My High School Nerd Rival - Chapter 56

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Chapter 56
Slip.
The laptop slid from her grip.
It happened so fast that Ivy couldn’t catch it again.
Seeing him move to leave with the laptop, she chased after him and seized the hem of Cyrus’s hoodie.
“Cyrus!”
He turned to look back, and Ivy held tight to his shirt, her voice desperate with pleading.
“Just thirty minutes.”
Even as she asked, she knew he would refuse.
She knew full well how stubborn he could be.
“Hmm?”
So Ivy gazed up at him more desperately still, pressing her case.
“Please……”
Cyrus seemed about to say something reproachful, but swallowed it instead and pulled his mobile phone from his pocket.
“Exactly thirty minutes.”
He held the timer screen in front of her smiling face, set precisely to thirty minutes.
[00:30:00:00]
“When the alarm goes off, no matter what you say, I’m submitting it.”
“……You could give me another minute.”
“Don’t be funny. Not even a second. If you don’t like it, drop it.”
As he tried to put the phone away, Ivy hastily reached out and pulled his wrist down.
“Okay, okay! Just thirty minutes.”
“Good. Press start.”
Ivy hit the button before he could change his mind.
The seconds of her allotted time began to tick away.
* * *
Passing through the Dormitory Hall again was somewhat uncomfortable.
They’re saying Cyrus is the aggressor and Ivy’s the victim, but seeing them walk around together like that—maybe that’s not the whole story?
It was obvious such gossip was already spreading.
In any case, everything would be settled once the truth came out. No rumor, however persistent, could outweigh plain fact.
As she endured the stares and headed toward the Entrance, Ivy encountered someone very welcome.
Tiffany Vance.
Today she looked even more ostentatious than usual.
Even for Tiffany, buying so many high-end brand items at once would have been difficult.
Was it all sponsorship as she always claimed? Or perhaps she’d simply decided to splurge.
Her uniform shirt had two buttons undone, her necktie hanging so loose it was barely more than decoration. Over her jacket hung a short cardigan emblazoned with a designer logo.
Her skirt was already well past regulation length, and below it her neon-pink knee socks stood out—the kind no ordinary person would ever choose.
That she could pull it off at all was genuinely impressive. Ivy found herself admiring it honestly.
“Class rep, you’re pretty funny, aren’t you?”
Tiffany spotted Ivy first and approached. Her shrill voice carried across the entire hall, drawing every eye in their direction.
“What exactly did you tell the teacher? That I submitted a Dormitory Residency Application? That when I clicked on my application, something broke in your laptop?”
At each challenge in her words, Tiffany’s Angels chimed in with sneering laughter.
“I mean, the fact that you thought I’d stay on campus during Easter Holiday is pretty entertaining. I’ll give you points for creativity.”
Tiffany continued breezily.
“I don’t know whether you or your nerd boyfriend stole the exam papers,”
“Insane? He’s not my boyfriend!”
Ivy cut through Tiffany’s words to object to the most intolerable part.
She knew time was critical, but there was absolutely no way she could let that slide.
“Really……?”
Tiffany glanced between Ivy and Cyrus, feigning ignorance, then continued with a mocking tone.
“You two go together perfectly, though. You both look like you live in a library. Anyway, don’t pin this on an innocent person, okay?”
“We’ll find out if he’s innocent or not.”
“Oh my god, class rep, get your head straight. I’m Tiffany Vance. You know what that means, right? I don’t need to obsess over grades. My name was just published in the ‘Successful Teens’ list. So why would I steal some exam papers?”
“I don’t know what kind of prestigious publication it is, but congratulations, I guess.”
“Thanks. I actually considered reporting you to the school’s Ethics Committee for defamation, but…… I’ll let it slide this time.”
She was performing charity, as if bestowing some great mercy.
“No, don’t.”
Ivy replied, lifting only the corner of her mouth slightly.
“You have the right. Contact the Ethics Committee. Tell them I received documents you never sent.”
Tiffany stared at her with wide eyes. The look on her face seemed to ask: ‘Are you insane?’
But Ivy wasn’t insane.
Just moments ago, she’d managed to get thirty minutes from Cyrus. She needed only one thing in that time.
Proof that Tiffany’s file had existed.
Then her mobile phone chimed softly.
[New file upload notification: /dorm3/forms/easter-residency/uploadtest.html | Uploader: Prof_Whitmore | 17:21]
Ivy reflexively tapped the notification, then immediately swiped upward.
A cascade of notification history scrolled down in chronological order.
And there—last Saturday.
[New file upload notification: /dorm3/forms/easter-residency/… | Uploader: Tiffany_Vance | 19:21]
Below it, just minutes later.
[New file upload notification: … / Uploader: Cyrus_Quinton | 19:33]
Ivy drew a breath.

Without a word, Ivy held out her mobile phone’s notification history.
Files could be deleted, but the push notifications that had arrived in real time could not.
The record of Tiffany’s Dormitory Residency Application upload remained clearly in Ivy’s phone.
“I, I…… I didn’t do it. How do you know you didn’t just manipulate that?”
“Then tell the teacher about it.”
Ivy replied coldly.
“The investigation isn’t my job—it’s theirs. We’ll show them this when we submit Cyrus’s laptop.”
Murmurs resumed throughout the Dormitory Hall.
But Ivy paid no attention, leaving the Entrance with Cyrus.
They hadn’t gone more than a few steps before footsteps followed.
Tiffany, rushing after them alone, no longer wore her earlier composure.
“Wait, just wait, class rep. I really didn’t do it.”
“I don’t have time to listen to excuses right now. If you didn’t, then prove it.”
Ivy quickened her pace.
Then a voice that was almost a cry erupted from behind them.
“She said it would never get found out!”
Ivy’s step faltered. Cyrus exhaled slowly.
“That’s not for you to hear.”
“…”
While they hesitated, Tiffany’s voice came again. This time it was clearly choked with tears.
“I was just…… just supposed to bother a certain annoying person a little. She said it wasn’t a big deal…… I didn’t think something like this would happen.”
When Ivy finally turned around, Cyrus let out a soft sigh.
“That’s what you always say, Tiffany.”
Whenever Tiffany picked on some “annoying” kid, she always said the same thing.
It wasn’t a big deal. It was just a joke.
And each time, her Angels received expensive things as “gifts” in return.
Luxury logos were what drove them, and Tiffany was no exception.
“Really, this bag—she gave it to me! The clothes and other things too. To manipulate me!”
“……That hairpin.”
Ivy recalled the debate tournament day.
The hairpin Tiffany had shown off. The one she’d worn as “princess” when giving the New Year greeting.
“Yes, that too! She gave it to me. Look, in the chat it’s all……!”
Tiffany frantically tapped her phone screen, opening her message history.
But her finger stopped almost immediately.
Her face showed she’d only now realized there were no conversations to show.
Ivy spoke instead.
“You used Disappearing Message Mode.”
The way Ivy and Owen did.
Who would keep such messages as evidence?
Tiffany had been careful since she had much to lose, and the other person had used that against her.
“I, I really did message her! Look, she has an account too, see……!”
With trembling hands, Tiffany typed the ID into the search bar, making mistakes and backspacing several times.
[No results]
Then a dry alarm sound cut through the space between them.
It was Cyrus.
He pulled out his mobile phone to show her and spoke in a voice utterly devoid of emotion.
“Thirty minutes is up. Let’s go.”
“Wait……!”
She wanted to ask more—who on earth this person was.
But he seized her wrist firmly and turned toward the Faculty Office.