Chapter 158 Her SAT score

Chapter 158 Her SAT score
Irene stared at the white piece of paper thoughtfully, like she had been doing for a while now.

Her parents at first had pretended not to be interested, then they stared down at the paper with her as though expecting something to happen.

Or at least for her to open it.

After a while, her parents let out a loud sigh, leaving her back where they had been diligently waiting for her to open that bloody envelope.

Her mother came to stand in front of her.

"Honey, you've been staring at the closed envelope for almost seven minutes now, don't you want to open it?" she asked, pointing at the envelope Irene kept staring at.

At the mention of the envelope, her father walked over.

"Yeah, darling." He began, standing next to his wife. "If you don't want to know, we do."

Of course they wanted to.

And so did Irene.

She blinked, then forced a small smile on her face.

"Of course."

She was holding her SAT result in her hands. Any normal student would have opened it and checked as soon as he or she got it, but not Irene.

Why?

This technically didn't matter at the school she wanted to apply to. The only thing that mattered was talent... and money, which she also didn't have. But she could work her way around that.

But this result was her ticket to going to the school of her choice.

She couldn't help but feel nervous.

Irene blinked again before looking away from the envelope to her parents, who had somehow gotten closer.

"Our deal is still on." Her mum said, with an encouraging smile. "We just want to see if you'd do well on the test."

"Fine." Irene muttered, nodding her head. "Here it goes."

Slowly... much too slowly for anyone's comfort, Irene ripped open the envelope, then brought out a piece of paper.

She flipped it almost immediately and then froze.

"And..." Her mother dragged, staring at her daughter, who was now staring at the result without talking or moving.

Irene turned the paper around. "Oh my goodness, fourteen hundred!"

"What?" Her mother practically dragged the piece of paper away from her. Her eyes went wide at the score. "That's amazing, Irene!"
She looked back up at Irene, walked over and gave her a hug.

"Baby, we are so proud of you." She muttered before pulling away.

"Wow."

Irene couldn't help the small smile that appeared on her face.

She had actually done it.

She had spent so much time worrying about the result that she had almost forgotten that she had actually studied for the test. There was no reason for her to have expected a bad result.

Still, seeing the number written there made her happy.

Her father quickly took the paper from her mother's hand, staring at it as though he expected the number to suddenly change.

It didn't.

Her mother was still smiling from ear to ear.

"Do you know that you can study law with this?" He suddenly suggested still looking at the paper. "Even medicine if you wish. Imagine, our daughter being the first doctor in the family."

Irene's smile immediately disappeared.

There it was.

She should have known.

Her parents had been waiting for this moment, and now that they had seen her result, they were already planning the rest of her life.

"Oh, that's nice but em..." Irene stood up, slowly walking backwards. "I've already submitted my applications to colleges."

"What?" Her mother's smile disappeared almost immediately.

Irene scratched the side of her head awkwardly.

"Yeah. Remember that college that I told you that I want to go? They asked for a video of me playing a piece, and I sent them one of me playing one of Elena Yu's pieces. I'm just waiting to get a reply."

Her mother stared at her.

Her father stared at her too.

Irene suddenly wished she could disappear.

She knew that look.

It was the same look her parents gave her whenever she did something they weren't expecting.

"Darling, that's nice and everything but..." Her mother took a few steps towards her. "That was before you knew your SAT score. Now you can do something else."

Irene sighed.

Of course.

They were already trying to change her mind.

She should have known that they were never going to stick to their word. But she believe them, that was why she was able to get such an incredible score.

Whatever they wanted was their problem, Irene already knew her dream.

"What I want to do is music mum. I want to be the greatest pianist in the world." She answered with a huge smile on her face.

"Irene..."

The way her name left her father's lips was as though he was trying to say 'That childish dream again?'

Irene stomped her foot on the floor, letting out a frustrated grunt.

"But you guys promised!"

Her mother pressed her lips together, shook her head, and then crossed her hands. "Irene."

There was something about the way her mother said her name that made Irene know this conversation wasn't going to end anytime soon.

But she wasn't changing her mind.

She had already made her decision.

"We had a deal. You guys can't back out if it now." Irene said again taking another step back.

If she couldn't convince them, she would just do the most reasonable thing running away.

"But this score..." Her father pointed at the paper in his hand as though the number was some kind of magical spell that should automatically make Irene change her mind.

She shook her head.

"Do you want to be like us?" He asked, letting out a loud breath. "If I had a score like this on my SATs, we would have had a better life. I wouldn't be working for the Rogers, especially that wife of his that is hell bent on making us miserable."

Irene looked at her father for a moment.

She knew he was only saying it because he wanted the best for her, and she understood him.

Still, she couldn't help but feel like he was asking her to give up something she actually loved just because he hadn't gotten the chance to do the same.

Plus, there was no turning back time. Because Irene knew first hand all the possibilities that could he altered from just one change.

She slowly shook her head.

"Careful what you wish for dad, if you change one thing in the past, you could change everything."

Her father frowned slightly.

Irene immediately looked away.

She had said too much.

She didn't want to get into another long conversation, especially not one where she would have to explain herself.

"Mum, dad, I'm sorry but there are only two options for me, catering or music. And there is no way I'm studying catering, so music it is."

Catering would just be like begging the future she saw to come to pass. She already had Nelson, she could forgo everything else.

Maybe apart from William.

Her mother opened her mouth, but Irene could already tell what was coming.

"This score..."

Again?

Irene almost groaned.

She had a feeling that her SAT score was going to be mentioned at least twenty more times before they finally accepted her decision.

She quickly grabbed her bag from the couch.

"You can't talk me out of this." She mumbled walking towards the door. "Now if you'd excuse me, I have a date with my boyfriend."

"Irene" her mother called her back, she pretended as though she was deaf and walked away.