Less than half an hour after I quit the group chat, James led all of our classmates to kick at my house door madly. When I opened the door, two high-scorers pushed me hard to the ground.

"Get off your high horse, Celeste."

"Mona won't be taking your spot in university. We're just doing our best to give Mona a chance to enrol in Northrind. Why are you showing off when your results are only in the city's top ten?"

"Are you trying to threaten us by quitting the chat group? Do you think our plan will fail just because you refuse to join us?"

James rushed into my room while I was stunned and edited my university application. "Stop acting out, Celeste. We're giving you a chance to be one of us by asking you to join the negotiations with Northrind."

I clenched my teeth as I remembered how they poisoned me without hesitation in my past lifetime. The memory chilled me to the bone. They were evil for refusing to let my parents and me go. I could not help but tremble with rage.

They mistook my reaction for fear, and the look on James' face changed. The other classmates who were taunting me looked stunned, and their tones softened in an attempt to smooth over the situation.

"Celeste was just worried that our futures would be compromised if we couldn't amend our applications in time. Maybe we crossed the line just now…"

"Yeah. She's been our class monitor all these years. She's always shown concern and taken care of us whenever she can."

Mona suddenly burst out crying, and she choked back a sob while saying, "It's fine, everyone. Please fill out your applications properly and stop giving Celeste trouble for my sake. I know she has always looked down on me, which is why she's scaring everyone with the excuse of your futures being possibly compromised."

It hurt James to see her that way, and he pulled her into his arms. He stroked her head tenderly and said arrogantly, "Northrind is nothing. I don't believe the university recruiters will ignore us when more than thirty of us classmates apply for community college. They will definitely make an exception for Mona after we talk to the dean. She might even get a scholarship after the negotiations, and then all of us can still be together.

"Everyone! We're all highly capable people, and not some brainless dope from a small town who thinks Northrind is the most important thing in the world. The dean will definitely be scared into giving in to us if we decide collectively to give up applying to Northrind!

"Northrind will change its admission policy overnight when they learn so many potential talents are boycotting them!"

It sounded ridiculous to me. All of them looked delighted with themselves as they comforted Mona and themselves at the same time. It was true that they were the state's top scorers, but the results spoke for themselves.

Mona had only scored a 1.8 GPA. What would top scorers all over the country think about them using such a method to force Northrind to make an exception? They might be potential talents, but there were plenty of other talents outside our city and all over the country.

I tidied my crinkled shirt. "I understand what you're all trying to do, so I won't stop you. You're all excellent students, and Northrind will be sure to give in to your demands, but I don't want to be part of it."

Mona frowned, while everyone else looked at one another.

"What are you up to?" James looked at me thoughtfully and scoffed. "Do whatever you want. With results like yours, it wouldn't make any difference even if you joined us. Do you really think you're so great?"

I listened stoically as they discussed their negotiation strategy with Northrind's dean the next day, but Mona suddenly grabbed me. "Come with us to Northrind, Celeste! This is just a sort of protest. You won't really end up in community college even if we fail. Besides, what if you snitch on us to the school and our parents after we leave? It'll ruin our plan."

My classmates immediately surrounded me, and I instinctively backed away. I stammered as I looked into their vicious eyes, "No… I won't…" Before I could finish, they grabbed me by the hair and dragged me out the door.

"Mona is right. You should come with us to Northrind for the negotiations, in case you stab us in the back!"

What they did chilled me to the bone, and I looked straight at James. "Do you really think I'd do something like that?"

"Don't you love snitching to our teachers all the time? When we skip class to hang out outside school, you always rat us out!"

James gave the others a look, and two boys came up right away to grab me by the arms and drag me to the train station. I broke out in cold sweat at the thought of what happened to me in my past lifetime.

While I was struggling to break free of their grip, several classmates behind us felt unsettled and spoke up hesitantly.

"If my parents find out that I filled out my application for community college instead of Northrind, they'll beat me to death!"

