Chapter 53 - 53: Sophia Was A Little Surprise

Sophia was surprised that she had a photo with Pearson.

Kate thought for a while and said, "Actually, it seemed to me that Albert had never smiled. He probably didn't like smiling…"

Sophia was a little surprised. In her memory, Pearson was an outgoing person with a smile on his face. Sometimes, he even smiled like a psycho. Could that be true that he didn't like smiling?

Sophia thought it over some more, and it occurred to her that when she had first met Pearson, he didn't seem to laugh or smile much at all.

The next morning, the French teacher, Ms. Pascal, announced in her class that in order to improve the students' enthusiasm for learning French, they would have a French competition.

The rules were very simple. Each student would choose a rival of his or her level. The two would compete with each other in the tests and exercises and then compare their grades. After each test, the one with the lower score would give a gift to the one with the higher score.

Of course, this "gift" would just be something small. It didn't need to be anything fancy, a little notebook or eraser would do.

The students were immediately interested.

Any two students were allowed to pair up. Naturally, people gravitated to those who were of a similar level of French. No one wanted to lose all the time.

After a bit of discussion, many of the students found their opponents and handed their pairings to Ms. Pascal.

She looked at it, "It seems that there are two students who have not handed in their pairings. Sophia and Molly?"

Sophia had to stand up, "Ms. Pascal. No one wants to work with me!"

She knew the reason: they were all afraid that she would hit them if they beat her.

Molly also stood up, "Ms. Pascal, my worst French test score was 147, and my best was full marks! No one can beat me, so no one wants to pick me!"

As she said that, an idea came to her, "Ms. Pascale, let me work with Sophia! There's only the two of us left anyway."

She knew her math was not as good as Sophia's. But at least, she could win in French.

Ms. Pascal felt a little embarrassed, "It is true that you often get full marks. Sophia, do you agree to have Molly as your opponent? It is potentially a little uneven."

Sophia shrugged carelessly, "It's fine."

Molly looked at Sophia, gave her a smug smile, and sat down.

She got full marks most of the time. As long as she always aimed for a perfect score, she couldn't lose anyway!

Mariah frowned, "Molly, you're very good at French. You just want to embarrass Boss, don't you?

Molly raised her eyebrow, "Who's trying to embarrass her? She agreed on herself, didn't she? I never forced her!"

Mariah was worried about Sophia's situation. If Molly always beat Sophia, she'd have to keep buying Molly presents after every test. It wasn't about the expense but about Sophia losing face in front of the class.

Sophia didn't care either way: winning or losing didn't matter much to her.

After school, she came across Molly in the bike shed. Molly had decided to go and find her, "Sophia, let me help you with your French? I don't want it to be unfair between us."

Sophia grabbed her bike, "Don't bother."

Molly followed her, wheeling her own bike, "I really don't mind. I'm actually a very generous person. Are you on your way home now? Remember to buy me a gift when you pass the stationery store. I'm not picky. A biro is fine."

Sophia ignored Molly. She pushed her bike to the school gate and was about to get on her bike when she saw a familiar person.

Mitch accosted a passing student and tried to speak to them in French. The student looked dazed and could only say, "Sorry, I don't understand you!"

Molly's eyes lit up. She went up with her bike and tried to talk to Mitch. She thought her French was so good that she could communicate with this French guy. How lucky that now she could show off how good she was in front of Sophia.

But after hearing Mitch's speech, Molly was stunned.

Mitch's French was spoken in a local accent she could not make head nor tail of. It was very difficult to understand. Molly could follow less than 30 percent of his words, and the rest was like listening to a river. She had no idea what he was talking about, where the words stopped or started.

She tried to communicate with Mitch, only to find that her spoken language was not fluent at all. The college entrance examination did not include oral French, so she had mainly focused on the studies of listening and writing and had never practiced spoken French.

Mitch couldn't talk with Molly. Suddenly, he caught sight of Sophia who was not far away. Happily, he came up to her, "Hello, how nice to see you again! I'm trying to find a chess master at your school. Do you know this person could be?"

Sophia was confused, "I don't know. Are you sure there is a chess master at my school?"

Molly drew closer and looked at Sophia with some disbelief, "You… you understand him?"

Sophia turned to her, "He asked if there was a chess master in our school. I never heard of one… Do you know?"

Molly broke into a triumphant smile, "Speaking of chess masters, you're looking at the right person! There is a chess group in our school. And I am the group leader and foremost chess player at this school."

Sophia was surprised and translated the words to Mitch immediately.

Molly was a bit uncomfortable when she heard Sophia speak French as fluently as she did English. She always thought Sophia's French was poor, and now it didn't seem like that at all. She suddenly lost her confidence in the French competition.

Mitch Watson was very surprised, he immediately said, "That's who I'm looking for! That's the person I want to play chess with."