📞  Chapter 2. Maria

February 11

Maria — is the best at what she does, namely schoolwork. She constantly studies all subjects, paragraphs of textbooks, unconditionally fulfils all homework without exception, and spends all her time doing it, because there is nothing else in the world for her. The only thing that she cares about is studying. She doesn't do homework to live. She lives to do homework. If you watch her every day in her house, you won't see her doing anything other than solving problems. She has an attraction to good grades. This activity alone produces endorphins in her system.

In that case, one might wonder: if someone else were in her shoes, what would they do after high school or university? Probably kill themselves, because they wouldn't find other pleasures. Or, on the contrary, would have pursued money and career advancement just as much as they would have pursued grades.

The only difference is that in adulthood it won't be possible to get money for learnt material or solving abstract examples. You will have to look for other ways. So, it turns out that sixteen-year-old Maria, Nicholas's classmate, and an excellent student, not at all accustomed to making mistakes, is unlikely to be able to cope with any failure in the future.

And now, after a hard academic day, she was walking home from school with a new set of good grades. It was snowing in the street. There were artificial snow fences on the sides of the girl, separating the pavement from cars and prying eyes. She was in high spirits, anticipating the reaction of her parents to her A's, although, of course, they had already got used to and stopped paying attention to them.

When suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a masked stranger.

He shoved her, slipped a cardboard note into her palm, and walked away. Of course, Maria was very surprised. But what she saw in that note surprised her even more. More than that — horrified her.

«Let's play a game. I've lowered all your grades in every subject. You're no longer an excellent student. If you want to make it up to me, tomorrow, after school, go up to the roof of the lyceum. The hatch will be open at that time. The game has begun!»

Ten minutes later, she still hadn't moved from her spot, staring shocked at the screen of her phone. The browser was displaying the electronic journal website. All of the grades had actually deteriorated. The A's had been replaced by B's or C's. The old B's were replaced by C's or D's. All of her grades went down one or two points.

Almost crying, Maria immediately headed for home. Her mother wasn't there today, so she ran to her father to inform him about the hacking of the electronic journal and giving her bad grades.

— Hi! — she said, panting. — Do you have the number of the class counselor? Call her right now!

— Hi, I do. But what's the rush? Is something wrong?

Maria wasn't very athletic, after such a run she breathed heavily and had to pause to suck air into her lungs.

— Some man put this note in my hand, — she held it out to her father. — I couldn't see his face. He was wearing a mask. All black, no identifying signs at all. It happened so suddenly... By the time I realised, he was gone.

Her father read the unknown man's message and grinned:

— Did you seriously believe that? I'm sure it's just a prank.

When Maria showed him the phone with the pre-opened electronic journal and grades, the smile flew off his face in an instant. Without a word, he took the phone, found the number of the class counselor and called.

— Hello! I'm Maria's father. Do you remember her? — when he got an affirmative answer, he continued. — There seems to have been a glitch in the electronic journal and all my daughter's grades... Changed. Can you tell me what the cause of this misunderstanding is?

— Hello, first time I've heard of this. Hold on, I'll check.

The next two minutes seemed like hours to Maria. She had completely forgotten that she was standing in a warm jacket with a briefcase on her shoulders, but didn't care. As the class counselor checked her grades, she experienced a great fear.

— I've looked at all the grades. So what's the matter?

— «What's the matter»? — the father was indignant. — My daughter is an excellent student! Not what those horrible letters in the journal make her out to be!

— You know, I'm not in the mood for jokes right now. Tell me yourself, when was she an excellent student?

At first Maria was doubtful, but now remarked with confidence that there was something wrong in the voice of the woman, with the noise and interference.

«It must be a bad connection», — she decided.

— Are you all right? She always got good grades! You should have seen it!

— Don't waste my time and don't talk rubbish! Goodbye! — ignoring the persistent objections, the class counselor dropped the call.

«I don't understand. Why didn't she agree that I was an excellent student? She couldn't have forgotten about it..»

Maria remembered the note.

«...If you want to make it up to me, tomorrow, after school, go up to the roof of the lyceum. The hatch will be open at that time. The game has begun!»

— Tomorrow I'll try to talk to the teachers. Maybe they'll see if there's any sign of a glitch.

February 12

The first lesson was chemistry. Before the bell rang, Maria approached the teacher:

— Hello, could you tell me why all my grades have become bad? If you haven't forgotten, you should know that I never got grades lower than a B.

— Hmm... Let's see.

The teacher opened the electronic journal, selected her subject and clicked on Maria's row. Having checked the data, she turned to the student with perplexity.

— So what's wrong?

