Gary was unaware that, for the usual competitions, Nicole would only need to scan through the
questions before she answered them at top speed. She really did not need to listen to the long and
complicated solutions Mr. Louis was teaching.
Nicole did not wait for the frozen Gary. She had simply chosen a dorm room that morning, so she did
not get a good look at it. Besides, she had yet to meet her roommates, so she sped up her pace.
Though some people were talking about her on her way back to the dormitory, she could vaguely hear
keywords like “evil” and “the campus queen.” However, Nicole did not mind that and went to her
dormitory straight away.
When she got to the dormitory, the other two roommates had already returned to the room. Lulu
widened her eyes as she watched Nicole walking in as if she did not expect Nicole to be her roommate.
Nicole also knew the other roommate. She was June, their English class representative. Since June
was a hardworking student, she did not really mingle around with her classmates. She seemed really
prideful and cold, so everyone gave her a secret nickname, “Nerd.” Both Nicole and Lulu were not
close with June, so June had just glanced at Nicole when Nicole walked in. June did not even greet her
as she lowered her head, busy with something.
Lulu walked toward Nicole happily. “So, you are the new girl. This is fantastic, Nicole. We’re going to
stay together from today onwards!” Nicole nodded to Lulu indifferently. Her bed was already done by
the servants of the Riddle family. She sat on her bed and started to open her duffel bag, which was her
luggage. After taking out and putting her daily necessities in place, she stored her laptop in the cabinet
above her headboard and locked it.
When Lulu saw Nicole reading a book after tidying up her place, she walked over and asked hesitantly,
“Nicole, I heard the Maths Olympiad training class you attend teaches a different syllabus than ours.
Could you tell me about the Olympiad math questions you learned?”
Nicole nodded and passed Lulu the pile of example questions from Mr. Louis that afternoon. Lulu’s
eyes sparkled. “Are these for me?” She had wanted the Maths Olympiad questions for a long time, but
she just could not participate in the competition as she was not on par. “Thank you, Nicole! I’ll do them
now. Can I ask for your help if I have questions?”
After getting Nicole’s reassurance, Lulu happily ran back to her spot to answer the questions. But it
only took a few minutes before she returned to Nicole gloomily. “Nicole, I don’t even understand a
single question. Could you explain it to me?” Before Nicole could respond, June, who was busy
memorizing individual words, said frustratedly, “Are you done, Lulu Barrera? Do you know that some of
us are trying to study
r you chirping even with my headphones on!” June was already annoyed that Lulu was a committee
member of the study club despite being an average grader. However, June could only be the English
class representative despite sitting in the third row in class.
After being yelled at by June, Lulu felt so wronged that she did not dare to speak anymore.
Nicole looked at Lulu’s scrunched-up face and said, “I’m hungry, so I’m heading to the cafeteria. Are
you coming?”
Lulu immediately nodded, and they left the dorm, one behind the other. On their way to the cafeteria,
Lulu said she could not understand how her soft voice disturbed June. Nicole and Lulu got their food
and started to dig in as Lulu asked Nicole for the solutions to the Maths Olympiad questions she saw
just now.
Nicole chose a few simple questions that suited Lulu’s level and explained them to her. Nicole’s
solution was very simple as well, so Lulu understood her immediately. Lulu then praised Nicole, “You’re
so good at this, Nicole! I didn’t understand this back when Ms. Emerson taught us a similar question. I
feel like I understood everything after you explained it to me!”
The both of them went back to the dorm after they were done eating. Lulu was reminded of June’s
attitude and said once more, “June is way too cold. You definitely don’t know this, Nicole, but when you
weren’t here last time, the both of us had never said a single word to each other in the dorm. She never
goes to class with me and would never respond to me every time I greeted her…” Nicole was not really
interested in the drama between little girls, so her mind started to wander off as she listened.
Suddenly, she saw Jared’s coffee shop.
Nicole thought about the time when Jared said she could drink his coffee anytime she wanted and
started to miss the unique taste of Jared’s shop’s coffee beans.
She could not help but interrupt Lulu and point to the coffee shop at the school’s entrance.” Do you
want to go there? I’ve been there once, and their coffee tastes nice.”
Not only was it nice, but it was Nicole’s favorite! Lulu shook her head and said, “I’ll pass. The exam is
coming up, so I have to go back and do my revision. My mom will be really angry if I get bad results.”
Nicole did not make her stay after listening to her response, so the both of them split up in front of the
cafeteria. Nicole watched as Lulu returned to the dormitory before walking toward the school’s
entrance.
Just when Nicole reached the entrance, she saw Jared talking to the manager about something,
nodding from time to time.
‘Is Mr. Johnston that free? Why is he always hanging around at his shop?’ Nicole wondered.
Nicole did not know Jared well, so she did not care about them. She just walked to the coffee shop
steadily and realized that the menu included many other desserts other than coffee now.
One of them had an extraordinary name too, so she ordered a few iterns, fascinated. Before walking to
a corner and taking a seat, she ordered a cup of mocha. Next to her seat was a floor-to-ceiling window,
so Nicole enjoyed the beautiful sunset view for a while before she pulled out the book she had read in
the afternoon and continued where she left off.
Jared had already seen Nicole the minute she walked in.
Normally, any girl who saw him would walk over to him and greet him, but his fiancé paid no heed to
him. From the minute she entered, she did not even spare Jared a glance before finding a place to
make her order.
‘She seems like she’s really here for free coffee! ‘Am I not as attractive as the coffee?!’
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda