He Erased My Dream School For Her, I Already Had A Better One Chapter 05

He Erased My Dream School For Her, I Alraedy Had A Better One Chapter 05

The pages of Grant’s speech slipped from his hand as he 

Stared blankly at the empty podium. 

Instead, everyone was looking at a photo of Clementine 

projected on the screen behind it. 

The principal continued, “Clementine Avery scored a 1590 on 

the SAT, the highest among Bayview’s graduating STEM 

students. Please welcome her as she shares some of what 

she’s learned along the way.” 

Whispers immediately broke out around the auditorium. 

*Must be nice starting life ten steps ahead. Her family 

must’ve spent six figures on tutors to get her a score like that.” 

What good is advice from someone born into the one 

percent to regular people like us?” 

“I’d rather hear from Nora. At least she actually fought her way here.” 

Nora blushed and playfully swatted the classmate teasing her. 

Grant relaxed slightly. He had already known Clementine 

had posted the highest SAT score among Bayview’s 

graduating STEM students. 

What he hadn’t expected was that this year, Bayview 

Preparatory Academy had decided to choose its senior 

speaker based on SAT results. 

In previous years, the school had usually favored seniors who 

had already secured admission through special merit 

programs and no longer needed standardized–test scores for 

their offers. Students like Grant were considered more 

inspiring examples for the classes coming up behind them. 

So when he never received an official invitation to speak, he 

had simply assumed a teacher had forgotten to contact him. 

He had even spent the night before carefully preparing his speech. 

Applause was already filling the auditorium. 

Too distracted to pick up the pages scattered at his feet, 

Grant followed everyone else’s gaze, inexplicably expecting 

Clementine to emerge from the prep area behind the projection screen. 

She didn’t. 

“Of course a trust–fund princess gets the dramatic entrance. 

The whole school has to play along.” 

The mocking comments kept coming. 

Then Clementine’s familiar voice filled the auditorium. 

“Good morning, teachers and students. I’m honored to be 

speaking on behalf of this year’s graduating class. I wouldn’t 

call what I have to say advice. I can only share a little of what 

I’ve learned myself.” 

“All my life, people have told me I didn’t work hard enough. 

They said I was lazy. They said I got by without trying. For a 

while, I even believed that maybe I really had made it this far 

on luck alone.” 

But people don’t see how many times we have to grit our 

teeth and push through the moments when we want to give 

up on ourselves or quit halfway.” 

“Luck matters. But what matters most is that we keep 

working toward our dreams.” 

Finally, I don’t want to give you the usual line about acing 

the SAT and coming out on top. I hope each of 

you finds a path where you can truly thrive. There may only ever be one 

person at the very top, but there are countless roads to the future.” 

The applause went on and on, though sharp voices of doubt. 

still cut through it. 

“Pretty speech, but what good is a score like that if she still 

doesn’t have a college to go to?” 

The school must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel 

if they’re using her as some kind of cautionary tale.” 

The principal stepped in before the murmuring could grow any louder. 

Thank you, Clementine. Although her personal plans 

prevented her from joining us in person today, I think even 

through the video, we could all feel the sincerity of her 

message and the thought behind her wishes for every student here.” 

He paused. 

“And now, I’m pleased to announce that Clementine Avery 

has made a personal donation of $150,000 to establish the 

Clementine Futures Scholarship here at Bayview Preparatory Academy.” 

A collective gasp swept through the auditorium. 

Grant was just as stunned as everyone else. 

The applause that followed was even louder. 

Still, someone had to sneer, “So that’s why our resident genius 

didn’t get the speech. Clementine bought herself the 

spotlight again.” 

Grant scoffed. 

That was just like Clementine. 

She hadn’t managed to go to Summit Tech with him, so now 

she was showing off what she could do with her money instead. 

In the past, that kind of thing would have gotten under his $kin. 

He and Clementine had grown up together, and their 

families had once been on roughly equal footing. 

But after her parents expanded their business overseas, the 

Averys had become wealthier and wealthier until they were 

in an entirely different league from his family. 

It bothered him. 

He was simply too proud to let anyone see it. 

So he had started cutting Clementine down whenever he 

could, telling her she wasn’t that smart, calling her stupid. 

He had even wanted her to spend a year preparing to reapply 

to Summit Tech so she would become more dependent on him. 

Yes. 

He didn’t want Clementine to be capable of standing entirely 

on her own. 

One of Grant’s friends threw an arm around his shoulders 

when he saw him standing there in a daze. 

*Come on. You’re still the impressive one. You got into 

Summit Tech through a special merit pathway. The 

administration bends over backward for whoever writes the 

biggest check. Don’t let it get to you.” 

Grant looked toward the stage, where the principal was 

holding up a ceremonial display for the donation, and gave a 

derisive scoff. 

“Since when did Clementine get this desperate for 

attention?” 

“She just wants you looking at her,” his friend joked. “You 

could say two nice things to her and she’d come running.” 

The corner of Grant’s mouth lifted. 

“She’d be better off spending that time on prep materials and 

getting ready to reapply.” 

Then the principal’s next words turned his blood cold. 

Clementine is funding this scholarship entirely herself. She 

has pledged the entire four–year scholarship fund she was 

awarded by Imperial College London.” 

Grant’s mind went blank. 

What? 

He grabbed the classmate beside him by the shirt. 

“What did he just say? Where is Clementine’s donation 

coming from?” 

“I–I think he said… her scholarship from Imperial College London