Her voice cracked on the last word.
Shit.
She turned away fast but Isaiah had already seen.
"You're not stupid."
The words landed like a slap she hadn't expected.
"You don't know that." She kept her back to him.
"Yeah. I do."
Something about the certainty in his voice made her snap. She whirled back around. Her ponytail whipped across her shoulder as she turned on him.
"How? Because I can memorize French Revolution dates? Because I colored some equations with markers like a kindergartener?" Her voice climbed higher. Each word came out sharper than the last. "That doesn't make me smart, Isaiah. That makes me a trained monkey! I'm just performing tricks you taught me!"
She gestured wildly at the physics textbook still sitting on the bench. Her chest heaved. Her eyes stung again but she blinked it back hard.
"You want to know how I know?"
His voice stayed level. That same infuriating calm that made her want to shake him until something broke.
"No."
