My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 50

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 50
Period 6
Saturday night, two days before the exam.
From the sky fell something neither snow nor rain—thick, blunt drops.
It didn’t settle white, didn’t wash clean, and sat on everything with a vaguely unpleasant weight.
Sleet drummed against the Library windows, each strike growing sharper, more insistent. Thin glass, straining to hold.
Students who’d come to study found their eyes drifting past the panes again and again.
Most had arrived without umbrellas. The moment someone opened one, clusters of bodies converged, jostling for cover.
Heads crowded beneath a single small umbrella, one writhing mass pressed toward the dormitory.
Every footfall was cautious. Everyone knew how easily one could slip and fall on a night like this.
Yet the damp cold seeping through their uniforms made their steps quicken despite themselves, shivering at each gust.
When the sleet intensified, hammering harder against the windows, the Library—until then airless with tension—suddenly emptied. Seats cleared at an almost impossible speed.
All except one window seat.
Ivy Underwood. House President of Third Dormitory.
Her face showed no concern for the weather. She adjusted her thick-framed Glasses and kept her eyes fixed on her Laptop screen.
Tap, tap.
Her fingers moved across the keyboard with steady urgency.
To anyone watching, it might have looked like note-taking. But it was something else. Ivy was in the middle of a decision.
‘I’m never doing this again. Never being dorm president again.’
Why?
Because in the middle of this crucial exam period, she still had to finish administrative work. That single fact was explanation enough.
The approaching exams also meant the approaching Easter Break.
And just as with New Year Holiday, not every student would spend Easter Break in holy celebration with family.
Depending on circumstances, some would need to remain in the dormitory for several days, and the school required advance permission forms for Easter Break residency—forms that each dormitory house president was obligated to collect and submit.
Each year level’s house president bore this burden.
During Exam Week, no less.
The thought that Cyrus was probably studying right now made her stomach ache.
The one consolation was that Thomas Harris—the third-ranked student, nearly as threatening as Cyrus—was the First Dormitory’s house president.
He was probably doing the exact same thing right now, collecting his own forms with the same misery.
Ivy reviewed each permission form one by one as students uploaded them to the Third Dormitory shared cloud.
Who was staying, and for how long. Meal service requests. Guardian consent forms. Rule-compliance signatures.
As expected, Joy’s form didn’t appear.
A young lady from a distinguished family had duties that called her home—that couldn’t be helped.
Logan’s form, meanwhile, was a complete mess. He’d filled in barely any section correctly, so Ivy sent him a message.
[Resubmit the form. Otherwise I’m marking it as “Not Submitted.”]
Logan never read it. He was clearly out somewhere, enjoying this miserable weather by methods strictly unapproved.
Ivy sighed and opened the next student’s form.
Cyrus Quinton.
Seeing that name stirred something odd in her, but she quickly suppressed it and examined the contents. As befitted his meticulous nature, everything was filled out perfectly.
“……Hmm?”
All except one thing.
Ivy sent him a message.
[Quinton, you signed the guardian consent form yourself, didn’t you?]
She hadn’t noticed during New Year Holiday.
But now she did. She’d grown that familiar with his handwriting.
‘Familiar. Right.’
Since Cyrus hadn’t read her message yet, Ivy set his paperwork aside pending and moved on to the next student.
“That’s unexpected.”
An unfamiliar name in the forms.
Tiffany Vance.
Tiffany staying over Easter Break. That didn’t suit her at all.
Still, it was Ivy’s job to process every form that came in.
She clicked on Tiffany’s submission.
But before the download bar even appeared, the screen flickered.
Session Expiration.
“This constant Session Expiration is killing me, seriously.”
The security is full of holes, but the sessions expire instantly. The most inefficient combination imaginable.
Ivy entered her credentials out of habit.
Whirr.
The login took slightly longer than usual. In that pause, her phone buzzed.
[@vacuum_state: Still at the Library?]
Cyrus. The very fact that he’d sent a question meant he wasn’t going to accept a redirect.
[Yeah. And don’t change the subject.]
[Umbrella?]
[I said don’t change the subject. I have an umbrella.]
[Then good luck.]
After that, no matter what she sent, only read receipts came back. Less conversation, more broadcast.
“Unbelievable.”
