Chapter 170

At Pinecrest High, academic performance was everything. If you had good grades, the teachers would cut you a lot of slack. Joseph's grades were excellent; he was consistently in the top five of the entire school. That meant, when it came to seating, he could pretty much sit wherever he wanted. As long as he cleared it with the teacher, there would be no issue.

Everyone was already intrigued by the new transfer students, and they all knew Marguerite had come looking for Joseph before. Now, they exchanged curious glances. What was this? Had the cool and aloof Joseph fallen for Marguerite too? Then again, with a face like hers, falling for her was as easy as breathing.

The air was thick with anticipation. Surely the tough guy from Westside High, now at Pinecrest, would want to focus on his studies and not start a fight on his first day.

However, Aaron looked up at Joseph, his eyes under his long bangs regarding him as if he were an idiot. "Get lost."

Joseph was speechless. He knew Aaron had a short fuse, but he hadn't expected him to be so brazen here at Pinecrest. This wasn't his territory. Feeling deeply embarrassed, he said coldly, "Say that again."

Aaron, at an age ripe for conflict and raised in the slums, shot to his feet.

Marguerite hadn't expected these two, fated to clash, to be at each other's throats so soon. Seeing a fight about to break out, she stood up to intervene. "Hey, let's not do this. We're all classmates now. Harmony brings wealth. Don't you two want to get rich?"

Aaron was stunned into silence.

Joseph was also at a loss for words.

You couldn't argue with that. This girl really knew how to defuse a situation.

Aaron had no desire to fight anymore anyway. He wanted to study hard, so he sat back down. Joseph, seeing Marguerite mediating, realized he didn't want to get beaten up. His face flushed, and he turned and walked away.

A tense confrontation was dissolved with a single sentence from Marguerite. The entire class stared in amazement.

Cedric's chubby face broke into a grin. "My lady, I've learned a valuable lesson!" From now on, he would use the same tactic to break up fights.

Aaron spent the morning diligently trying to pay attention in class, though he couldn't understand most of it. Marguerite was also focused, slipping back into her old senior year mindset. The curriculum hadn't changed much in the last eleven years, and she had done a lot of reviewing on the different topics. It

_wasferave easy for her to keep.

up, but she didn't let her guard down. She knew many people who, dissatisfied with their first year's exam results, repeated the year only to score even lower the second time. Her goal was still to be first in the city; she couldn't afford to slack off.

Neither of them knew that by noon, the news of the two transfer students had spread throughout the entire school. Everyone was excitedly discussing it on the school forums and in group chats.

Time flew by and soon it was

lunchtime. To save time, most students ate in the cafeteria. Marguerite and Aaron went together. They had picked up thei meal cards and uniforms during the long break after the second period.

Marguerite had fond memories of the food at Pinecrest High. The chefs were always experimenting with creative, if questionable, dishes, including but not limited to strawberry chicken, bitter melon stir-fried with cantaloupe, and popcorn stir fried with pork. The taste? Sobad it left you speechless, But eleven years had passed; the chefs had probably changed.

Inside the cafeteria, Aaron said, "Maggie, you find a table. I'll get our food."

Marguerite found a seat by the window. Soon, Joseph sat down across from her. Seeing the empty space in front of her, he asked, "You didn't get any food? You can have mine."

Marguerite shook her head. “No, thanks. Aaron went to get it for me."