Third time, the charm!

- CHAPTER 1 -

The day goes by like any other. The classes slowly blur into one and before Yua knows it, its lunch time.

The bell rings and the cheer of the students drown the teacher's voice.

"Now remember, your assignment for this unit is due by next Friday and it accounts for 15 percent of your grades! You might think you still have a whole week left and before you know it, it's Friday."

The sniggers of the students further confirm it.

"And that's why, I would like a complete draft submitted by Monday with a comprehensive list of references to support your evidence."

The students start to groan at the mention of pre-work.

Yua carefully notes down "Draft due by Monday! (w references)" right on top of "Assignment due by Friday! (15%)" on her notebook. She takes a yellow highlighter out of her pencil case and further highlights it.

"Don't worry," the teacher continues, "the draft can be complete by 80 % just to ensure there is enough time to fix your mistakes and also ensure there is no plagiarism." At this, the teacher carefully gives a serious once-over to his classroom.

"Sir, don't you trust us? We're your hard-working students." A guy at the front with brown locks playfully gasps, while several students look at each with a knowing smirk.

When you belong to the upper crust of elite, there is very little money can't buy. Obviously, that includes grades and homeworks.

Rumour on the mill was, last year Köcher High had a terrible case of plagiarism issue when the final assignment for one whole class had a similarity percentage of 32 - 39%. To the upper echelons of society, this was something that could be easily dealt with. However, in a rare moment of disbelief, Köcher High had asked the entire student batch to redo their final assignment and gave the students another chance to redeem their work.

While many were baffled, Yua understood why. The reason was purely strategic. Köcher High School relied on it's reputable image of solely accepting the top 1 percent of Thailand's new generation. It was also through this concept, they had started to build relations to the Ivy League schools, and the alliance was still fairly new.

If word got out, that Köcher High School was accepting bribes for an entire class, let alone the media outrage, their value amongst the Ivy League association would tank faster than a speeding bullet. It would be social suicide.

Hence, from this year on, the school education board as a whole had started to tighten their requirements for student's responsibilities and their ethics towards their studies.

Having said his final remark, the teacher packs his materials and leaves the classroom. The students have started to huddle in groups and head to the cafeteria. Yua pops her earbuds on and slowly starts to follow them.

The cafeteria is slightly busier than normal. Yua looks over to the upper floor where there is a separate section reserved for 'privacy' in the name of leather couches and sofas. She spots the back of two tall boys laughing together, hunched over whatever they are looking at on their phones.

"F4 was it?"

Yua shakes her head and proceeds to select her food for lunch. Once she is happy with her tray, she finds an inconspicuous seat at a table located a bit further away in the corner of the lunch hall.

Yua has been at Kocher High for almost 3 weeks now and she has already learnt a lot. Thailand is very different from Switzerland. Back in Swiss, it was easy to lose herself in the crowd. Rich brats are pompous everywhere, however everyone has their own kind. Likewise, Yua had one that was her very own. They might exchange jabs in greeting, gift thousands-worth knickknacks to kiss and make up but they would equally fight insults against another's name and tolerate zero slander for their friend.