Chapter 4

Ethan cornered me after school, his face tight with anger.

"What the hell was that, Maya? Your grades are tanking, and now Albright separated us! If you don't get serious about the scholarship project, we're done!"

His inner voice was even more frantic. She' s going to ruin everything! I need her code! Brittany is counting on this!

Done? The thought almost made me laugh. He was threatening me with what I secretly craved.

But I had to play my part.

Tears welled up in my eyes – crocodile tears, but convincing.

"Oh, Ethan, no! I'm so sorry! I've just been so stressed. I promise, I'll work harder. I really want this scholarship... for us."

I sniffled, looking up at him through my lashes.

"But I need your support. And Brittany's. It's such a big project, I get overwhelmed."

His expression softened slightly, his ego stroked.

Yeah, she needs me. She can' t do it without my guidance.

"Okay, okay," he said, pulling me into a hug. The MeritShare app probably pinged him for the "Affection Interaction." I suppressed a shudder.

"What kind of support?" he asked.

"Well," I began, a plan forming, "my chores at home are taking up so much time. And I need some new software, it' s really expensive. And driving myself everywhere... it eats into my coding time."

He and Brittany exchanged a look.

Brittany piped up, her voice dripping with false concern. "Of course, Maya. We'll help you. Anything for the scholarship."

Her thoughts were less charitable. Ugh, chores? But if it gets us MIT, fine.

And so, it began.

Ethan started doing my laundry and washing dishes at my house, grumbling internally about how his mother would kill him if she saw.

Brittany, with her father' s black card, bought me the latest high-performance laptop and all the premium software I "needed."

They drove me to school, to the library, to get coffee.

I was their queen, and they were my unwitting servants.

Every demand I made, every inconvenience I caused them, was a small piece of retribution.

My grades in regular assignments remained mediocre. I poured just enough effort into the "Innovate Tomorrow" environmental app to keep them believing, but it was a shadow of my original concept.

The real work, the real genius, was happening in secret.