Chapter 3

Maybe because she knew the whole thing was an act, Mrs. Zimmer didn’t make things too hard for me.

She cleaned out a small room and let me stay there.

Without Howard around to torment me, I actually slept better at night. My grades improved too.

One day, our teacher told us there would be a parent-teacher conference.

My classmates looked at me and started teasing.

“Oh, Caleb, is your housekeeper mom coming?”

I didn’t say anything.

I just lowered my head and kept working through one practice test after another.

It didn’t matter anyway.

Ever since I was little, there had never been a parent sitting in my seat at those conferences.

Once, I got first place in my class and begged Mom and Dad to attend the parent-teacher meeting for me.

But they only said, “Caleb, you’re so sensible. You don’t need us to worry about you, right?”

Then they both rushed to attend Howard’s meeting, even though his grades were at the bottom of the class.

I wanted Mom and Dad to worry about me too.

So on the next exam, I deliberately filled in the wrong answers and scored even lower than Howard.

What waited for me afterward was both of them beating me.

On the day of the parent-teacher conference, I passed by Howard’s classroom and heard his teacher speaking earnestly.

“College entrance exams are coming up soon. With Howard’s grades, he won’t even get into community college.”

“I know you’re planning to send Howard abroad, but he only scored three points on his foreign language exam.”

Three points?

I couldn’t help it. A laugh slipped out.

Howard immediately looked at me, his eyes full of hatred and calculation.

His revenge always came fast.

When I returned to my classroom, I saw Mrs. Zimmer rushing in.

“I’m sorry, teacher. I’m late.”

She had probably just come back from grocery shopping. There was still a strong fishy smell clinging to her clothes.

My classmates covered their noses and looked at me with disgust.

But when the teacher saw her, he casually praised me.

“Caleb has improved a lot. He went from the top ten in class to third place…”

It was clearly a compliment.

But Mrs. Zimmer slapped me across the face.

Then she shouted viciously, “How could you score so low? I raised you for nothing!”

A snicker came from outside the window.

I looked over and saw Howard holding up his phone, waving at me with contempt.

That night, the video was posted at the top of the school gossip page.

I became famous across the whole school.

Wherever I went, people pointed and whispered. Even during lunch, someone would “accidentally” bump into me for no reason, sending my food spilling all over the floor.

When I got home, I saw a blanket laid out on the balcony.

Mrs. Zimmer stammered, “You little brat. From now on, you sleep out here.”

In the middle of the night, I woke up freezing.

Only then did I realize there was a gap under the balcony door. Cold air had been pouring in all night.

By morning, my head was pounding.

I looked at Mrs. Zimmer and called out weakly, “Mrs. Zimmer, I think I have a fever. Can you take me to the hospital?”

She snapped, “Sleep it off. You expect me to waste money over a little fever?”

Through the blur of my fever, I heard her call my parents.

“Mr. Moore, Caleb has a fever.”

“Mm. I know.”

“But Howard said not to take him to the hospital.”

“Then listen to Howard. It’s just a cold. He’ll be fine.”

Tears slid down my face.

So to Mom and Dad, a fever of 104 was just a cold.

If I died like this, would they even be sad?

No.

They would only be relieved that they had one less burden.

I forced myself out of bed and took some cold medicine.

Mrs. Zimmer didn’t stop me.

She only quietly called someone to seal the gap.