That afternoon, she arrived early. She found class seventeen and entered the room.
A dozen students had arrived in the classroom already and were looking around for seats. The school mixed up the year group every semester into different classes, so most of the students didn't know much about each other. They were free to choose their seats until the teacher made a seating plan.
She had no interest in the high school course, nor did she intend to do it all over again. It was too simple for her. She came to school more to feel part of school life. Besides, she had nothing else to do at her age. So she planned to pass the college entrance examination first.
Thinking like this, she felt the front seats should be left to students in need. So she quietly walked to the back row of the classroom. She found a seat, cleaned it with a paper towel, and sat down.
Several students looked around at her, confused. A couple of classmates who knew each other were whispering.
"Why did she sit in the back? It's so weird. She'll hardly see or hear anything in the back, and it'll affect her studies."
"Isn't she a… bad student?"
A student suddenly said, "That's… Sophia Green! How could she…"
Immediately someone asked, "Who's Sophia Green?"
"She…" he hesitated, looked back at Sophia Green, and found she was looking at him. His face suddenly changed, and he turned around hurriedly, "I, I got it wrong."
Sophia Green was bothered. She thought that none of these young students would know her. After all, they hadn't even started school when she had the accident. But obviously, there was an exception. The classmate who knew her… she remembered him.
His name was Dave Malone. He was one of the students who had been blackmailed by her. He used to be one grade lower than her. He must have had to repeat a year.
She saw Dave Malone silently find a seat as far away from her as possible and sit down.
She must have left an awful mark in Dave Malone's memory.
Students gradually filtered into the classroom. But no one chose the seats near Sophia Green.
Suddenly, a loud voice was heard at the door.
"BOSS!"
Everyone turned around and looked at the door.
A fat girl in a miniskirt and heavy makeup walked up to Sophia Green, with a massive smile on her face. She was followed by two other girls. They were all dressed outrageously.
The school was only starting today, and they weren't required to wear school uniforms until next week. Even so, their outfits were very eye-catching.
Sophia Green knew these three girls.
They used to be her allies.
Why were they still here? Shouldn't they have graduated long before?
"Carol Carter." Sophia Green rubbed her forehead, "Your voice is still so loud."
Carol Carter trotted towards Sophia. She hugged Sophia's head to her chest, "I've missed you so much, Boss."
Sophia pulled herself away from Carol's embrace and smoothed out her hair.
"Why are you three here? Aren't you supposed to have gone to college?"
Carol Carter looked proud, "We were waiting for you. If you never came back, we would never have graduated."
"Yeah." The other two girls chorused in unison.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dave Malone looking over at them with a desperate look.
These three allies of Sophia Green were Carol Carter, Mariah Carey, and Melissa Everly. They were in the same class when they arrived at Colin High School. They got along well and quickly became good friends. They soon became a gang led by Sophia with a stupid name—The Sister Alliance.
Before the establishment of the Sister Alliance, there were other girl gangs. But once the Sister Alliance was formed, it quickly disbanded the others. These girls either drifted away or joined the Sister Alliance.
For one reason alone, Sophia Green was too powerful! She was born strong, and she was interested in fighting and had learned some skills. She could beat anyone, even four or five people at once. At the beginning of the Sister Alliance, some older girls had challenged them. They were all defeated by Sophia Green and had to beg for her forgiveness.
Since then, Sophia Green had led the Sister Alliance and conquered all the girl gangs. They became the biggest headache for the school leaders. Even the bad boys in the school stayed out of her way and dared not be arrogant around her.
Sophia was always faithful to her friends. Her family was not rich. Kate usually didn't give her much pocket money. Three of the girls in the alliance were rich and always wanted to give her some money. But Sophia Green was determined to be a person of integrity and pride and wouldn't accept their money.
So she led her girls to blackmail other students. She called it "The Robin Hood Crusade".
It all ended with a car accident. And Sophia had no idea what had happened since then.
Thinking back on all that Sophia Green had done, she didn't know what to say.
Carol told her about their experiences after the car accident. It had been during the summer holiday, and after the incident, the three of them and some other girls stayed at the hospital and wouldn't leave, insisting that their Boss would wake up.
When school started, their parents made them go back to school. These three went into the eleventh grade. With Sophia Green's legacy, they were still the bosses in the school. They would still habitually blackmail students at the school gates, until…
"What's the money for?" Holding the money, Carol Carter was confused.
Mariah Carey was confused, too, "We used to use this money to buy snacks for Boss, pay for combat training, and buy clothes. Now she can't eat snacks…"
Melissa Everly said, "Yeah. We don't need it."
So they gave the money back.
Before the college entrance exam application, Director Bull called them to the office and said gently, "Do you want to sign up for the college entrance examination? With your grades, there seems to be no hope of actually getting into university. And after you fail, you have to retake courses on the south campus. And then you wouldn't be on campus with Sophia if she comes back. Why don't you just give up the examination? And you can study with the year below next year?"
Their grades were really bad. Even if they took the examination, they couldn't get into any university. Of the 750 points, they would probably get about two hundred points at most.
As the leader of the three, Carol Carter thought for a while and finally nodded, "We won't sign up for the examination. We'll stay in eleventh grade until Boss comes back."
Director Bull nodded satisfactorily. If they didn't sign up for the exam, they were not in the transition rate.
The year's enrollment rate was safe again.
Then a year went by. The next year, when they were faced with college entrance examination applications again, Director Bull persuaded them to agree to wait another year with the same words he used before.
***
Sophia Green didn't know what to say.
Director Bull was always trying so hard to get a high college enrollment rate. She remembered the way he had behaved yesterday when she re-enrolled. If it hadn't been for the change of soul, Sophia Green would never have passed that exam.