Chapter 32

It was common knowledge that the Middleton University genius was known collectively as "that jerk", because while he was highly skilled, he was very insulting to everyone else. He treated everyone the same way, whether they were male or female, wealthy or poor. Someone who claimed to be a computer science whiz had taken part in the competition, only to find that the only thing on his computer screen was a cartoon dog. The dog had barked for all 15 minutes of the first round. Finally, right before it ended, a sentence flashed on the screen: "You can't even beat a dog!" It had thoroughly humiliated his opponent. However, Mildred was casually playing Spider Solitaire! That wasn't how things usually went with that jerk. "She cracked it? When?" "Did she actually crack it while she was fiddling about on the stage? Mildred really is a genius!" "That's impossible!" Pearl shot to her feet. "There must be a mistake. The competition hasn't officially begun, right? Middleton hasn't even