"Are you questioning my abilities? I spent ages picking out the prettiest shade of pink. How could it possibly not work?"

"That's not what I meant."

"If it's printed on it, it's an admission ticket. Who cares what color it is?" Caelum shot a glare at the student who had spoken up.

"Ms. Ashby went out of her way to prepare these for us, and instead of saying thank you, you're nitpicking?"

"Exactly. She put so much thought into it."

"Pink is great. It's a lucky color. We're definitely going to ace this."

I watched the whole thing play out and tapped my desk twice with a quiet laugh. The departure bell rang, and Ms. Ashby dabbed at the corners of her eyes.

"Alright, alright, it's time to head to the exam hall. I'll take you all there myself, but no roughhousing on the bus, okay? I need everyone to be on their best behavior."

The whole class stood up in a clatter of chairs and grabbed their bags. Students passed their admission tickets around to compare, some snapping photos for social media, others holding their tickets up to the sunlight to admire the watermark pattern.

"These are seriously gorgeous."

"Our teacher is the best. Every other class got plain black and white, and we're the only ones with color."

"Having a homeroom teacher like her is honestly a blessing."

I followed the crowd onto the bus, closed my eyes, and let the corner of my mouth curl upward.

Pink, huh? I wondered what the exam proctors outside the hall would have to say about this "lovingly selected" pink admission ticket.

Once everyone was on the bus, Ms. Ashby suddenly walked over to me. "Sienna, let me take a quick look at your admission ticket, okay?"

Her voice was syrupy and sweet, but her hand was already reaching out before I could respond. She snatched the ticket right out of my grip.

A sharp ripping sound followed half a second later. My admission ticket was now missing a corner.

"Oh no, I didn't mean to do that!"

She clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and innocent. I stared at the little scrap of paper on the floor and let out a dry laugh. Out of every admission ticket on this bus, she had zeroed in on mine and managed to tear off a piece.

Two lifetimes' worth of resentment crystallized in that moment, and I looked at her coldly. "Did you do that on purpose?"

The bus went silent.

Ms. Ashby's tears spilled over instantly. "How could you say something like that? You're accusing me for no reason… "I was only trying to help you check it…"

Before I could respond, Caelum was already on his feet beside me. "Sienna, that's enough. She already said it was an accident. Do you really have to make a scene and embarrass her in front of everyone like this? When did you become so heartless?"

"Heartless?" I let out a cold laugh. "Caelum, are you really this blind, or are you just pretending? There are 39 admission tickets on this bus. She didn't ask to check anyone else's. She came straight for mine, and she tore it."

I didn't wait for him to argue back before I kept going.

"These past three years, did all of you honestly think this class just ran itself? The pretty decorations, the fun events, how every other class was jealous of ours? None of you ever realized that I was the one doing all of it.

"Sophomore year, during the school sports festival, she insisted on some fairy tale theme for our marching formation. She didn't tell me until the night before that I needed to find costumes.

"I ran to every costume rental shop in the city and couldn't find 39 sets anywhere. In the end, a friend of mine outside of school had to pull stock from a shop in the next town over and drive them here overnight."

"Last semester, during midterms, the proctor was already at the door when she realized she forgot to pick up the test packets. I was the one who sprinted to the administrative office to grab them and hand them out myself."

With every word I said, the atmosphere on the bus grew heavier.

"Every time you praised this class for being so great, I was the one holding everything together behind the scenes. Every time you thought Ms. Ashby was being so 'thoughtful,' I was the one cleaning up her messes."

I stared at Ms. Ashby. The tears were still on her face, but her eyes had started darting around in panic.

"She started resenting me because of all of it. If finals weren't two months away, she would've stripped me of my class rep title a long time ago."

The bus fell completely silent. Caelum said nothing for a few seconds, then suddenly let out a laugh. "Are you done?"

He walked over, took my admission ticket, and looked up at me. "Dragging up all this old stuff is honestly pathetic. You're the class rep. Helping the teacher is literally your job.

"And what about all the other ways she goes above and beyond? How come you never mention any of that?"

He pulled his own admission ticket out of his pocket and tore off a small corner without a moment's hesitation.

"So what if it's torn? It's not a big deal." He held it up. "There. Now we're even."

The bus was quiet for about three seconds. Then, one by one, other students started moving.

"Yeah, seriously, it's not that deep."

"It's just a little tear. It's not like it won't work."

A male student sitting in front of me followed Caelum's lead and tore the corner off his own ticket. Then a second person did it, and a third.

The sound of ripping paper echoed through the bus one after another. I leaned back in my seat, stunned by how absurd it all was.

Pink paper and torn corners. They could all enjoy getting turned away at the exam hall doors for all I cared.

