Love or Die CEO’s Daily Dose of Swoon

Chapter 8

Latham strode into the classroom, his arrival predating the bell’s chime by mere seconds.

He dropped a stack of thick papers onto the desk at the front, Daniel, would you mind handing these out?”

A hush fell over the room as Cordelia, seated at the back, watched necks crane and bodies lean forward in anticipation. As the papers made their rounds, a cacophony of sighs and gasps peppered the air from every

comer.

Daniel, a slim figure with glasses that seemed too heavy for his face, approached Juliana and handed her the

paper.

Curiosity bubbled up from the desks, “What do you get?”

Juliana glanced at her score with a mix of ease and pride in her voice. “A”

“And you nailed that with these brain–busters? Impressive!”

Juliana feigned modesty. ‘Oh, it’s nothing. I’m still trailing behind Hanley”

“No need to compare with that guy who is been raking in math awards since he was in diapers. But you know, you’re two peas in a pod, academically speaking.

Amidst the surrounding exclamations of admiration, Juliana inevitably drifted her gaze to the back row

With a hint of teasing, she said, “Daniel, would you be a dear and check my cousin’s grade?”

Fumbling through the papers, Daniel didn’t find Cordelia’s but instead pulled out Hanley’s and promptly handed it over…

Before the commotion could settle, Latham announced from the front, “This math test, there’s only one perfect score in the entire grade, and it’s from our class!”

“Wow!”

“Hanley’s got to be the man, right?”

As the class buzzed with astonishment, Hanley quietly exhaled in relief.

toss–up on a few questions, but it seemed they were all hits….

a genius,” came Juliana’s

his lips into a smile at her words.

for him to marry Juliana, a relief in

Not too shabby.

blur before his eyes as Daniel placed a

the result. His smile froze, ‘A? Was there some mistake?”

added, “Let’s extend our warmest congratulations to Cordelia! Her grasp of mathematics is remarkable. Despite the difficulty of this exam, her result was unexpected, better than

briefly as still as a tableau, erupted into whispers and turned heads, all eyes

back row.

on him. Then, with a slow and knowing smile, Cordelia whispered just loud enough for

cheeks as if slapped by

equally frozen, her mind a

“Class dismissed!”

time for

had he gone than the room

“Screech!”

scraped across the floor as Merry, Cordelia’s front–row neighbor, swung around in her seat. With the laxity of a ragdoll, she leaned on Cordelia’s desk. “Hey, you’re Cordelia, right? I’m Merry,” she announced, her vibrant pink hair and dramatic makeup reminiscent of a cartoon

eyeballed her for a moment, replying

and chirped, “The whole school is buzzing on the forum about whether Hanley can cling to his top spot. I gotta say I’ve had it up to here with Hanley and Juliana, prancing around like they own the place just because of some

a

your grades were embarrassing, so they called off the engagement? Are you gonna try and top the class

stayed silent, her first impression of Merry being that of an

role as a volunteer, collected the papers. The first thing was check Cordelia’s result. Upon seeing

paper in hand, just in time to catch Merry’s comment. “Hanley is no one–trick

she did

Cordelia, with this result, do you think you

whether Cordelia beats Hanley or not, but she’ll definitely better than you. What’s there for you to be so smug about?”

bottom, I suppose you have no room for pride.” Merry chuckled, “Oh, I couldn’t be prouder to rank

stormed off, fuming.

until the end of the school day, posted on the wall for

number to her. She grabbed her