Chapter 1: First Place, Thin Ice

The results of the first practice SAT were announced, and I held firmly onto first place. My fingers were numb from gripping my phone, heart thudding as if the results might change if I blinked.

The tension in the school’s hallway was so thick you could’ve cut it with a plastic lunchroom knife. I scrolled through my phone, watching the avalanche of live chat comments pop up on the class group stream projected on the big screen in the media center:

*[Why is the supporting girl working so hard? The main character has that one-click swap system. When the time comes, she’ll just swap her SAT score and that’ll be that.]*

*[Our Maddie climbed up from being a struggling student. She’s definitely going to beat that supporting girl, the little Chicago suburb princess.]*

*[Maddie only gets three swaps, but she’s got her strategy all mapped out.]*

*[First swap: take the SAT score, become valedictorian. Second swap: snatch the supporting girl’s patent idea, live carefree, become an independent woman.]*

*[Third swap: grab the male lead’s affection—cling to a big tree for shade.]*

*[By then, the male lead will support the main character, and she’ll slap a bully label on the supporting girl, who’ll never recover.]*

*[Such a smart, OP main character is rare. Ladies, our hearts are about to burst!]*

Oh.

So there are only three swaps?

What a trash system.

I caught my own reflection in the glass of the trophy case, but the girl staring back looked nothing like the villain they wanted. I almost didn’t recognize her. The comments scrolled on, relentless.