BXBX NOVEL Chapter 70 - 70: 70: Keep Defending Yourself
Linda’s eyes flashed with contempt. It turned out that Elizabeth had cheated. If her family found out, well…
Ben scoffed, “Mr. Berwick, I think we should investigate this matter. Otherwise, it’s unfair to all of us. Why should we, who study hard, be overshadowed by a cheater?”
He wouldn’t let it slide so easily after someone snatched the first place from Linda.
Frank didn’t immediately take a stance. Instead, he turned to Elizabeth,
“Elizabeth, do you have anything to say?”
Even under scrutiny, Elizabeth remained calm, “Just because I scored first, you suspect me of cheating? Such prejudice isn’t acceptable.”
Ben was silent for a moment.
“Who’s talking about prejudice? Isn’t the main concern cheating?”
“Hey, you’re still not admitting it. Do you know how hard the Sunny Heights paper is? Your high score is already suspicious.”
Ben was adamant. Even if it wasn’t for Linda, he would settle the score for yesterday’s chair-kicking incident.
If Elizabeth didn’t clear things up, it wouldn’t be long before the whole school knew she had cheated her way to first place.
Renee, seeing Elizabeth cornered, spoke up sympathetically, “If you did cheat, just admit it. At worst, your score will be invalidated.”
It would be better than stubbornly denying it and getting exposed later.
Frank observed Elizabeth. Even in such an awkward situation, where the whole class doubted her, she remained unflustered.
This somehow made her more convincing.
He didn’t want to misunderstand any student. He had seen many students ruined due to misconceptions.
“Elizabeth, I have a way for you to prove yourself. Are you willing to demonstrate that you didn’t cheat?”
Smiling, Frank addressed Ben, “It’s right to raise concerns, but without sufficient evidence, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Sometimes, your suspicions could ruin someone’s life.”
With Mr. Berwick speaking like that, Ben had no choice but to remain silent. Elizabeth looked up at Frank and nodded, “Alright.”
She felt content internally. Such a good teacher. Sunny Heights truly had impeccable standards for selecting its staff.
Frank’s method was straightforward. He would personally set questions for Elizabeth to answer in front of the class.
Frank sought the class’s opinion, “What do you all think?”
The students had no objections.
This method was fair. As a teacher, Frank wouldn’t possibly help Elizabeth cheat.
Linda glanced disdainfully at Elizabeth. Her mood had already stabilized, and now she was completely in the mindset of a disinterested onlooker.
It was Elizabeth who wouldn’t admit defeat, insisting on pretending to understand when she didn’t. If she were to make a fool of herself later on…
Well, all the better.
She thought for a moment and quietly took out her phone to send a message to Jack.
“Jack, something’s wrong. Elizabeth is suspected of cheating by Mr. Berwick. I don’t know what to do.”
Frank wrote ten questions on the blackboard, dividing them into low, medium, and high levels, setting the questions very fairly.
After writing the last question, he paused, then went ahead and added a high-level math problem that had stumped all the math teachers and remained unsolved.
Of course, he did not expect Elizabeth to be able to solve it.
This was a problem given by the principal to all the school’s math teachers. Solving it meant their end-of-month bonus could be doubled. It was said to be a problem left to the principal by his teacher, Mr. Lawrence.
Frank smiled, feeling like he must be crazy. How could he give such a difficult question to a student? If Elizabeth could solve it, what was he even doing being a teacher?
Just as he was about to erase it, he heard Elizabeth ask him a question..