"What were you about to say?" Juniper asked Shanley as she ate her toast.


    "Nothing." Shanley had lost his appetite. He was determined to investigate this Langley person thoroughly. Know your enemy, and you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles.


    Juniper''s chewing slowed as she stared at Shanley. He''d been acting strangely since yesterday. Who had set him off? Felton? Or Flint?


    ...


    At Aurora High School.


    After bringing in the new review materials and getting Mr. Tate to perform, Juniper had be the undisputed queen of the school. Teachers greeted her warmly in the halls. “Juniper, have you eaten today?” Students respectfully bowed their heads when they saw her. The five-minute walk from the school gate to her ssroom involved at least a hundred greetings of "Hi, Juniper." She was numb to it.


    She had barely sat down when Qadir, Queenie, and Dolce marched over and sat across from her. Other ssmates followed, surrounding her desk, propping their chins on their hands and staring at her with gleaming eyes.


    "You can get Jimmie''s autograph, but you have to trade your grades for it," Juniper said, putting her backpack in her desk andzily taking out a textbook.


    "For the weekly test, every point you improve your total score gets you one signed photo. If you improve by more than thirty points, you can choose which part of him is in the signed photo."


    “Choose... which part?” The girls in the ss instantly got excited at the thought.


    "Appropriate parts only," Juniper added with a frown, her tone serious. "Keep it ssy. Like his abs, or a shirtless photo... "


    The girls'' faces all turned red.


    Juniper narrowed her eyes. "Understood?"


    "Understood,” they all chorused.


    "If you understand," Juniper said, looking at the crowd still standing in front of her, "then why are you still here? Don''t you want the autographs?"


    In an instant, everyone scattered back to their seats.


    A few secondster, a girl from the front row timidly approached her again. “Juniper,


    this..... this promotional event, is it open to students from other sses?"


    Promotional event? Juniper, who was taking a sip of water, almost choked What the hell? There were hundreds of seniors, If they all participated, Jimmie''s hand would fall off from signing.


    No. She had to be a kind sister.


    "Yes, it is," Juniper replied with a smile after a moment''s thought.


    "Thank you, thank you!" The girl excitedly ran to the doorway and yelled to her friends, "Juniper said yes!"


    A briefmotion erupted outside, and then it fell silent.


    Juniper found it odd and nced outside. It wasn''t ss time yet; usually, students


    would still be messing around in the hallway.


    "They all went back to their


    ssrooms to study for the


    autographs, Qadir said, giving


    Justiper a thumbs up. "Juniper, ryou


    hade to Aurora High sooner, Era High wouldn''t have stood a chance."  s?novels


    "Cut the crap,” Juniper said, shooting him a look and tilting her chin. "Have you finished memorizing your vocabry?"


    "Oh." Qadir immediately ducked his head and went back to his book. He wanted one of Mr. Tate''s autographs too.


    Just as Juniper finished dealing with


    the autograph frenzy, her phone


    vibrated. It was a message from Lue: This year''s pharmaceutical auction is in Era City This weekend. Perfect. Our research institute is running low on medicinal herbs.]