Even as she grumbled, Ivy added Cyrus to the list of students staying over the break.
Buzz.
Her phone vibrated briefly in her pocket. She thought it might be Cyrus again, but when she opened it, it was Owen.
The moment she opened the message window, the screen dimmed.
The bright background sank to pitch black, and a small notice appeared at the top.
[Disappearing Message Mode is active.]
Owen had used Disappearing Message Mode.
When he activated it, the meaning was always the same.
Something that must never leave a record.
[No new developments in Montrose. However, attendance at Berke has been irregular. Note this for now.]
Ivy stared at the white text on the black screen for a moment.
[Thanks.]
She sent a brief reply and closed the window. Owen’s message vanished without a trace.
Her response too.
Convenient, yet somehow hollow.
Ivy set down her phone and returned to processing Tiffany’s paperwork. After that, things went surprisingly smoothly.
No more session crashes. No more freezes.
* * *
Monday.
The start of the second Exam Week they’d been counting down to.
Pulling open the curtains from bed, Ivy found the gloomy weekend weather completely gone—replaced by clearer, brighter sunlight streaming down.
In that moment, opening the window to breathe the spring-touched air, she felt an unfounded but genuine flutter of good fortune.
Even though she didn’t believe in such things.
“It’ll be fine. It’s going to go well.”
Astonishingly, that feeling held true all through the morning.
When she arrived at the Cafeteria, bread had just come out of the ovens. A flawless breakfast.
Upon reaching the exam room for first period, she checked her assigned seat.
Furthest front, by the window.
Her preferred spot.
Cyrus arrived shortly after and took the seat directly behind her.
“Hey, Quinton.”
When she turned to greet him, he nodded as usual, his expression unchanged.
“Ready?”
“For what.”
“To come in second.”
He looked baffled at her cocky grin, then tapped her forehead lightly with his thick notebook.
“Enough. Study the material. And if you don’t understand something, don’t sit there groaning about it—it’s distracting me from behind.”
“Oh yeah? If groaning can distract you, then maybe I should groan extra loud.”
She brushed his notebook aside as she answered, even as she recognized how absurd she sounded.
Cyrus Quinton’s focus was formidable. Even if she climbed onto her desk and kicked her feet, or groaned her heart out, he’d stay locked on his own work—undisturbed and complete.
“Please just sit quietly. I know asking you is pointless, but I’m asking anyway.”
Around the time he said this, the classroom door opened and two teachers entered.
The exam seemed ready to begin, so Ivy turned forward properly in her seat.
She glanced once more at the brief summary notes she’d written down, and then——
“There’s an important announcement.”
Despite the teacher’s words, Ivy kept her eyes on her notes.
Listening alone would be enough.
“All exams scheduled for today are postponed. Further details will be announced later. Everyone return to the dormitory now.”
What?
Ivy’s head snapped up in shock, and simultaneously the entire classroom erupted. From nearby classrooms came similar announcements—other subjects had reached the same decision.
“No, come on! Let’s just do it!”
“I’ll forget everything by tomorrow!”
Groans of protest filled the room. But the decision didn’t reverse, and no explanation was offered.
Something had happened. Something felt wrong.
She wondered if Cyrus knew anything, but he only shrugged.
“Everyone back to the dormitory. Don’t wander around unnecessarily.”
As the teachers ushered students out, they scraped their chairs against the floor and stood.
Complaints lingered in the air.
Ivy had no choice but to hastily shove her notebook into her bag.
She’d been managing her condition specifically for today. What was this?
As she moved to stand——
“Underwood.”
The two teachers approached her desk directly.
“Yes?”
Were they going to ask her to keep watch over the students back at the dormitory, make sure no one caused trouble?
That would be truly difficult in this atmosphere.
Whether students loved or hated exams, no one would be happy about a sudden postponement.
Everyone would be on edge, worried whether this delay might push back the break schedule itself.
“Would you come to the Counseling Office for a moment?”
But what came next was completely different from what Ivy expected.
The Counseling Office? Now? Why?
“I’m……sorry?”
“Yes. Bring your things to the Counseling Office on the first floor. Right now.”
Their tone was firm, their faces strangely tense.
Ivy’s pace quickened as she headed toward the Counseling Office, and by the time she arrived, she knew her anxiety had been justified.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————