Chapter 24
Jasmine’s eyes darkened as she felt her heart drop. During the morning reading session the next day,
Jasmine led the class’ Chinese reading lesson as she was the class monitor. Halfway through the
reading, she
deliberately took a Chinese passage and put it in front of Elise.
“Please read this for us later.”
Without even looking back at Jasmine, Elise rejected directly. “Sorry, I don’t want to.”
Jasmine knew that Elise would definitely not dare to do so, so she was even more determined to make
Elise read Chinese. After all, Chinese was not their mother tongue. So, many students were often able to
score in their
examinations but were unable to speak the language fluently. For some, their pronunciation might not be
accurate while others might even face difficulties conversing in the language.
Jasmine reckoned that Elise must be terrible in Chinese oral and didn’t dare to read the passage in front
of the class lest she was embarrassed. However, that was exactly what Jasmine wanted-to embarrass
her.
“You have no choice but to read it, otherwise I’ll give you a demerit point.” Students would be given
demerit
points if they acted inappropriately. The majority of the students were afraid of getting demerit points, but
Elise
was an exception. Not only was she not intimidated at all, but she actually had no intention to be
bothered about
Jasmine.
“Go ahead and give me a demerit point then.”
Annoyed, Jasmine further threatened Elise with her authority’. “What are you trying to do, Elise? The
whole class listens to me but you. You think you’re so special, huh?”
Jasmine’s words had drawn the attention of the rest of the class to Elise as the students stopped reading
and
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtlooked toward Elise.
At first, Elise did not understand why Jasmine would insist on her to read the Chinese passage.
However, after
seeing her relentless determination, she knew that it was because Jasmine was caught in the
comparison trap.
In fact, Elise had long comprehended how girls tend to compare with one another inwardly, and she
thought that
was very meaningless. Thus, she had no intention to be bothered with Jasmine, but Jasmine actually
started
provoking her first
“Since the other classmates would listen to you, go ask them to read instead. Why do you have to ask
me?”
Jasmine snorted. “You‘re a newcomer and you have not read in front of the class before, so I need to
understand
your situation.”
Although it was a rather awkward reason, it sounded somewhat reasonable.
Jasmine then added, “You just have to read once today and I won’t ask you to read anymore in the
future.”
“Great!” Elise hummed in response. In order to save the trouble in the future, Elise stopped refusing. She
took up the Chinese textbook and started reading the passage seriously under Jasmine’s anticipation.
However, as soon as she started reading, the entire class went silent when they heard Elise’s reading
because
she was so fluent it was enjoyable to listen to.
On the other hand, Jasmine’s expression changed at once. With her face turning pale, she clenched her
fists
tight. Elise was reading so fluently that it was as if she was raised abroad. Her fluency was much better
than
Jasmine’s, and she didn’t seem to be a country bumpkin at all!
No way. This is impossible! Jasmine refused to believe it as she stared at Elise in disbelief.
After reading the passage, Elise lifted her head to glance at Jasmine and asked, “Are you happy now?”
Jasmine still wanted to say something, but she was at a loss for words. Meanwhile, because of this
episode, the
other students had a completely different impression of Elise.
wa
It turned out that although the new joiner had a rather average look, she wasn’t that incapable after all.
Not only was she good at Math Olympiad, but her Chinese oral was perfect. They even thought that
Elise’s fluency in Chinese had way surpassed Jasmine’s, who was the Chinese class representative.
At the same time, little did Elise expect that this small episode would cause the others to have a different
impression of her. Thereafter, she sat down again and continued practicing math questions. The
competition
was approaching, so she was determined to practice as much as possible.
On the other hand, Danny was used to being late, and today was no different. Since he was late to class,
he didn’t
know about the incident that had happened in the morning. Nevertheless, during recess, he realized that
unlike
normal days where everyone would ignore Elise, there were actually some classmates who initiated
conversations with her today. Besides, Elise actually got along well with them and didn’t seem to be
distant,
This made Danny perplexed. Since when did Elise become this popular?
“Hi Elise, can I be your friend?” While Elise was solving the practice questions, a shy female voice
emerged in
lifted her eyes to see a small-sized girl, who was staring at her with her large, alluring eyes. The girl’s
face was even filled with excitement. As Elise would gladly receive a classmate who was friendly, she
replied, “Of course!”
The girl smiled brightly upon hearing Elise’s response. “Hi Elise, I’m Mikayla Jameson. Nice to meet
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmyou.”
Looking at Mikayla’s hand which was stretched toward her, Elise was startled. Given that her looks
weren’t as attractive as others, it was a luxury for her to make friends. After pausing for a while, Elise
shook hands with Mikayla and said, “Nice to meet you too, Mikayla.”
Mikayla was glad at Elise’s response. To be frank, she wanted to learn Chinese from Elise. Her Chinese
examination results were far from satisfactory, and her oral was even rustier. Hence, she wished to learn
Chinese from Elise after seeing her fluent reading in the morning. “Elise, you’re so fluent in Chinese. Can
you teach me the
language?”
Initially, Elise thought Mikayla was going to ask her for a huge favor, but it turned out to be a small matter,
so Elise was more than willing to help out a friend.
was
“Sure. Bring your Chinese textbook. I’ll teach you”
As such, Mikayla quickly brought her textbook and started learning from Elise seriously. Before this, her
oral was
bad, so Elise taught her ways to correct her pronunciation. Not only that, Elise even recommended some
methods to learn Chinese, which benefited Mikayla a lot.
In the afternoon when school was over, it was the first time that Elise did not walk out of the school
alone.
Instead, she was with Mikayla, and the two girls chatted happily all the way to the school gate. Soon,
Elise spotted the familiar car of the Griffith Family, so she bid Mikayla goodbye and walked toward the
car. It was
Alexander who had come to fetch her today.
After Elise got into the car, Alexander started the car engine slowly and departed. Elise did not take a
break
either while on the way as she took out the practice questions and started grinding on them again. Sitting
in the driver’s seat, Alexander observed Elise through the rearview mirror. He had to admit that although
Elise had a rather average appearance, for some reason, she gave off an unworldly aura, which didn’t
seem to match her looks at all.
Alexander retracted his gaze and decided to initiate a conversation with Elise, which rarely occurred.
“Are you
going to participate in the City Mathematics Olympiad Competition?”