Free Web NovelChapter 34: Chapter 33
Once in the classroom, Joanna Kennedy shot Simon Lockwood a reproachful glance.
Simon simply pretended he hadn’t seen it.
’Fine, ignore me then.’ Joanna Kennedy opened her book and began to half-heartedly memorize English words amidst the lively drone of students reading aloud.
With the Kennedy family’s bankruptcy and her own previously arrogant and domineering behavior, Joanna had offended plenty of classmates. She fully expected someone to come up and make snide, passive-aggressive remarks, but she never thought the first one would be Serena Sutton.
After the morning self-study session, her homeroom teacher called her into the office. Though no one knew what was said, Joanna Kennedy began packing her books the moment she returned.
The other students began to whisper, "What did the teacher want with her? Why is she suddenly packing everything up?"
"What else could it be? She’s obviously being transferred. After how badly she bombed the mock exams, she should’ve been moved to Class C long ago. If it weren’t for her status as the Kennedy family’s darling, she never would’ve been allowed to stay in our Class A for this long..."
"Now that her family’s gone bankrupt, the school obviously isn’t going to give her special treatment anymore..."
The murmurs came from all directions, none of them particularly quiet. It was as if they wanted her to hear.
Simon Lockwood watched as Joanna packed her books, her movements growing a little faster. Her head was bowed, and from his angle, he could see her long eyelashes trembling uneasily.
’The pampered young miss had taken a great fall, plummeting from the sky into a pit of mud, only to be surrounded and mercilessly mocked by the crowd.’
’If no one helps her, she’ll just be bullied from now on, won’t she?’
’She’s so beautiful. Someone will definitely take this opportunity to trick her into their grasp, won’t they?’
The look in Simon Lockwood’s eyes grew increasingly dark.
Meanwhile, Joanna Kennedy, the target of all this ridicule, was busy packing her things, thinking, ’Class C is for the average students. It ought to be more relaxed than Class A, right?’
’I hope the academic atmosphere isn’t too intense. I really can’t stand that.’ frёewebnoѵēl.com
[Could you try not to be so obvious!] 166 couldn’t take it anymore. [Wipe that smile off your face! I can practically hear you cackling!]
Joanna Kennedy instantly wiped the smile from her lips. She touched her face, feigning innocence. [I have no idea what you’re talking about.]
huffed, refusing to speak to her any further.
But in the eyes of the onlookers, her touching her face was seen as her finally wiping away a tear she had been desperately holding back.
Suddenly, a hand grasped the wrist she was using to pack her books. Joanna Kennedy’s gaze traveled up past the slender, well-defined fingers and met Simon Lockwood’s deep, tranquil eyes.
For some reason, she felt that Simon Lockwood was a little unhappy.
"I’ll walk you there." Simon Lockwood released her wrist and started helping her pack.
Joanna Kennedy didn’t know what to make of it, but she was more than happy to have the help. "Oh, okay, sure!"
Simon’s movements were far more efficient than hers, and he was quite easy on the eyes as he worked. Joanna took this for granted, sat down, rested her chin in her hands, and watched him with a beaming smile.
It was at this moment that Serena Sutton came over, her voice gentle. "Simon, the English teacher wants you to go to the office and get something."
Their first class was English, and as the academic representative, Simon was probably being asked to get materials for the lecture.
However, that was usually a job for the English subject representative.
Simon Lockwood furrowed his brow. "The teacher asked for me specifically?"
Serena Sutton’s eyes darted away as she nodded nervously. "Mm-hmm..."
Simon was about to refuse and suggest the English representative go instead, but Joanna tugged on his sleeve. "You should go. I can handle this myself."
"I said I’d walk you there," Simon said, his tone leaving no room for argument. "This is too much for you to carry on your own."
"I’ll help her," Serena Sutton chimed in. She met Joanna Kennedy’s unreadable stare, then quickly averted her eyes and said to Simon, "Classmates should help each other. I’ll help Joanna take her things over."
Her voice wasn’t too loud or too soft, but it was loud enough for the whole class to hear. The other students’ expressions immediately cleared with understanding.
’That scared the daylights out of me. I really thought our star student had a thing for Joanna Kennedy, personally going over to help her pack and everything.’
’He must just feel sorry for her, seeing her kicked out like this. He’s probably just helping her out of pity, for the sake of being classmates and whatever "special relationship" they used to have.’
’After all, Joanna Kennedy has a really pretty face. It’s possible our star student just had a moment of weakness.’
Staring at Joanna Kennedy’s face, a few of the boys in the class started getting ideas.
Even after Serena Sutton’s offer, Simon showed no sign of leaving. It was Joanna who, curious to see what this so-called female lead was up to, finally persuaded him to go.
The journey from Class A to Class C required going down a flight of stairs. Along the way, many students saw them and began to gossip about what was happening.
Joanna pretended not to notice. Serena watched her for a while, and seeing her completely unfazed, felt a bit sour. She couldn’t resist asking, "Don’t you feel humiliated?"
"Why should I feel humiliated?" Joanna gave her a strange look. "When classes were first assigned, plenty of people were put in Class C, and I didn’t see any of them feeling humiliated. Why should I?"
’The problem is, they were placed there from the start, but you’re being kicked out of Class A in the middle of everything! How is that even remotely the same?!’
Joanna couldn’t hear Serena’s frantic internal screaming. In reality, she was struggling to keep her own expression composed. ’Hurry up, just walk faster, faster...’
’All you people should be in your classrooms studying! What are you all staring at?!’ ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
Hearing her thoughts, 166 chimed in mockingly, [Oh, so you do have a sense of shame after all...],
It really thought Joanna’s skin had become thick enough to be impenetrable.
Joanna: [Duh. Let’s see how you’d feel if you were being stared at and gossiped about by this many people.]
[Sorry, can’t relate to your ’joy’.]
’Joy, my ass.’
Fortunately, once Serena Sutton saw that Joanna seemed unbothered, she stopped deliberately slowing her pace, and the two quickly arrived at Class C.
Serena Sutton put her things down on an empty desk in the back row and offered a few considerate words of comfort, which all boiled down to telling her not to be sad about being kicked out of Class A.
Joanna: "..."
She watched the female lead’s retreating figure and thought this world was a bit insane.
No, really. Can someone tell me when this pure, innocent flower evolved into such a manipulative pretender?
166, a staunch supporter of the female lead, reprimanded her: [Can you stop overthinking things? The female lead was just trying to comfort you out of the kindness of her heart!]
Joanna coldly told it to shut up.
Class C was mostly full of kids from well-off, middle-class families. They weren’t too obsessed with academics, figuring they could just pay their way into a university abroad to get a fancy degree later.
Normally, these students wouldn’t even be on the radar of a major heiress like Joanna Kennedy. If they happened to cross paths at a party, she would have looked right through them.
But now, news of the Kennedy family’s troubles had spread through their social circles. At first, everyone was skeptical, but seeing Joanna get kicked out of Class A confirmed that the rumors were true.
Joanna Kennedy was truly no longer the great heiress of the Kennedy family.
As the teacher lectured at the front of the room, Joanna could feel several pairs of eyes on her, lingering on her face for a particularly long time.
Getting annoyed by the staring, Joanna frowned and glared back. Her gaze landed on a boy with dyed red hair and a roguish, bad-boy air about him. She didn’t recognize him.
When he saw her looking, he was stunned for a second before breaking into a wide, uninhibited grin.
