Guo Yiqun was the best at math in the class, except for Henry Clark. Thomas Reed had never seen either of them copy answers, but had seen them check answers together after finishing some extra exercises. Those were extracurricular practice books that Edward Harris had bought himself; Henry Clark had borrowed them to copy the questions. Edward Harris then suggested they compete on one of the test papers inside. In the end, he got two questions wrong, while Henry Clark got them all right.

Thomas Reed witnessed this showdown between top students with her own eyes. She watched as the defeated Edward Harris sulked back to his seat with his notebook, and after that, he never lent his practice books to Henry Clark again.

Thomas Reed: If you can't handle losing, you're just petty. Idiot.

With only ten minutes left before class ended, Thomas Reed forced herself to focus on the last question. She had muddled through the earlier ones and had some idea, but for the last question, she really couldn't find a way in.

Thomas Reed actually didn't care much about whether she could solve this question. She just doodled circles on her scratch paper with her pen.

Suddenly, a notebook was handed over from the side.

Thomas Reed paused and looked down. There were three steps written on the notebook, with formulas listed beside them. It took her a while to realize that her deskmate was giving her a hint for the last question.

Just a hint, not the answer.

When she looked away from the notebook, Henry Clark took it back and opened a red-covered math exercise book on the desk to start working. That was the one she had borrowed from the math teacher, since she couldn't borrow the extracurricular practice book from Edward Harris.

Thomas Reed originally didn't want to do the last question, but those three initial steps kept swirling in her mind, making her think further, and eventually, she solved the question.

—Unfortunately, she got it wrong.

Clutching the returned homework and seeing that big red X, Thomas Reed cursed in her heart, quickly covered it up and tossed it aside. Even though she knew her deskmate's "aloof" personality would never bother to look at her homework, she still felt a bit embarrassed.

She'd been given a hint and still got it wrong. She wasn't a total slacker, did she have no shame?

But after a while, another notebook was handed over from the side, again without a word. This time, the top student deskmate had written out the entire solution process for the problem, clear and detailed from start to finish, with notes on the difficult points—obviously just added.

So she did see that big red X on my notebook, huh.

Thomas Reed thought, what's this, spoon-feeding me the answer? And at this babysitter level, as if I need it.

Thomas Reed showed no reaction on the surface, but was a bit ruffled inside. She sensed that her deskmate seemed to be sending her friendly signals, but she refused to accept them—she had no interest in making friends.

But when she turned to look at Henry Clark, she found her once again immersed in a sea of problems, completely ignoring her. At a time like this, if she took the initiative to say she didn't want to be friends, it would seem a bit self-important, and she couldn't bring herself to say something so awkward, so she just turned her head back.

What was even more frustrating was that, thinking back, Thomas Reed realized it seemed like she was the one who meddled in Henry Clark's business first, making it look like she was the one who wanted to be friends.

A rebellious teenage girl, a lone wolf Thomas Reed, secretly vowed in her heart not to meddle anymore.

The next day in PE class, a group of girls were horsing around. No one knew who started it, but they began kicking around a drink bottle. It was a bottle of Assam milk tea, half full, and just by chance, it got kicked and exploded, spraying Henry Clark all over. Her school uniform was instantly soaked with the color of milk tea.

Thomas Reed didn't see that happen. She only heard two girls in the class laughing, saying Henry Clark was so unlucky. She didn't pay much attention, but when she turned and went to the bathroom, she saw Henry Clark sitting there, seemingly lost in thought, looking uncharacteristically tired.

Thomas Reed immediately noticed that her school uniform was gone, and she was only wearing a thin, old crew-neck T-shirt. Since this person wore her school uniform every day, it felt odd to suddenly see her without it.

Henry Clark saw her too, but didn't say anything, just lowered her eyes and hunched her back a little, subconsciously trying to hide something.

Thomas Reed noticed that the marks on Henry Clark's chest were quite obvious—she didn't seem to be wearing a bra.

Suddenly, she seemed to understand why Henry Clark never took off her school uniform jacket, no matter how hot it was. Was it because she was afraid people would see those marks? Even though she was long used to her deskmate's poverty, Thomas Reed was still shocked for a moment. So, she couldn't even afford a bra—was it really that bad?

Having grown up in a home filled with her parents' fighting and affairs, almost never experiencing any warmth from them, Thomas Reed had never lacked material things. So even after seeing it with her own eyes, she still couldn't quite imagine what a life like Henry Clark's was really like.

After standing there for a while, Thomas Reed heard herself ask, dryly and coldly, "Where's your school uniform jacket?"

Henry Clark hunched over, head down, staring at her shoes, her tone fairly calm. "It got splashed with milk tea. I came to the bathroom to wash it, but when I came out after using the toilet, it was gone."

Thomas Reed turned and left, and soon came back carrying a school uniform. "Here, wear this."

Her clothes had been washed in the public washing machine, with laundry detergent, and had a lavender scent—different from the soapy smell of the hand-washed uniform Henry Clark usually wore.

Henry Clark took the jacket that carried Thomas Reed's scent and silently put it on.