SHE ONLY DID HER CLASSMATES’ HOMEWORK FOR MONEY—UNTIL ONE LOVE LETTER CHANGED EVERYTHING
Chapter 1
Mia Bennett had discovered the easiest way to make money at university.
She did other people’s homework.
Not because she enjoyed it.
Not because she particularly liked her classmates.
And certainly not because she wanted friends.
It was simply efficient.
Mia was one of the best students in the Department of Literature and Communications at Westbridge University. Her grades were almost perfect, her essays were regularly praised by professors, and she could finish assignments in half the time it took most students to understand the instructions.
Social interaction, however, was another matter.
Mia hated crowded cafeterias.
She avoided parties.
She never joined clubs.
When professors asked students to work in groups, she usually finished her part alone before anyone else had even opened the shared document.
She wasn’t shy in the traditional sense.
She simply didn’t know what to do with people.
People expected facial expressions.
Small talk.
Eye contact.
Laughter at the right moments.
Mia found all of it exhausting.
So she developed a system.
Whenever classmates approached her, she charged them.
A short essay cost twenty dollars.
A difficult assignment cost forty.
An entire project could cost over a hundred.
She never cheated on exams.
She never accepted work that could get someone expelled.
But homework?
That was different.
And there was always someone willing to pay.
On Monday afternoon, Mia sat alone beneath an oak tree outside the humanities building.
Her laptop rested on her knees.
Three unfinished assignments were open on the screen.
She was working on the second when someone dropped a shadow across her notebook.
“Hey, Mia.”
She looked up.
It was Jason Reed.
Jason sat two rows behind her in Professor Collins’s literature class.
He was the kind of person Mia usually avoided.
Friendly.
Talkative.
Surrounded by people.
He smiled.
“I need a favor.”
Mia closed her laptop halfway.
“How much?”
Jason laughed.
“You don’t even know what I need.”
“It’s usually homework.”
“Fair.”
He pulled out his phone.
“I need a comparative essay by Thursday.”
“Sixty dollars.”
“Fifty.”
“Sixty.”
“Fifty-five.”
“Sixty.”
Jason sighed dramatically.
“You’re impossible.”
“You came to me.”
He laughed.
“Fine.”
He transferred the money.
Mia opened her laptop again.
“Topic?”
Jason sat beside her.
“The professor gave us three novels.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know.”
Mia stared at him.
“You’re paying me to write something you haven’t even read?”
Jason smiled.
“That’s why I need you.”
She sighed.
“Send me the assignment instructions.”
“Already did.”
Mia checked her phone.
Then she noticed something unusual.
Jason hadn’t left.
“Why are you still here?”
He shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
“You paid.”
“I know.”
“So go.”
Jason laughed.
“You really don’t like people, do you?”
Mia looked at him.
“I don’t dislike people.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t understand them.”
Jason’s smile softened.
“Maybe you just haven’t met the right people.”
Mia returned to her laptop.
“That’s not how statistics work.”
Jason laughed.
“You’re serious.”
“Yes.”
He stood.
“See you Thursday, genius.”
Mia watched him walk away.
She didn’t understand why he had smiled so much.
She didn’t understand why he had stayed after paying.
And she definitely didn’t understand why she found herself thinking about his last sentence.
Maybe you just haven’t met the right people.
She shook her head.
Then continued writing.
For Mia, life was simple.
Work.
Study.
Money.
Go home.
Repeat.
Feelings complicated everything.
And Mia had spent years making sure feelings never got the opportunity.
Until Jason came back three days later.
This time, he wasn’t carrying an assignment.
He was carrying a letter.
And the strangest request Mia had ever received.
