Side Chick Era Over (Sharon and Carter) novel Chapter 374

Chapter 374

Several groups before Sharon and Matty had done poorly. Some had forgotten their lines completely and ended up freezing on stage, eventually having to abandon the performance altogether.

But even then, the lowest anyone had ever received was 60 points-a baseline encouragement score.

A zero? That had never happened.

The room instantly erupted. People murmured, heads craned, conversations overlapping.

“What’s going on? Why zero?”

“Did they mess up something serious? Anyone here speak Spanish?”

“That can’t be it. Even if they slipped up, they finished the whole thing. It should be at least an eighty.”

“Honestly, I thought Matty’s group did better than Theo’s.”

“I speak Spanish. There were no mistakes. Not a single one.”

On stage, Matty stared at the score, his little fists clenched. His nerves frayed, panic creeping in. He wondered if maybe… he had messed up. Maybe it was his fault. Maybe he’d dragged Sharon down. 1

Sharon glanced down at him. Her palm gently brushed his back as a silent reassurance.

Slowly, Matty’s breathing evened out.

The judge who’d given the zero was a man in his thirties, wearing glasses, expression stiff and self-righteous. He held up his

scorecard again, voice cold and cutting. “Miss McKinzie, I suspect you of cheating.”

“Cheating?!”

Gasps shot through the crowd like electricity. Even the other judges stared at him, wide-eyed, stunned.

Cheating at a kindergarten competition? Unforgivable. An offense against the very idea of teaching children integrity. If the kids grew up learning shortcuts like this… what kind of adults would they become?

Sharon swept her gaze to his nameplate. Gregory Finch.

Her expression didn’t flicker. There was no anger or panic. Her voice, when it came, was casual. “A suspicion isn’t evidence.”

Gregory clearly hadn’t expected her to stay this calm after being publicly accused.

His lips curled into a sneer. “I heard you never even graduated from high school. With that kind of education, you expect us to believe you’re fluent in Spanish? If it’s not cheating, then how do you explain it?”

Sharon glanced at him. “Heard? From whom? Gossip? Rumors?”

She let the words hang there, sharp and deliberate. “And since when does a junior high diploma disqualify someone from learning Spanish? Are you discriminating, Mr. Finch? Should I start listing a few world-renowned figures who had little formal education yet changed the world?”

Gregory’s face stiffened.

He realized, belatedly, that he’d overplayed his hand. His words had been too absolute, too reckless.

He was only supposed to give her a hard time-enough to embarrass her, not enough to cause a scene like this. But now, with her pushing back instead of bowing her head, his annoyance curdled into something sharper.

Fine. Since she didn’t know her place, he wouldn’t bother keeping things civil. (1)

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Gregory’s lips pulled into a cold smile. “You’re right. I misspoke. I shouldn’t judge someone solely by their education. But…” He straightened his glasses, eyes narrowing. “A woman who’s been unemployed for five years-a full-time housewife like you- what qualifications, what skills, make you think you belong on the same level as actual professionals?”

His voice grew colder, sharper, slicing through the air as though he were some kind of righteous crusader.

But Sharon’s expression didn’t shift. Not a flicker of embarrassment, nor a hint of guilt.

“I agree,” she said. “I’m not worthy of being compared to heroes or world-changers. But tell me, Mr. Finch… does your college degree make you their equal?”

Gregory’s face locked, frozen mid-expression.

In that moment, it was painfully clear-this man, all his bluster and righteous fury, wasn’t her opponent at all.

Compared to his aggressive jabs, Sharon’s words were fluid and unhurried.

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