Right at that moment, Principal Elliot Jones boarded the bus for his routine inspection. He had barely stepped on before his eyes went wide.

"What on earth happened to your admission tickets?" He stormed up the aisle, his face livid. "Why are these admission tickets pink? And the edges are torn?"

He turned on Ms. Ashby. "Pauline!"

Ms. Ashby flinched and tucked her chin, but quickly straightened back up. "Principal Jones, don't be so harsh. I just wanted to help the students feel a little more relaxed."

"Relaxed?" Principal Jones was furious. "There are strict regulations for admission tickets. White background, black text, no modifications of any kind.

"Their tickets are the wrong color, and the security watermarks have been torn off. How exactly are they supposed to get into the exam hall?"

Ms. Ashby burst into tears on the spot, crouching down in the aisle and sobbing until she could barely breathe. "You're being mean to me again. Everything I do is for the students. I spent so long picking out the prettiest shade of pink…"

Then she suddenly looked up, her tear-filled eyes locking onto me. "She's the one who told on me, isn't she? You sent her to spy on me!"

Every pair of eyes on the bus snapped toward me at once. I sat back in my seat, expression blank, and said nothing.

Caelum was the first to stand, stepping in front of Ms. Ashby to shield her. "Principal Jones, you're going too far. Do you have any idea how much effort our teacher puts in? So what if they're pink? So what if there's a torn corner? We don't mind!"

The other students followed his lead.

"Yeah, we don't mind!"

"Who says admission tickets can't be pink?"

"We're the top class in the entire district. Who's going to stop us from taking the exam?"

Cheers and shouts of support erupted across the bus, every face flushed red. A few students stood up and half-shoved the principal toward the door.

Principal Jones was shaking with anger, but when he glanced at his watch, there was less than half an hour before the first exam started. The drive to the exam hall alone was 20 minutes, and there was simply no time left to argue.

"You just wait. I'm going back to the school to reprint the tickets, and I'll have them sent to you." He forced the words out through clenched teeth, then turned and stepped off the bus.

The moment the doors closed, the bus erupted in cheers.

"We won!"

"The principal totally backed down!"

Ms. Ashby got up from the aisle, wiped her tears, and broke into a smug grin. Caelum turned and held up his admission ticket, his voice dripping with contempt. "Who even wants his boring black and white version? We're using the ones our teacher gave us. The whole class agrees."

"Yeah, that's right!"

"The pink ones are way better. What does the principal know?"

"We're the top class. Who's going to stop us from taking the exam over something this small?"

He scoffed, and his gaze drifted over to me, casual but deliberate. I didn't look at him. I just quietly touched the black and white admission ticket tucked away in my jacket pocket.

I hoped they'd keep making a scene. The bigger, the better.

The bus pulled up to the exam hall, and a woman in an official proctor's uniform stepped on board.

"Class Seven, Senior Year? I'm the exam coordinator. I'll be checking your admission tickets, and then you'll exit the bus in order and proceed inside."

Ms. Ashby rushed up to her immediately, her voice sickeningly sweet. "Hi there! Take a look at our class's tickets. Aren't they beautiful? I printed them on pink paper specially for the kids."

She grabbed the admission ticket out of Caelum's hand and held it up to the proctor's face. The proctor took it, and her brow furrowed into a deep frown.

"Admission tickets for final exams are required to be printed on white paper with black text. No modifications of any kind. This one is pink, there are stickers on it, the edge is torn, and the security watermark is barely legible."

Ms. Ashby blinked. "But miss, I put so much love into these…"

Caelum spoke up too, his tone confrontational. "We happen to like the pink ones. What, you're going to stop us from taking the exam over a color?"

The proctor looked at him coolly. "Yes. Pink admission tickets are not permitted. Let me make this perfectly clear. Pink admission tickets do not meet regulations. If you continue to disrupt exam proceedings, I will call the police."

The moment those words landed, panic swept through the bus.

The academic rep, Liam Jagger, was the first to stand, his voice trembling. "Then what are we supposed to do? Didn't you say they'd be fine as long as they were printed?"

"Yeah, Ms. Ashby, didn't you say there wouldn't be a problem?"

Ms. Ashby's face went rigid. Her eyes darted around for a moment before landing squarely on me. "Sienna! You're the class rep. Why didn't you warn me? You knew admission tickets had to be black and white. This is your fault!"

I almost laughed from sheer disbelief. "Ms. Ashby, I did warn you. More than once. Last week, when you showed us the sample printout, I told you there were specific regulations for final exam tickets. White background, black text. You know what you said?"

I mimicked her voice. "'I think pink is prettier. You young people have no sense of style.'"

The bus went quiet for a beat.

"And then on Thursday, the admin office sent Mr. Watson over specifically to tell our class that the ticket format wasn't to be altered."