Introduction

My name is Liam Turner, and for three years, I was Northwood High' s academic golden boy.

Every award, every scholarship, every path to an Ivy League dream was mine.

Until my step-brother, Ethan Hayes, stepped into the spotlight and stole it all.

"And the award for Academic Excellence... goes to... Ethan Hayes!"

That was just the beginning.

The next day, as I studied my meticulously organized notes in the library, Principal Thompson's voice boomed: "Liam Turner, stand up."

Ethan, feigning concern, held up a crumpled sheet from my own notes.

"He had these notes... hidden under his textbook. He was copying from them during yesterday's final exam."

My blood ran cold.

"That's a lie! Those are my study notes! You stole them from my room!"

But no one believed me.

"You are a disgrace to this institution," Principal Thompson declared, snatching my binder.

"Your scholarship is revoked. You are hereby expelled from Northwood High. Get out of my sight."

I was a cheater, a fraud, in an instant.

My own mother arrived, not to defend me, but to embrace Ethan, her "poor baby" who had bravely exposed my "betrayal."

My stepfather, Robert Hayes, didn't hesitate.

He slapped me across the face, the crack echoing through the stunned library.

"You have brought shame on this family," he hissed.

My mother' s words cut deeper: "Why would I ever believe you over Ethan? You've always been a disappointment."

They threw me out, leaving my shattered laptop and shredded notebooks on the driveway.

Ethan, with a knowing smirk, offered me a crumpled twenty-dollar bill.

"Here," he sneered. "For the road."

I ran, the humiliation scorching my soul, but in the desolate quiet of a park bench, rage ignited into a cold, hard resolve.

They wanted me to fail, to disappear.

I would prove them wrong.

I would rise so high they would be forced to look up and see the man they had discarded.

My weapon?

The SATs.