"There's only one day left before the application deadline. Will we really end up in community college if we fill out the applications just like that?"

"Maybe we should think twice about this. Once we become elites in our respective fields, we can still take care of Mona even if she graduates from community college. She won't suffer in college at all."

"Yeah. If we don't amend our applications in time, we'll be done for."

Several classmates who came from middle-income families started to worry about the plan, but Mona suddenly bit her lip and looked at them, tears in her eyes. "Do all of you think Celeste is right and I'm not good enough to go to Northrind with you? I've always thought of you guys as my best friends…

"Forget about it. I don't need you to sacrifice anything for me. I'll go to community college on my own and promise never to bother any of you again."

James ran up to her right away to pull her into his arms. He pointed at us and sneered. "What's there to be afraid of when we've all got 4.0 GPAs? Northrind has already informed us that if we agree to attend the university, we'll get scholarships even for our Master's Degrees and PhDs! If we refuse to apply for Northrind, they won't be able to achieve their admission target!"

"He's right. Northrind will give in if we protest as a group."

I knew very well that they had gotten full of themselves because of their excellence. The school was willing to give in to them, and their parents and teachers had been showering them with praise since they were young. When they achieved excellent results in school, universities began competing for them, and they ended up being ignorant of the rules of the real world.

Even if they were top scorers, university admissions had deadlines, and this was about our future. Top scorers in other states were hungry for those spots, and it chilled me to see how this naive bunch of children was acting.

I pinched myself hard on the thigh to force myself to clear my head. "Let me go home and amend my admission to Northrind. I promise I won't tell on you."

"Don't even think about it!"

James and others dragged me to the train station and took a group picture of everyone, claiming it was their last crazy act as youths and that they had to make the most of it.

My voice started trembling when I saw the train's departing time getting closer. "I promise I won't say a word. Just let me go home now, or I'll yell loud enough to get the police here!"

They were all geniuses who could afford to take their future lightly, but I was different. It took me a lot of hard work to become a high achiever like them. My father had broken a leg at his construction site while my mother worked hard as a sanitation worker who cleaned the streets. I knew at a very young age that the only way to change my fate was through education.

I woke up every morning at 5 AM to study and did practice tests that stacked up as high as a tower. It had not been easy for me to qualify for Northrind, and I could not give up so easily, much less go to community college. I could not accept it.

If I failed to make it to Northrind, my whole family would be crushed. My parents' financial situation did not allow me to repeat another year. I felt cold all over, and I knelt in front of everyone to beg them. "P-please let me go back to amend my application to Northrind. I swear I'll keep this a secret."

This shocked my classmates. "Did we go too far? Maybe we should let her amend her application…"

James narrowed his eyes and shot daggers at me. "Why are you in such a hurry to return? Something doesn't seem right. You must be up to something."

Mona's eyes turned red once again as she cried. "We can't let Celeste get away with this! She's going to tell our parents and the school about this and ruin our plan! She must be trying to stall us and get us to miss the train. We timed this perfectly, and we'll be able to make it back on tomorrow's train to amend our applications if everything goes without a hitch. She's making a fuss right now because she's up to something!

"Celeste probably doesn't want any of you to get back in time because she can't wait for all of you to end up in community college with me!"

The moment Mona said this, the classmate who tried to talk everyone into letting me go suddenly stopped. I watched as everyone turned to look away from me, and I clenched my fists so hard that my fingernails dug into my flesh.

As the sky darkened, it grew closer and closer to the train's departure time.

When I realized that none of my classmates were convinced by my words, I decided to jump onto the rails, but my classmates quickly pulled me back in a fluster.

James looked down coldly at me. "Fine. You don't need to come with us to Northrind for the negotiations, but how can we be sure that you won't snitch after we let you leave?"

Mona suddenly suggested, "There's an abandoned train station warehouse next door. Why don't we lock her up in there and let her out when we return tomorrow?"

