Wendy's remarks immediately attracted everyone's attention, causing every single one of them to turn their gaze toward me.
I snapped at her in a fit of rage, yelling, "What the hell are you talking about?"
Wendy acted as if she had accidentally let something slip and immediately covered her mouth. "I'm so sorry, Yvonne. I'm just saying whatever comes to mind. I hope you're not mad at me…"
I immediately snapped, "You'd better stop spouting nonsense this instant, Wendy!"
I was preparing to leave when I was suddenly stopped. "I'm one of the invigilators assigned to this exam hall. I have received a report that you may be suspected of cheating, so please cooperate with the investigation."
I furrowed my brow and said, "I didn't cheat on the SAT."
Wendy nodded repeatedly, saying, "That's right. Yvonne didn't cheat. She only brought a cheat sheet in her exam bag, so don't blame her for that."
I felt a sharp pain in my chest from the anger. "You'd better stop slandering me with those lies, Wendy!"
Wendy's eyes immediately welled up with tears. She stomped her feet and started sobbing, saying, "I'm just trying to help you, yet you're scolding me instead! You're really hurting my feelings, Yvonne!"
Upon taking my exam bag and looking through it several times with a stern expression, the invigilator failed to find any so-called cheat sheet. He then furrowed his brow slightly and said, "I'm sorry. It seems like we misunderstood the situation."
It was then that Wendy, who was holding a water bottle, suddenly slammed into me, pouring the water all over my exam bag. She then put on that feigned, innocent look of hers and said, "I'm so sorry, Yvonne. I'm such a klutz! I didn't mean to get your things wet! You're okay, right?"
I was just about to say something when someone suddenly pointed at my exam bag, exclaiming, "Check it out! There's some writing on the back of her admission ticket!"
I looked down to see dense handwriting bleeding through the water-soaked admission ticket, and before long, the invigilator snatched it up, his expression turning grim. "You've got some nerve, Yvonne—cheating on the SAT is a federal crime!"
I was shaking all over from panic. "I don't know how that got there! I didn't write any of those! I didn't cheat on the SAT!"
Christian stepped forward from the crowd, looking at me with utter disappointment. "If you just admit it now, they might go easy on you, Yvonne. You should stop being so stubborn at this moment."
I snapped and yelled at the top of my lungs, "I didn't do anything wrong, so there's no way I'm confessing to anything!"
Christian shook his head in resignation before saying, "I'm Yvonne's boyfriend. She told me she was going to use an invisible-ink pen to write down those notes on the admission ticket last night. I tried to talk her out of it, but I guess she went ahead and did it anyway."
In that instant, I was met with the angry gazes of every single person who had just taken the exam.
"You're truly unbelievable! Do you know how much we've been grinding just for the SAT? How dare you cheat your way through!"
"How can you do this to those of us who actually work hard? Your kind is exactly why I failed my SAT last year! You truly deserve to die!"
Those indignant crowds—those who had previously failed the SAT—turned their fury on me. They started pelting me with their drinks and whatever books they had on hand.
"You're actually cheating on the SAT? You're such a lowlife! You should just drop dead!"
"I'm calling the authorities this instant! You should rot in jail instead of destroying other candidates' chances!"
It was then that a group of invigilators walked out of the exam hall. They immediately furrowed their brows upon hearing the commotion. "Who cheated on the SAT? Which room did this happen in? Who was the presiding invigilator?"
Upon hearing that, the invigilator who had been questioning me earlier looked at my admission ticket and replied, "She's from Room 18—Seat 08."
It was then that one of the invigilators from the group blurted out, "That candidate in Seat 08 didn't even show up. How could she possibly cheat on the SAT?"