"Ms. Payne, what are we going to do?" Ghoul, a man nearly forty with borate tattoos snaking up his arms, was sobbing, tears and snot streaming down his face. "There''s only half an hour until the race. It''s toote to find a recement. Even if we could, we''d still lose."


    It was over. They had no viable driver, and no way to contact J. The future of racing in Orient Country was about to be extinguished.


    "Ms. Payne..." Ghoul wiped his eyes, his voice choked with despair. "Thank you for all your help training Kurt. I..."


    "Who said Orient Country is going to lose?" Juniper''s voice cut through his sobbing, sharp and firm, her grip tightening on the phone. Her words wereced with an explosive power.


    "What do you mean, Ms. Payne?" Ghoul asked, confused. They werepletely out of options.


    "Stay put. I''m on my way," she said and hung up, quickly stuffing her things into her bag.


    "Juniper, where are you going?" Qadir and Queenie asked, watching her with puzzled expressions.


    “I have something to do,” she replied, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. She tore a piece of paper from a notebook and scribbled: [Juniper is requesting one day of leave. Approval appreciated.]


    Then she took out a test paper covered in correct answers and handed it, along with the note, to Qadir.


    "You need the dean''s signature for a leave request..." Qadir stammered, looking down at the hastily written note. Juniper had just taken a leave of absence; asking for another one so soon was unlikely to be approved by the dean. Besides, he didn''t have the guts to take it to him.


    "I know," Juniper said, her gaze fixed on him. "Give the test paper and the note to the physics teacher. Tell him if he gets the leave slip signed, I''ll solve the remaining problems for him when I get back."


    The only person in the entire school who could strong-arm the dean was their notoriously difficult physics teacher, Keith.


    With that, Juniper strode out of the ssroom.


    Qadir clutched the note, wondering if the physics teacher would actually go to the


    dean for her. It wasmon knowledge that the two were bitter rivals.


    Hesitantly he pushed open the door to the physics teacher''s office. "Sir, Juniper needs to take a day off for an urgent matter. She was hoping you could get the dean to sign her leave request."


    "Leave again?" Keith grumbled, not looking up from a test paper he''d been struggling with all day. The thought of Juniper taking time off only souted his mood further, "Absolutely not."


    Thest time she''d taken leave, the dean had lectured him endlessly. He wasn''t about to go through that again.


    "Sir, if you''d just look at this..." Following Juniper''s instructions, Qadir gestured toward the test paper attached to the note.


    "Look at what Tell her there''s no


    way I''m getting her..." Keith''s eyes flickered to the paper, and his words died in his throat. He snatched it up, his eyes widening as he flipped it over and back, examining the solutions. The first few problems on this notoriously difficult test were all solved correctly. This was exactly what he needed.


    "Juniper said if you take care of the leave slip, she''ll take care of your remaining problems,” Qadir ryed.


    "No problem. Leave it to me," Keith dered, grabbing the note and marching toward the dean''s office.


    A few minutester, Qadir crept to the dean''s office door and listened in. He could hear the two men shouting.


    Keith: "I don''t care, you are signing this today!"


    The Dean: "Is Juniper trying to start a rebellion?"


    Keith: "So what if she is? If the sky falls, I''ll hold it up for her!"


    The Dean: "When she gets back, tell her to report to my office immediately!"


    Keith: "You dare yell at her? You upset her, and you''ll answer to me!"


    "If her mood is bad, she can''t focus," Keith thought, “and if she can''t focus, how is


    she supposed to teach me how to solve this problem?"