“Cloud City, Jade answered simply, offering nothing more.
By the time they finished lunch, the rumors had already spread throughout campus. One hour with Chase Astor in the dining hall, and suddenly everyone “knew” he was pursuing her. Jade’s phone buzzed with notifications from Princeton’s anonymous gossip forum: “NYC BILLIONAIRE HEIR CHASING SCHOLARSHIP GIRL FROM THE SLUMS.”
Complete with blurry photos of them at lunch.
Meanwhile, in a sleek Manhattan office overlooking Central Park, Ethan Haxton scrolled through business news on his tablet. A notification from his social media monitoring service popped up, and he found himself staring at those same photos of Chase and Jade.
“Chase… Astor?” he muttered, his brow furrowing.
He tapped his finger against the edge of his tablet, a rare sign of agitation.
His fingers moved swiftly across the screen, typing a message to her: “Dinner tonight? We need to catch up.”
Back on campus, Julian Sheldon cornered Jade outside theputer science building.
“Jade! Just the person I wanted to see.” His smile was eager, practiced. “I’d like to formally invite you to join the
Student Council.”
“What’s in it for me?” she asked bluntly.
Julian blinked, clearly thrown by her directness. “Well… it looks great on your resume, and-”
“Any actual benefits?<b>” </b>
“Not… exactly,” he admitted. “It’s mostly meetings and organizing events. But theworking is valuable!”
“So no real power<b>, </b>just more work,” Jade summarized.
Julian shifted ufortably. “We do have some influence with the administration… sometimes.”
Her phone buzzed with Ethan’s dinner invitation. Jade nced at it and typed back: “Will consider it.”
“Are you and Chase Astor really dating?” Julian blurted out, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.
“No.”
“Oh.” He looked relieved. “Great! So maybe you’d like toe to my party this weekend? Just a small gathering at my parents<b>‘ </bke house<b>. </b>Dad’s flying in some of his Princeton colleagues–greatworking opportunity.”
號
“Not interested,” she replied, already walking away.
:
In her dorm room, Emily Morgan scrolled furiously through the campus gossip forum. She’d skipped ss to avoid Edward Sheldon, only to find her sister’s face stered all over social media.
“Fucking unbelievable,” she muttered, staring at the photos of Jade with Chase Astor. “She swoops in and immediately has the richest guy on campus falling all over her.”
Emily zoomed in on Jade’s face in one of the pictures, searching for traces of the awkward, overweight stepsister she’d grown up tormenting. There was nothing left of that girl–just a stunning woman whomanded attention without even trying.
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard before typing: “Wonder if he knows about her past? #FatJade #CloudCityLoser”
<b>62 </b>
She hit post, feeling a momentary satisfaction that quickly faded into emptiness. It wasn’t fair. Everything came so easily to Jade now, while she was struggling just to maintain her schrship facade.
At the Morgan household, Max sat at the kitchen table working on calculus problems while Linda hovered nearby, anxiously wiping already clean counters.
“Your sister Emily needs help with her physics assignment,” Linda said, trying to sound casual. “Maybe you could ask Jade to tutor her? She’s <b>so </b>smart with that stuff.”
Max nodded absently. “I’ll text Jade about it, but she’s pretty busy with her own sses.”
“Emily’s schrship depends on this,” Linda pressed. “Family should help family.”
Max looked up from his textbook, expression skeptical. “Since when have you cared about that?”
Later, after showering, Max stepped into the hallway and reached for his phone to call Jade. He missed his sister and wanted to hear her voice, maybe talk abouting to visit campus soon. He paused when he heard Linda’s voice
from the kitchen.
“Emily, honey, I’m working on it. Max will convince Jade to help you…”
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