Back in the dorm room, Juniper dropped her bag onto a chair. "I brought you guys some food," she announced to Hattie.


    "Whoa!" Hattie opened the bag to find two boxes of sushi and two of raviolis, both looking absolutely delicious.


    "Thank you, Juniper!" The three of them clutched the food containers, moved almost to tears.


    "Don''t mention it." Juniper arched an eyebrow with a small smile, taking a sip from her water bottle.


    "The opening ceremony is about to start," one of them said. "We should save the rest forter."


    "Sounds good," Juniper agreed. Just as she spoke, her phone rang.


    "Juniper, you''ve made it to campus, right?" It was the faculty member in charge of her speech, her voice warm. "The freshman representative''s speech is early in the program, so don''t bete."


    "Okay," Juniper replied softly. "I''m heading over now."


    After ending the call, Juniper took her speech from her bag, and the four of them headed towards the main field.


    "This is a long speech." Hattie was holding the script for her, flipping through it. "It''s written so formally. You''d think this was for a political rally or a doctoral defense."


    "I know, right? I''d probably stumble just reading it. Good thing they didn''t make you memorize it."


    "Don''t be nervous, Juniper. We''ll be in the audience cheering you on."


    Nervous? Juniper was busy texting Shanley. Hearing her friends, she nced over with a polite smile. "Sounds good."


    As they neared the field, her advisor suddenly called out, "Juniper,e to my office for a moment."


    "You go ahead, Juniper. We''ll hold onto your speech for you," Hattie offered enthusiastically.


    "Thanks." Juniper smiled and nodded, turning to walk towards the advisor''s office.


    After she left, Hattie, Cynthia, and L sat down to chat while they waited.


    As luck would have it, Ynda was justing from the clinic after getting her injuries treated. She saw Juniper talking with her three roommates, and her eyes were drawn to what Hattie was holding.


    "That must be Juniper''s speech script," she thought. She had heard that because the asion was soz important and no mistakes could be made Juniper was allowed to fead from it. The ceremony was being live streamed, and many important people were attending. If that script disappeared and Juniper was left speechless on stage, wouldn''t that be the end of her?!


    Just then, Hattie ced the folder with the speech and her own bag on a chair as the three of them went to look at the fish in a small pond nearby.


    This was the perfect opportunity. With that thought, Ynda put on a face mask, nced at the security cameras, and deliberately circled around behind the three girls.


    As she walked past, her fingers deftly slid the script out from under the clipboard. She quickly crumpled it into a ball and tossed it into a


    nearby trash can. Hormoven


    were so swift that Hattie andher friends never noticed a thing, still happily waiting for Juniper to return.


    The opening ceremony was about to begin.


    Juniper hurried back, grabbed her speech from her friends, and went straight backstage. The moment she arrived, a stage and started. running through the procedure with her, the most frequent reminder being to not get nervous.


    As they were talking, the host began introducing the special guests on stage. When


    a few university deans were introduced, the apuse from the students was polite but uninspired, a purely perfunctory gesture. Until—


    "Hello, everyone. I''m Shanley Schwartz." Shanley stood up, a faint smile ying on his lips as he offered a few conventional words of greeting.


    Suddenly, the atmosphere erupted. A roar of apuse and screams ripped through the field, the energy of the crowd instantly electric.


    "AHHH! He''s so handsome! Those legs are longer than my will to live!"