Chapter 3 The Test

THIRD PERSON'S POV

"Carly, get up from bed! You are supposed to resume school today! You've already missed a whole week!" Carly's mom yelled from the door.

"I'm coming, mom. Let me sleep for a while. It's not 7 yet," Carly whined as she turned to the other side of her bed.

"Come with me this instant, young lady! Can't you be more like Judy?"

"Fine, Mom. I'm coming. You've ruined sleep for me anyway," Carly replied sadly as she reluctantly climbed down her bed and followed her mom. She hated being compared to her perfect sister, Judy, and that's what she endured every day.

Carly, a young college student and the daughter of a wealthy businessman who struggled so much to meet her elder sister's standards.

Judy was more beautiful and smart, and she never got into trouble. Carly, on the other hand, didn't possess these qualities. She was pretty, but she wasn't particularly smart or a good student. Carly was the child who got into trouble at school and at home, and she hated school.

After managing to graduate from high school with just a passing grade, she thought all the high school drama would end, and she would have the opportunity to start afresh with a better identity, not just the identity of the dumb pretty girl. Unfortunately, things only got worse in college.

Penny and her friends never missed an opportunity to taunt her and remind her of the embarrassing moment she had on their high school prom night when her date left her for Summer, a friend of Penny's. That evening, she was waiting for her date Lucas to pick her up, but instead, he drove up with Summer sitting in the front seat, while Penny and her date occupied the back seat.

"Sorry, Carly, you just don't do it for me," Lucas mocked, while the girls laughed. And before she could say anything, he drove off, leaving her all by herself.

That day, she felt like a piece of shit, but she managed to put herself together and attended the prom alone.

College was meant to be a fresh start. She thought she would probably make friends. Unfortunately, Penny and Summer had to go to the same college as her.

As Carly dragged herself downstairs, she bumped into her sister Judy already dressed and having breakfast.

"Sleepyhead, just a reminder, you have a test today, and you know Mr. Harris is always strict with his test questions and attendance. Have fun writing something you don't know," Judy mocked.

"You should have told me this last night while we had dinner, but no, you were being selfish as always," Carly snapped.

"Do I look like your school timetable? Are we in the same level? You're always lazy with schoolwork, so a little lesson is what you need," Judy snapped back. "And just because we're taking the same course doesn't mean I should keep tabs on your schedule," she added rudely.

"It's better to not have a sister than to have one as selfish as you. Judy," Carly said sadly as she went back to her room to have her bath. Right before she entered the bathroom, Henna came knocking.

Henna, a woman in her mid-40s, worked in their mansion.

"Who's that?" Carly asked.

"It's me. I'm here with your breakfast since you didn't end up eating it with your sister downstairs," she replied.

"Come in," Carly reluctantly said.

Henna came in and kept the tray of food on the reading table. She was the only one in the house who looked out for her.

"Anything else, ma'am?" she asked.

"Nothing, and please, for the 100th time, it's Carly. I'm not 'ma'am.' Maybe my sister forces you to call her that, but I'm not comfortable with it," she corrected.

"Ok, Carly," Henna replied with a faint smile. "I'll be leaving now. Call me when you need me," she added and left.

Carly, who had been standing next to her dresser all this while, took her cellphone and walked into the bathroom. She loved listening to songs while she bathed. It had become a habit, but her mom didn't like it.

"That's the reason you always spend more time than you should in the bathroom!" her mom would always tell her, but as usual, she wouldn't listen. The way she was being treated in her father's mansion made her think she might be adopted or something. She didn't see herself as the real daughter of Richard Davison, the CEO of Davison Hotels. The privileges her sister received were much greater than what she got, and most of the time, she had to be scolded before she would be given something.

Entering the bathroom with her head filled with different thoughts, she played a slow romantic song on her cellphone and placed it in a safe spot, hoping it would give her happy thoughts.

"Think happy thoughts, think of Max," she muttered to herself.

She took so long in the shower, lost in daydreams of a perfect life with Max and a perfect family. When she finally finished, she realized she was already running late.

She ran to the door in her towel and slightly opened it so her head could fit through.

"Henna! Did you bring out my crop top from the dryer like I asked you to?" she yelled out to their maid.

"Yes, I'm coming with it," Henna replied as she quickly headed to Carly's room. In no time, she reached the door, and Carly stretched her hand to grab the top. As soon as she did, she dressed up hurriedly. She wore a pink crop top, black jeans trousers, a black leather jacket, and pink sneakers.

The moment she finished putting on her clothes, she grabbed her bag, which was already prepared, ate a few spoonfuls of her food, and rushed out without makeup on, leaving her messy beautiful blonde hair to rest on her back.

As soon as she got downstairs, she discovered her sister had already been taken to school by the driver.

"Arrrgh, how I wish I could slap her right now!" she said in a fit of rage. She knew that every minute she spent hanging around was risky, so she took the bike she was prohibited from riding after getting into an accident and drove to school.

When she arrived at school and ran to her first class, which was the test, she bumped into Fred. Fred was a senior and her sister's 100th crush. Her sister seemed to have a crush on almost every hot guy around.

Carly hated everything about her sister and therefore despised everyone she liked too.

"Watch it!" she yelled and immediately continued running to her class. By the time she arrived, they had already started the test, and she resorted to begging the professor to let her in.

"Carly, you need to take your education seriously. I'll let you write the test because I don't want you to fail my course again," Mr. Harris warned.

"Thank you so much, sir," Carly said as she hurriedly entered and sat on an empty seat at the back.

"You have 20 minutes remaining, and that includes you, Miss Carly," the professor reminded her, which caused her to panic.

First of all, she didn't understand the questions, and second of all, how was she supposed to answer something she never attended a class for and hadn't even come across? She looked at the questions again, and they all seemed like a foreign language to her. She raised the paper, looked at it, put it back on her desk, and started ticking randomly. She was a bit glad that the questions weren't essay questions, and she could maneuver her way through by guessing.

"No way will I fail everything," she assured herself before she began ticking the answers randomly without even attempting to read any of the questions.

"Time's up. Leave your work on your desk and leave!" the professor instructed.

Carly reluctantly left her paper on the desk as instructed and walked out. But as she reached the door, she bumped into Fred again.