Bring Your A Game, Mr

And so, Elise’s class welcomed a new classmate that day.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Danny Griffith, your new classmate.”

Danny flashed an innocent smile as he stood on the stage, single-handedly charming many of the

female students in class.

“Wow! Isn’t he Danny from Class 12A?”

The girls in class exploded into discussions at once. Even Nicole Snyder, the number one student

in school, gasped in awe and called him handsome.

Elise was initially sleeping face-down at her table, but she looked up when she heard a familiar

voice. Discontent filled her eyes in an instant. How unlucky! I can’t seem to get rid of him no matter

what.

“I’ll just take a seat here, Miss.” Danny started walking forward right after that. All the girls stared at

him excitedly, until their gaze finally fell on the empty seat beside Elise.

How’s this possible? Why her? Did Danny request for a class transfer just for her? Everyone was

in disbelief.

“Nice to meet you, my new deskmate.” Danny cocked his head with a mischievous smile on his

face.

Elise fidgeted with the pen and paper in her hands, feeling utterly annoyed inside.

“Hey, Elise! Have you gone mute?!” Danny was furious at being ignored by Elise.

From that moment on, Elise no longer experienced a peaceful moment in class.

“Hey, did you understand everything the teacher said?”

“Elise, talk to me!”

Elise watched as Danny kept on waving his hand in front of her face, her only response being

silence. It angered him so much that he couldn’t sit still.

His irritating behavior continued until they were having a mathematics class one day. The teacher

announced, “Is anyone interested in signing up for the Math Olympiad this year?”

Danny spun the pen in between his fingers and asked, “How much Math Olympiad do you know,

Elise?”

Elise replied impatiently, “Just a little.”

“Oh, is that so?” Danny’s eyes darted around as he sank into thought. Then, an idea popped into

his mind. He raised his voice all of a sudden as he said, “Miss, Elise says that she wants to join the

Math Olympiad!”

The classroom exploded into murmurs as soon as the words left his mouth.

“She wants to join? She’s from the countryside. Has she even been to a Math Olympiad class?”

“That’s right! She’s biting off more than she can chew.”

“Quiet!” The teacher cleared her throat to stop the students from mindlessly discussing among

themselves. She said to Elise in a roundabout manner, “You’re probably unfamiliar with the

school’s standards in competitions since you’re new to this environment. Why don’t you take some

lessons and join next year instead?”

Elise felt like she was being looked down upon. She didn’t want to join the competition to begin

with; the reason wasn’t because she wasn’t good at math, but because she simply didn’t want to

be put under the spotlight. However, she no longer had a choice now that the teacher had put it

this way.

“It’s fine, Miss. Let me join this year.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Don’t worry, Miss. My math has always been pretty good back in our old school.”

Nevertheless, no matter how good she was in the countryside, there was no way she could

compare to those who’d received high-end formal education.

The teacher was shocked to see how confident Elise was. She couldn’t help thinking, Sure

enough, she’s totally overestimating herself!

After class, Danny raised his voice on purpose and said pompously, “You should’ve told the

teacher no if you don’t know any Math Olympiad! Why would you insist on joining the competition?

How embarrassing!”

Just then, the phone in her pocket buzzed subtly. Elise pushed back her chair and walked out of

the classroom before she sneakily took out her phone.

‘See you by the stairs, Boss.’

Elise put away her phone and headed over to the staircase. She could see Jamie standing by the

corner from a distance away with something in his hand. He was waving it in the air as he shouted,

“Boss! Boss!”

She pressed his head down and hastily pushed him back to the front of the staircase. “Shush!

Keep it down!” Then, she looked around and made sure nobody was nearby before she asked, “Is

there anything you need to tell me?”

Jamie nodded and passed Elise the document in his hand. “I heard that you’re joining the Math

Olympiad, so I prepared some exercise questions for you.”

How did the news spread so quickly? She had just signed up a few minutes ago, and now

everyone already knew about it. Come to think of it, this must be the work of Danny.

Seeing that Elise was silent, Jamie asked again, “Why did you decide to join the Math Olympiad,

Boss? You’ve already received so many academic accreditations. Why would you care about

getting such an insignificant prize?”

She initially planned to cover up her extraordinary intellectual prowess at school, but she didn’t

expect Danny to pull such a thing against her. Elise shrugged and said, “It’s a long story. One more

thing, though…”

“What is it?” Jamie was all ears when he realized that there was something else he could do for

her.

“I saw my photo in Alexander’s study yesterday. Is he doing a background check on me?