Reborn with My Genius Husband-Chapter 26: The Iron Triangle Is Split Up

Third period was English class.

Clara Zane stood at the podium, book in hand. She wore black-rimmed glasses and a light brown trench coat, her hair in tight curls. She had a certain intellectual air about her.

She began speaking, her voice clear. "You’ve all seen your scores. This exam was difficult, and the entire grade performed poorly, which is understandable. But the question formats were similar in difficulty to the college entrance exam. With scores like these, your chances of getting into a good university are basically nonexistent."

"You all need to make more time for English in your daily studies. No matter how high your math and science scores are, if your English is bad, your overall score will be dragged down."

Most of the students in the science track were relatively weak in English.

She continued for a few more minutes. "We’ll have a normal lesson today. I’ll go over the exam papers during evening self-study tonight. I assigned vocabulary for a dictation test last week. Did you all study for it?"

As always in these situations, the class replied in a chorus, "We studied!"

Of course, many of them were just bluffing their way through.

Having been a teacher for so many years, Clara Zane saw right through their little tricks. "Alright," she said. "I’ll call on three students to come to the board and write out the words."

As soon as they heard names would be called, the entire class, apart from a few diligent students, buried their heads like ostriches. Anna Willow wanted nothing more than to hide her head under her desk.

’Don’t call on me, don’t call on me, don’t call on me.’

Holly Winslow glanced at her, the corners of her lips twitching in amusement. As she inadvertently looked up, her eyes met Clara Zane’s. She was struck by a strong premonition that she was about to be picked.

"..."

Sure enough, a moment later Clara Zane called out the names. "Holly Winslow, Quentin Gardner, and Justine Raines."

Having escaped disaster, Anna Willow breathed a sigh of relief. She then gave Holly Winslow a sympathetic, ’you’re-on-your-own’ look.

Quentin Gardner and Justine Raines took the spots on the left and right, leaving the center for Holly Winslow.

Holly Winslow walked up to the board, picked up a piece of chalk, and stood in the center. Perhaps out of a habit from her teaching days, she instinctively wore down the tip on the chalk rail at the bottom of the board.

Clara Zane picked up her textbook. "Analysis. Analysis. Analysis."

Her gaze was fixed on Holly Winslow. She was a little surprised Holly had managed to score a 90 on the English exam.

Holly Winslow wrote the word and its definition without the slightest hesitation. Her handwriting was neat and pleasing to look at.

She continued, "Obvious... obvious... obvious..."

...

Five short minutes and twenty words later, Clara Zane began to announce the correct answers.

She looked at Holly Winslow with a kind glint in her eyes. "Justine Raines missed three, and Quentin Gardner missed eight. You two will copy the Unit One vocabulary list twenty times. Remember, no matter how good you are at math, poor English will still drag your score down significantly."

"Holly Winslow got every single one correct, and her handwriting is very neat. The rest of you should learn from her example."

The entire class let out a collective "Whoa!" in surprise. They had all watched her write, though; she clearly hadn’t cheated.

Clara Zane handed Holly Winslow a new notebook. "Keep up the great work, Holly," she said encouragingly. "I have high hopes for you."

Anyone who got a perfect score on the English dictation test would receive a prize, which Clara Zane paid for out of her own pocket.

Holly Winslow accepted it with a sweet smile. "Thank you, Teacher Zane."

A faint smile touched Clara Zane’s lips.

...

Ten minutes before the lunch break, Julian Carlton arrived early, holding a sheet with the exam rankings.

He scanned the empty seats in the classroom. About four or five students were missing. He decided not to bring up the reseating just yet and instead began to summarize the monthly exam results. "Your scores on this exam were not ideal. Don’t let your guard down just because it’s only your second year. If you wait until your third year to get serious, it’ll be too late."

"You might think the college entrance exam isn’t a big deal right now—just a small blip in your life. But as someone who’s been in your shoes, I can tell you in all seriousness that a huge part of your future will be determined by this exam."

"I’m sure some of you are thinking, ’How important can one exam be? It’s just a test.’"

He cracked a little joke at this point. "Of course, if your family owns a mine, feel free to think that way. But for those who don’t, you’d better not. When other people stop studying, they can go home and inherit the family mine. If you stop studying, you’ll probably end up ’laying bricks’ for a living."

The students didn’t grasp the deeper meaning. Perhaps at their age, they simply hadn’t yet realized the harsh realities of the world. They took Julian Carlton’s words as a simple joke and laughed in unison.

In the past, Holly would have laughed it off as a joke too. But having lived through it, she now knew how painfully real Julian Carlton’s words were. When she was job hunting after college, she was rejected time and again because of her academic background. She hit a wall everywhere she turned. The experience plunged her into a state of self-doubt, and she was even filled with regret.

She regretted not studying harder in high school.

If she hadn’t met Mortimer Quincy, she might have actually become one of those "bricklayers" Julian Carlton mentioned.

Julian Carlton spoke for another seven or eight minutes. By the time he was done, all the students had arrived. He then moved on to the reseating. "As I said last week, we’re changing seats after the exam. Everyone, head out to the balcony. I’ll call you back in one by one."

A murmur of discontent went through the classroom; most of the students were reluctant.

But reluctant or not, they still had to file out obediently.

Anna Willow winked at Holly Winslow and Iris Kensington. "You know the drill. I’m counting on you two to save my royal seat."

Previously, Iris Kensington had the best grades of the three, so she was usually the one they relied on to save their seats.

Iris Kensington and Holly Winslow nodded. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

This time, Holly Winslow had ranked in the top ten, giving her plenty of options for choosing a seat. When Julian Carlton called her name, she started walking toward her old desk anyway.

It was a convenient and quiet spot, with an unobstructed view of the board.

"Holly, you’re sitting next to Sean Hayes," Julian Carlton said, seeing right through her little plan.

Holly Winslow, who had been about to sit down, froze for a second. "Mr. Carlton," she asked, confused, "didn’t you say we could choose our own seats?"

"Your math score on this exam was weak compared to your other subjects. Mr. Lewis thinks you have something against him, so I need to give him some reassurance." Julian Carlton then pointed to the seat next to Sean Hayes, motioning for her to hurry over.

Sean Hayes was excellent at math—he scored over 130—but his English was poor.

Clara Zane had been praising Holly’s English score in the teacher’s office, mentioning that her essay was particularly well-written.

The two of them, Holly and Sean, could complement each other.

The teachers for all six subjects had suspected Holly of cheating and had even analyzed her exam papers together. Their conclusion was that she must have done the work herself.

Hearing this, Holly glanced over at Iris Kensington and Anna Willow by the window, her eyes asking, ’What should I do?’

’Truthfully, she didn’t really want to sit next to a boy. There were always those few inconvenient days each month.’

"Don’t even bother looking at each other. I’m definitely breaking up you three, the ’iron triangle,’ this time," Julian Carlton ruthlessly interrupted their silent exchange.

Their trio had been "mentioned" by various teachers more than once. He planned to split them up this time and see how they’d manage to chat then.

Holly Winslow was left speechless.

Her escape route was cut off.

She had no choice but to sit next to Sean Hayes. Their desks were in the fourth row of the center block. To her left was Sean Hayes, and to her right was Mina Shaw.

Sandwiched between the top two students in the class, she felt the very air around her stiffen. She uncomfortably pursed her lips.

True to Julian Carlton’s word, Anna Willow and Iris Kensington were also split up. The three of them were now in different seating blocks; they’d have to shout to talk to each other now.

It wasn’t just them; Julian Carlton had separated other cliques as well. He had called it free seating, but in reality, he was assigning all the spots.