Chapter 581 - 577: "Bullying"?

Elias Warner clearly couldn’t be bothered to waste his breath on Cecilia Sterling. In his eyes, someone like Cecilia—lacking in ability, with no drive to improve, and who was obviously treating the school team and this competition like a joke—had no right to sit with them and solve problems.

They had already been working on the problem set on the table for an hour. Cecilia wouldn’t even be able to understand it if she sat down now.

’So let’s not waste each other’s time.’

"Captain..."

Just then, Sheila Hughes, unable to bear it, spoke up. She was clearly nervous as she looked at Elias Warner, but she still mustered the courage to speak on Cecilia’s behalf. "Aren’t these three problem sets a bit too difficult? It took us almost two hours for each one when we did them. Making Cecilia finish all three at once now... forget whether there’s enough time, the mental strain would be completely overwhelming..."

Cecilia couldn’t help but glance at the girl who dared to speak up for her at a time like this.

Sheila Hughes had short, ear-length hair and wore thick glasses. She didn’t dare to look Elias Warner in the eye as she spoke, but she felt this was unfair to Cecilia, so she pushed through her anxiety and said her piece.

As the vice president of the student council, Elias Warner’s word was law. Few people ever openly contradicted his decisions, especially not Sheila Hughes, the most inconspicuous member of the team.

His face darkened, and he retorted sharply, "So we should just let her slow down the whole team’s progress? Are we supposed to wait three days for her to figure out these three problem sets?"

Sheila felt that, no matter what, they shouldn’t make Cecilia finish all three problem sets on the spot. At the very least, she should be allowed to participate in today’s problem-solving session. As for the three sets she’d missed, Cecilia could take them home to complete on her own time and just turn them in tomorrow.

He shouldn’t be using this as an excuse to make things difficult for Cecilia, deliberately trying to get her kicked off the team with a failing grade.

Elias’s intentions toward Cecilia were obvious to everyone else; it was just that no one dared to say anything.

Just as Sheila was about to speak up for Cecilia again, Cecilia reached out, took the three problem sets, and gently patted Sheila’s shoulder. "It’s fine. I’ll just finish them."

Cecilia said nothing more. She took the papers, stood up, and walked to a corner seat at the very back of the classroom.

Sheila looked at her, worried. Her dissatisfaction with Elias as a captain had reached its peak. Perhaps because they were both girls, she felt a stronger sense of empathy. For a captain like Elias to act this way... ’In her eyes, it was no different from bullying.’

The two boys, Yates Sanders and Lee Warner, didn’t dare say a word. Of course, they wanted to be heroes and save the damsel in distress, but faced with Elias’s tyranny, they knew that going against him would be a completely pointless endeavor.

"Stop staring. Let’s continue," Elias said immediately, pulling everyone’s attention back.

He glanced at Cecilia, and seeing her calm and composed expression, he couldn’t help but sneer inwardly. They all knew how difficult those three problem sets were, but if someone was capable enough, scraping by with a passing grade wasn’t impossible.

But he clearly didn’t believe Cecilia had that kind of ability. He was just waiting for her to finish so he could take her papers and request to have her replaced.

He wouldn’t allow a freeloader on his team.

And he certainly wouldn’t allow his spotlight to be stolen by a freeloader like her.

Thus, a very jarring scene formed in the classroom: Elias Warner leading the other three teammates in solving problems, while Cecilia Sterling sat alone in the corner, her head down, working on the test.

Just as Sheila thought, the scene had an overwhelming feeling of bullying. It was as if Cecilia had been completely isolated by them.

This was especially true because the group needed to talk to each other while solving problems, which would definitely distract Cecilia.

Sheila glanced worriedly at Cecilia, only for Elias to tap his pen on the table as a warning. "Focus. Look at her again and you can go sit with her."

Sheila pressed her lips together and didn’t dare look in Cecilia’s direction again. She just hoped Cecilia could do her best and get a few more questions right, so Elias wouldn’t have a failing grade to use against her.

Little did they know, the moment Cecilia sat down and started answering, she had already completely blocked out all external noise. Focusing her attention had always been her specialty.

Time slowly passed. About an hour or so later, Elias and the others had entered a state of deep concentration, currently breaking down and analyzing a particularly difficult problem.

"A problem like this would be considered one of the harder ones even in an official competition. Because it’s a novel type of question, you have to read the problem description several times to avoid missing any details."

"Now, everyone read the problem description five times."

After Elias finished speaking, the group fell silent, carefully reading the problem in front of them.

Just as they were all completely focused, three problem sets and a stack of scratch paper were suddenly tossed onto the table in front of Elias.

Mimicking how Elias had tossed the papers at her earlier, Cecilia unceremoniously slammed her finished work down in front of him.

The group started, looking up in astonishment. All eyes fell on Cecilia.

"Cecilia, you..." Sheila began, confused, but didn’t know what to say.

Elias’s brow furrowed. He looked at Cecilia and asked, "Are you just giving up?"

He knew the difficulty of these sets. Even with complete focus, it would take at least a few hours to solve them. For Cecilia to be done at this point, he instinctively assumed the problems were definitely beyond her ability and she was giving up because she couldn’t do them at all.

Yates Sanders and Lee Warner thought the same thing.

’What a shame,’ Yates thought. ’Now this beautiful girl is going to get kicked off the team...’

"I’ll let you save some face. Go to Mr. Stone yourself and tell him you’re voluntarily quitting the team." Elias tossed the papers Cecilia had thrown at him to the side without a single glance. "If I’m the one to bring it up, I’m afraid I won’t have anything nice to say."

The others fell silent.

Even though Sheila felt it was unfair to Cecilia, if Cecilia was giving up herself, then nothing more she said would help.

But then Cecilia looked at Elias’s smug face and suddenly let out a cold laugh.

It wasn’t loud, but it landed clearly in everyone’s ears.

Elias looked up, his expression ugly. "What are you laughing at?"

Sheila, Yates, and Lee were also shocked. ’How can Cecilia still be laughing at a time like this?’ they thought.

’No matter how unhappy she is, she shouldn’t be laughing coldly. Elias is the vice president of the student council, after all!’

But not only did Cecilia not hold back, a mocking curve blatantly formed on her lips as she said disdainfully, "You guys need to waste three days to solve problems of this difficulty? If this is your level, I think this team should just be disbanded. No wonder Mr. Stone said Lorcain Tech never gets a good ranking in the Olympiad."