This unsettled the rest of my classmates. "What if something happens to her? Celeste is a girl, after all. What if something dangerous happens to her late at night?"

"Nothing's going to happen. That warehouse is really near the train station, and there's a police station next door as well. We'll lock her up there while we head to Northrind to negotiate. That way, no one will be disappointed, and we don't have to worry about anyone ratting us out. It's killing two birds with one stone."

Everyone was relieved as they jumped and cheered. They dragged me to the abandoned warehouse as Mona led the way. My back was drenched in cold sweat when I saw the rusty gates. James suddenly took out a familiar application form from his pocket, and when I saw it, I realized it was mine.

I turned pale and tried to grab it, but my classmates held me down. James shook the form in front of me while raising an eyebrow gleefully. "Just be good and stay in here, and I promise nothing will happen to your application."

"You're the man, James! You've thought of everything!"

They pushed me violently into the warehouse, and the dust choked me so badly when I fell that I could not stop coughing. James' tone was casual when he spoke. "I'll keep your application form safe for now. We'll let you out tomorrow afternoon when we return. It's just for one night. Nothing will happen to you."

With that, they closed the metal gates behind them, and I was consumed by darkness. When I heard them lock the gates behind me, I knelt helplessly on the ground and sobbed out loud. I was filled with fear.

As time passed, all I saw was extreme darkness stretching out in front of me, and right before I completely passed out, I heard someone rush into the warehouse to hold me in their arms. When I woke up next, I was in the school's infirmary.

My class teacher and several heads of the school were looking nervously at me by the bed. I could no longer control my tears as I hugged my teacher and cried loudly. She wiped away my tears anxiously while gently stroking my hair. "What happened? Who locked you up inside the train station's abandoned warehouse? Thank goodness you were smart enough to message me earlier to ask for help, or I wouldn't have arrived in time. Otherwise…"

She could feel me trembling in her arms, and she patted my back tenderly without saying anything further. I sniffled and looked at the school heads. "I can explain this later. Right now, I'm more worried because my application form was stolen."

When my school principal heard this, he immediately told me not to worry and called the education board. With the school heads and my teacher as witnesses to my condition, the education board immediately produced a new application for me to fill out despite the short timeline, taking the matter very seriously.

My tears would not stop falling as I held the thin piece of paper. I stumbled home in a hurry and saw my mother sitting on the sofa, waiting for me. Even my father, who could not get out of bed, forced himself to the door as he waited for me to come home anxiously.

Seeing my parents made me tear up again. My mother pulled me into her arms and said, "You're all right! You're all right…

"Do you know how scared your dad and I were when we received your teacher's phone call?"

I was reminded of their horrible deaths in my past lifetime, and I held back my tears to force a smile as I shook my head and comforted my mother. "I'm fine now, Mom. I'm really fine now." I was not about to let the tragedy in my past lifetime repeat itself.

The next day, I deliberately waited until the deadline was almost up before submitting my application form through my school. The parents of my classmates who had applied for community college for Mona's sake were waiting outside the school, panicking.

"What are those kids thinking? They vanished from sight last night and refuse to pick up our calls…"

Those parents paced back and forth anxiously in front of the school gates. I was about to enter the school when James' mother suddenly came to me and grabbed my wrist. "Aren't you always following James around, Celeste? Do you know where he's gone?"

My mother immediately shielded me behind her and smacked away her hand without hesitation. "Stop interrogating my daughter when you're the one who failed to control your son. You're preventing her from submitting her university application form!"

I walked into the classroom with my mother and saw the other classes filled with students handing in their application forms, while my classroom remained empty. None of my classmates were there. I finally felt relief once my application form was in the teacher's hands.

Only twenty-five minutes remained until the deadline. I saw news online about the train returning to our city from the capital being delayed for an hour because of a thunderstorm. I smiled at the empty classroom and knew that it was the end of them.