It’s important to do well in high school especially if you’re trying to get into a good college.

For some people, though, it’s more important to be in the top 10 in their class.

They’ve just got that competitive edge.

In today’s story, though, this woman ended up in a battle for the top 10 without even knowing it.

Let’s see how the story unfolds…

I was in a “battle for high school ranking” for nearly 2 1/2 years without knowing it

I was very ill during eighth grade (in the US, so that’s the last year of grade school, before high school) and missed a few months completely, and was only allowed to do half days for another month or so.

Even though I was doing homework, I wasn’t getting the in person instruction, and I’m more of a visual/auditory learner.

So needless to say my grades weren’t great and therefore placement in high school was at a remedial level my freshman year.

But they had figured out what was wrong with me and the medication had worked, so I had no attendance issues and had nearly a 4.0 GPA.

She had to make all new friends in high school.

I was the only person from my grade school to go to this high school. (The city line was literally our back fence.)

So I had to make friends with people who had gone to the same grade school their entire lives.

I finally made a few friends, most of them were in the marching band even though I wasn’t.

Unbeknownst to me, this was also when this “feud” started.

A friend of a friend was super jealous that she was in the top 10.

Another member of the band who was friends with some of my little circle was VERY invested in being in the top 10 of the class.

And suddenly she was at 11, because I was in the top 10. (I don’t know why she had no issues with the other 9.)

I obviously knew I was in the top 10, (actually was salutatorian at the end, but ranked I think 4th because 3 people were valedictorians with perfect 4.0 GPAs) but had no idea this was bothering anyone except me.

She hates math but took hard math classes anyway.

To get to the schools I wanted to apply to, I needed to be in the “good” classes, especially math.

I have always and will always hate math.

But sophomore year I had to take algebra AND geometry to get caught up.

I guarantee that year took several years off my life, and I’m amazed I didn’t get gray hair, but I succeeded.

She found out that Crystal was making up lies about her.

It wasn’t until junior year, when we were starting ACT prep classes, that one of my friends made an offhand comment to the effect of “If you do well on the ACTs then Crystal will have to stop saying you cheated your way to the top.”

Ummm, what now?

Literally the entire group I was sitting with, about 9 people, are just staring at me until someone finally said, “You know Crystal has been saying you took those easy classes freshman year to boost your GPA, right?”

“No, in fact I did not.”

Another friend shared more of what Crystal had been saying.

Everyone looked very uncomfortable.

I was still trying to make sense of … that, when someone helpfully chimed in, “Yeah, she’s been talking all summer about how when she gets a better ACT score than you it will prove you shouldn’t be in the top 10.”

“Okay, so does she think she gets to take my spot if she gets a higher score?”

To this day I have no clue why this was so important to her.

Crystal was bragging about her ACT score.

But eventually the day came where we got our scores back. And she was telling the whole school about her 31. (Which is a very good score- she WAS extremely intelligent, which is why I was so baffled that this mattered to her.)

And I just said… nothing. Because I knew she would ask me in front of everyone, and while I thought the whole thing was ridiculous, I had a bit of a petty streak.

Crystal was not happy when she told her what ACT score she got!

So during lunch, she stood up at the end of our lunch table and basically yelled, “Clara, did you hear I got a 31.”

“Sure did. Congratulations.”

She just stood there a minute, while I drank my soda. Then finally, “Well I haven’t heard from anyone what you got. Don’t you want to share?”

“I don’t mind. I got a 32.”

It was like watching a balloon deflate.

It was certainly not my proudest moment, but at the same time- if you’re going to be in intense competition for something, you should maybe at least let your “opponent” know about it.

Good for her for proving how smart she was while everyone was listening.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader applauded her for not only doing well in school but doing well after being sick.

This reader shared another experience with the ACT and GPA.

Another person pointed out that Crystal deserved revenge since she lied.

Here’s a good point about Crystal’s LACK of academic motivation…

This reader shared a similar story.

I wonder if Crystal realized that she was telling lies.

Maybe she truly believed that her rival was pretending to be smarter than she was.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.