I wanted to speak up—but the memory of how they had once pleaded for Maggie, their ugly, two-faced expressions from that time made my body tremble slightly, my heart turn cold as stone.
I looked up and gave everyone a radiant smile. “You’re right. Since everyone agrees, then go ahead.”
Maggie narrowed her eyes at me, clearly suspicious. “You… you’re really not going to stop me from trying to help?”
I simply nodded and turned away from her. Instead, I grabbed my things, stood up and said firmly, “I’m getting off the bus.”
The driver slammed the brakes a little too hard—nearly rear-ending the car in front of us. His voice was anxious as he tried to talk me out of it. “Hey, this isn’t a good time to get off. You’ll have a hard time finding another ride and walking there will wear you out. How will you take your college entrance exams like that?”
“Trust me,” he added, “I'll take you all back once you're done helping whoever this person. It won’t affect your exam, I promise.”
I rejected him calmly. “Go save whoever you need to save. You don’t need to worry about me.”
I took a few steps toward the door, but the driver raised his voice again. “Hold on! Your teacher and some of the parents are in the cars behind us. If you get off now, they’d begin to question the others!”
The entire class turned to look out the windows. Sure enough, familiar cars were following behind us. One of them even honked in response. Then came the wave of phone chimes as messages poured in from parents and teachers asking if everything was okay, sensing something was off.
Maggie quickly typed a reply in the class group chat: [It’s nothing! We’re just on the bus hyping each other up and trying to relax before the exam]
She looked up at everyone and reminded them, “Don’t breathe a word of what we talked about to our parents. They won’t get it. If they find out, they’ll flip out and the concert will be off for sure!”
Before the exams, Maggie had bragged that she knew a guy who could get cheap tickets to the pop queen’s concert—VIP seats, too. She invited the whole class. Everyone signed up and they’d been planning it for days.
The said concert was being held in the less secure parts of the country and I was worried about everyone’s safety. When I tried to talk them out of going, they started cutting me off. Up until today, the entire class had been planning the concert trip behind my back.
Some students who had originally considered telling their parents the truth quietly put their phones down. But now that the excitement had cooled off, a few of the more anxious ones were starting to get nervous.
“If my mom finds out I was late to the college entrance exam, she’s going to skin me alive.”
“There’s only 35 minutes left until the exam starts. Honestly, there’s no way we can go help and make it back in time… maybe we shouldn’t go after all.”
“Saving someone is risky. We should just call the police and let them handle it.”
A few others murmured their agreement, but then, the bolder students scoffed.
“Look at you guys—freaking out like that. You’re embarrassing the Sky University prep class.”
“We’ve got twenty people here. That’s basically an entire admissions brochure. Even if we’re late, they’ll give us a special pass.”
“Exactly! They won’t punish us all. And think about it—we’re saving someone. That’s headline material. We’ll be all over the national news!”
I almost laughed out loud at that point.
That’s when I realize: these kids had gotten so used to being favored—by teachers, by parents—because of their grades, especially now during exam season. They were being treated like royalty. No wonder they were so full of themselves.
They’d forgotten something important, the college entrance exam isn’t just about them. It’s about their entire families. The parents in those dozen or so cars behind us had sacrificed just as much, if not more, than their kids. Then, seeing people take her side, Maggie excitedly dropped a screenshot into the class group chat.
The entire group went loud.
“A $9 million reward for rescuing someone?! That’s $300,000 each! What are we even doing going to an exam? Let’s go save them now!”
