Bring Your A Game, Mr

Chapter 58 I Could Teach You

Elise flashed a smile and said, “I’m Elise.”

Samantha gaped at her in astonishment. “Wait, you’re Elise?”

Elise nodded. “In the flesh.”

For a moment, Samantha could not recover from her daze. She thought about what Elise had said to Amanda minutes ago, and only then did all the pieces click. “That explains why you put Amanda down the way you did; if someone was badmouthing me to my face, I’d have slapped them!”

Seeing how serious Samantha was amused Elise. She liked that Samantha was not the stereotypically aloof heiress that one might expect, but she gave off the impression that she was kind and approachable instead.

“By the way, Elise, I heard that Zachary Newman is here at the boot camp, too. Having the both of you here is like waiting for a legendary showdown to happen! I can’t wait to see which of you will emerge victorious at the end of the boot camp!”

This was the second time Zachary’s name was brought up in Elise’s presence. She figured he must be some kind of math whiz for everyone to praise him behind his back.

Presently, Elise and Samantha came to a stop at the classroom doorway, whereupon they saw that the room was filled to the brim with other boot camp participants. Their arrival instantly caught the room’s attention, though everyone’s gazes lingered on Samantha the longest. After all, it was hard for a fine-looking girl like her to keep from standing out in a crowd.

“Excuse me,” one of the boys piped up boldly, addressing Samantha. “You can sit next to me if you’d like.”

However, his invitation was swiftly rebuffed when Samantha, having taken one glance at the vacant seat next to him, said apologetically, “Sorry, but I’m going to sit with my friend.”

With that, she pulled Elise over to the last row of seats and declared, “Let’s sit here, Elise.”

fished it out to see that there was a new message from Jamie,

fuss over me too much, Jamie, Elise thought with a rueful smile. A few taps on the screen later, she

just as a middle-aged man appeared at the classroom entryway. He was holding a thermos flask

we kick off this boot camp,

Samantha immediately grew reluctant. She had initially hoped that she could play a game or two that evening, but now that she was going to surrender her phone, she might very well die of boredom before tomorrow. Dread filled her as she groaned. “Do

a difference to her boot camp experience. When the student in charge of collecting everyone’s phones reached their row, Elise handed

urgent call to make, come see me privately,” Mr. Bolton announced. “Seeing as today’s the first day, I’ve prepared a set of exercises for all of you to get a feel of what

Boot Camp were mathletes in

down each row, and silence filled the room as everyone set themselves to work. When Elise got her papers, she perused each page fervently and found that almost all the questions were

began

door when another teacher came down the hallway and

figured I should see how well they cope right off the

students here got full marks in the City Mathematics Olympiad.

this, but he admittedly had higher regards

the crop,” Mr. Bolton pointed out with a long sigh. There had been a make-or-break question from the National

waiting for your good news, Henry,” the other teacher quipped humorously

eye, and everyone looked defeated as they handed in their

beat; I couldn’t come up with an answer

question, let alone work on it. I dread to think about how I did on the test.” A couple of students huddled together to lament over the paper, and the boy who spoke first glanced over

lips and answered plainly, “I gave it