Percy refused to take the paper, yet he wouldn’t explain why. Instead, he teased Stacy. “I don’t want it. I’ll just wing it when I get up there.” Stacy nearly lost it. “You already got a demerit! You think you can just wing it again? Take it and read through it now! You can’t mess up like last time. If you sound insincere, Jonah is going to come after you, and I won’t be able to help you!” The Finch family could never win against the Quinn family. Percy grinned, looking every bit the troublemaker he was. “It’s fine. Worst case, I get expelled. Saves me the trouble of going to school.” Stacy looked like she was about to cry. If she could go up there and read the apology letter for him, she would’ve rushed toward the stage already. Just then, Mike called out from the side of the field, “Percy, Scarlett, come to the front.” Usually, only the shortest students stood in front. Besides that, it was only those who were about to be praised, or, more often, criticized. Neither Scarlett nor Percy was exactly short. Being called up could only mean trouble. Under the gleeful stares of their classmates, Percy straightened his back and strutted to the front. He wasn’t scared at all. He wouldn’t be the one reading the apology letter anyway. Scarlett frowned. She didn’t understand why she was being dragged into this. In the chaos, Stacy shoved the apology letter into her hands, telling her to give it to Percy. Scarlett weighed it in her palm. It was five pages thick. It had to be at least 2,000 words. Stacy had really gone all out for Percy. She stuffed the letter into her pocket and followed Percy to the front, standing side by side with him. When she glanced to the right, she saw Jonah standing at the front of the Class A line, his face dark as a thundercloud. Scarlett raised an eyebrow, putting two and two together. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, knowing things were about to get interesting. The flag-raising ceremony quickly moved on to the rewards and punishments segment. No surprise, Class A once again won the honor flag. Jonah went up to accept the flag, his face dark. Whispers rippled through the crowd. “Why does Jonah look so pissed today?” “Isn’t it obvious? His hand’s broken, and he still has to go up there as Class A’s rep. Of course he’s pissed.” “It’s all that damn Mr. Apology’s fault! I hate him so much!” “Me too! He’s gonna read his apology soon, right? We need to boo him off the stage and get him expelled!” Herbert heard every word they said. Not only did he not stop them, he wished for them to continue doing so. A teacher couldn’t stand it and was ready to scold the students, but Herbert stopped her. “What are you doing? Are you going to stop the students from standing up for what’s right? That’s not what a teacher should do. Besides, Bill’s here too. Let him see for himself that some kids are just rotten to the core,” Herbert said. Bill always scolded him for judging students by their backgrounds, warning him that even if he was Donald’s brother-in-law, and even if he was a renowned teacher from a school of good reputation, he would be fired if he kept up. However, some kids had no background, no discipline, and thought they could do whatever they wanted. It was time they paid the price. Herbert stood there, arms crossed, waiting for Percy to walk up and get booed off the stage. It would be the perfect moment to vent some of the frustration he had built up from Bill’s lectures. However, right then, the teacher speaking onstage glanced toward the front rows and made a small gesture toward Jonah. The teacher’s voice rang out, “I believe most of you already know what happened last week. Jonah and Percy had a serious conflict, and Jonah was injured as a result. Now, let’s invite the student responsible for the incident to come up and read their written apology, and formally apologize to the victim.” Jonah’s fingers clenched around the folded letter, knuckles turning white. He took a heavy step toward the stage. Herbert froze. “Wait, what? Why was Jonah going up there? Wasn’t this supposed to be Percy’s punishment?”