Side Chick Era... Over

Loving Mom 374

Chapter 374

Several groups before Sharon and Matty had done poorly. Some had forgotten their lines completely and ended up freezing on stage, eventually having to abandon the performance altogether.

But even then, the lowest anyone had ever received was 60 points-a baseline encouragement score.

A zero? That had never happened.

The room instantly erupted. People murmured, heads craned, conversations overlapping.

“What’s going on? Why zero?”

“Did they mess up something serious? Anyone here speak Spanish?”

“That can’t be it. Even if they slipped up, they finished the whole thing. It should be at least an eighty.”

“Honestly, I thought Matty’s group did better than Theo’s.”

“I speak Spanish. There were no mistakes. Not a single one.”

panic creeping in. He wondered if maybe… he had messed up. Maybe it was his fault. Maybe

him. Her palm gently brushed his back as a

Matty’s breathing evened

given the zero was a man in his thirties, wearing glasses, expression stiff and self-righteous. He held

again, voice cold and cutting. “Miss McKinzie,

“Cheating?!”

electricity. Even the other judges

idea of teaching children integrity. If the kids grew up learning shortcuts like this… what kind of adults would

gaze to his

anger or panic. Her voice, when it came, was

expected her to stay this

into a sneer. “I heard you never even graduated from high school. With that kind of education, you expect us to believe you’re fluent in Spanish? If

“Heard? From whom? Gossip?

disqualify someone from learning Spanish? Are you discriminating, Mr. Finch? Should I start listing a few world-renowned figures who

Gregory’s face stiffened.

that he’d overplayed his hand. His words had

to embarrass her, not enough to cause a scene like this. But now, with her pushing back instead of bowing her head, his annoyance curdled into something