— What's wrong? I'm an excellent student and my grades have disappeared! The electronic journal has been hacked!

— I have all my grades under control.

The teacher went into her account settings.

— As you can see, there were no logins to my account from unknown devices. The login history only shows my IP address.

Subconsciously, Maria was surprised that an adult chemistry teacher had such knowledge.

«Okay, it's not that important right now.»

She looked at the monitor:

— But this data is not correct! You have to remember that I'm an excellent student! You praised me almost every class!

— You know, I have many classes besides you. There are about thirty students in each one. I can't remember them all. Nor can I remember which of them are excellent and which I praise. To me, everyone is equal. And you're no exception.

— But...

— The lesson is already in session, sit down at your desk!

Maria looked at the teacher's face and saw in it a small, but excitement. She decided not to argue and followed the instruction.

During the whole lesson, Maria thought about the strange behaviour of the teacher and couldn't concentrate on the topic at hand. The teacher knew for sure that Maria was an excellent student and realised without a doubt that her grades had changed.

«But no one really logged into her account. Did she do it on her own?»

Biology was next on the schedule. Maria decided to do the same and approached the teacher before the bell rang.

— Hello, where did all my good grades disappear to?

— Disappear? How?

— I've never had a C in your subject, and now the whole electronic journal is filled with them.

— All right. Let's check them.

The woman opened Maria's grades, took a quick glance at them, and then stared at her puzzled.

— Are you sure you got A's before?

— I'm absolutely sure! I'm an excellent student! I always have been!

— I dont remember that, — she said in a strange voice that sounded painfully familiar.

«What's wrong with the teachers? Maybe it's a prank from my classmates?»

— You do know me! — she pleaded. — You do know it's not true!

— I do not know anything! — the teacher looked at the face of her wristwatch. — And the lesson had already started!

Maria gave up and went to her desk, but glanced at the biology teacher a moment before. There was something wrong with her face too. The same thing that was wrong with the chemistry teacher's face.

It was only today that she realised how slow the lessons were going. Each one lasted as if it was an entire day, making her burn with impatience. Maria couldn't stop thinking about anything else but «the game».

Talking to the other teachers had no effect. Every single one of them pretended not to know about her status. It was as if she wasn't an excellent student at all.

Finally, the final bell rang.

«I'll find everything out soon.»

With that thought, she packed her things in her briefcase and went up to the third floor.

A metal ladder was bolted to the wall of the stairwell. An open hatch was visible above. Maria looked round and cautiously began to climb up. When she reached the last rung, she climbed out of the hatch and stepped onto the bulky roof of the lyceum.

The sound of the hatch slamming shut made her turn back.

The sound of the hatch slamming shut made her turn back sharply. Then she saw the masked man in front of her, and recognised him as the man who had put the note in her hand yesterday.

— I know you're very fond of A's, — came the distorted voice. — It's your whole life, but also your weakness, your vulnerability.

Maria stood still, unable to say a word. Pure terror was coursing through her to the bone. She didn't breathe or blink, but stared silently at the stranger.

But suddenly felt rage for what he had done to her.

— You've ruined my grades! — she shouted.

— Those were the rules of the game.

— Why did the class counselor assured me that I had never been an ecxellent student when I called her?

— She wasn't the one you called. I set up a fake base station outside your house and easily intercepted your call. I distorted my voice to sound like a grown woman. It's hard enough to tell the difference, as the voice is already less clear in phone conversations. But, to be sure, I muted the GSM to reduce the quality of the connection and not to give myself away.

His tone was so calm and indifferent, as if he were talking about the weather.

— When I asked the teachers about my bad grades, they said they didn't remember me being an excellent student. They thought I was playing a joke on them. Why would they do that?

— Like you, I slipped them all notes saying I wanted to play a game with them. I told them I knew where they lived. And that if they pretended they didn't know about the bad grades, nothing would happen to them or their family.

— No wonder they looked a little worried when they talked to me...

— As you can see, it didn't bother me.

There was a short pause. The two looked at each other in silence.

— Why do you want all this? — Maria continued.

— You love good grades. With this game, I decided to show you what that love can lead to. What a pity it's already over.

— Over?

— That's right. The game has come to an end.

The next second, the masked man walked up to Maria and hit her in the head. The girl fell on her front unconscious. Blood ran down the concrete. Her body fell a few centimetres from the hatch. The stranger had calculated the force and location of the blow perfectly — it looked like an accident. Everyone would think she'd tripped and smashed her face in.

He took a red marker out of his jacket pocket and drew a large, clear «A» on Maria's shirt.

Looked at her and smiled.

— Make your parents happy for another «A».