Chapter 43

Clara slumped her shoulders, fishing out her speech from her bag. "The competition kicks off in like, thirty minutes. Gonna cram a bit more."

Just as she pulled out the speech, her hand trembled, and a bag of meds tumbled out of her bag.

Ruby heard the clatter, glanced down, and spotted the meds. She scooped them up and asked, "Clara, what's this?"

Still flipping through her speech, Clara replied, "Ruby, my stomach's been acting up, so I've been popping these laxatives."

She reached out to grab the meds back from Ruby.

But Ruby dodged her hand, grinning. "Clara, lemme take these. I've been feeling kinda off too. Maybe they'll help."

"Sure, but Ruby, wait till you get home to take 'em. These laxatives are pretty hardcore. If you take 'em now, you might miss the speech comp. Check the dosage when you get home, okay?" Clara smiled, noticing Ruby's mood lift. Ruby nodded, "Got it, Clara. You keep cramming. I'm hitting the restroom."

Before Clara could say anything, Ruby bolted.

Clara watched her go, shaking her head with a sigh, muttering to a classmate about Ruby always being in such a rush.

"Haha, Ruby probably had to go real bad, holding it in to keep you company," a classmate joked.

The place was packed since this speech competition was a big deal, drawing a huge crowd.

Besides teachers and students, there were some old folks in suits and some sharp-dressed pros.

losing Juniper and causing any pre-comp chaos, clung to Juniper's hand, following her to the contestants'

in the middle, and the contestants' seats were right up front, so they were pretty close to the

guest area across the aisle, followed by two middle-aged dudes in suits in the row

neared, people gradually found their seats. Many contestants sat next to Katniss and Juniper, and student volunteers began handing out

reviewing and practicing, quickly cracked open the

dry, Juniper reached for a bottle of water and was about to open it when

Juniper?" Katniss

especially attractive and full of youthful energy, they couldn't help but steal a few more glances before looking away. Juniper

about

clicked in Katniss's mind, and she instinctively

that a

wrong, Katniss?" Juniper asked, puzzled by Katniss's sudden

just being paranoid, but to be safe, she grabbed the

in the water. Her expression changed, and she almost

What a nasty trick!

to develop a new product

had

two days and had to take sick leave,

with praise, who was already

credit went to Clara as the developer under

Katniss's eyes reddened.

Juniper said, thinking Katniss was sick and

being overheard. "Juniper, I'm fine. But the water

messed with

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