heavy double doors suddenly burst open. Several people walked in. The School District Superintendent, Thomas Caldwell, was at the front, followed closely by three members of the National Academy of Sciences. Alistair froze when he saw them. He immediately put on a flattering smile and hurried over. "Oh, Mr. Caldwell! What brings you here? Please, have a seat!" Alistair reached out to shake Thomas's hand. But Thomas looked displeased and walked right past him. Dr. Charles Whitaker, the leading NAS member, didn't even spare Alistair a glance. He walked straight toward me. The famous scientist from the national research community firmly shook my hand and said excitedly, "Mrs. Montgomery, I'm truly sorry. The paperwork took longer than expected. You and Sylvana have been waiting far too long!" Alistair and Isla were both stunned. Thomas took a document out of his briefcase and spoke in a serious voice, "We're here to officially inform you that Sylvana Montgomery has been granted special admission to the National Academy of Sciences program. From this moment forward, all of her academic work and personal information will be classified as a national-level secret." The entire office fell silent.