Chapter 202
Eliana and Stella quickly headed to the hallway to search for a cigarette. Eventually, Eliana found a cigarette butt in the second–floor emergency exit. In that instant, everything became clear.
The footage replayed in Eliana’s mind over and over. “After Shane came out of the boys‘ locker room, he turned his back to the camera and lit a cigarette. Then, as he turned to the side, he flicked the cigarette butt onto the sprinkler trigger on the ceiling.
“The smoke triggered the sprinkler system, and the cigarette butt fell to the floor. He then kicked it into the emergency exit hallway, acting like nothing had happened.”
Stella gasped. “Wait, so you’re saying Shane is working with Willow?”
Eliana replied, “He’s not helping Willow. He’s helping Wendy.”
Eliana thought, ‘Wendy is definitely involved! Of course, she would be. How could she not be? Who gave Willow the key to the locker? She couldn’t do all of that by herself in such a short amount of time without help.’
What Eliana hadn’t anticipated, though, was that she hadn’t factored in Shane. For him to come up with the idea of using a cigarette butt to trigger the sprinkler system so quickly, he was clearly no fool.
Stella crouched down and picked up the cigarette butt, looking puzzled. “But can such a small cigarette butt really trigger the sprinkler?”
Eliana said calmly, “Normally, smoking from a distance wouldn’t set it off, but if you’re too close, the smoke can touch the sprinkler’s sensor and trigger the system.”
The school’s sprinklers were set to the highest sensitivity. If there were ever a fire, it could be disastrous. And besides, this wasn’t a designated smoking area–no one would expect any smoke here other than from a fire.
“Forget it, let’s go,” Eliana said, turning to leave.
Stella picked up the cigarette butt, stood up, and hurried to catch up with her. “Aren’t we going to tell the dean?”
Eliana glanced sideways at her. “Shane won’t admit he triggered the sprinkler with the cigarette butt. Even if he does, he’ll just claim it was an accident.
“Besides, the Hall family is on Isonstead University’s board of trustees and donates seven figures every year. The school isn’t going to risk more than 3 million dollars in donations over 2,000 dollars.”
Eliana thought, ‘Even though Davis family is also on Isonstead University’s board, would it really be worth causing a public feud between two major donors over a mere 2,000 dollars?
‘The Davis and Hall families have close ties. In the grand scheme of things, it wouldn’t be worth making a scene over that small amount of money.‘
Because Shane had been so neutral for so long, Eliana had almost forgotten that he was still working with Wendy.
Eliana thought, ‘He can’t be underestimated. After all, Shane’s real goal is to return and fight for the family fortune against Adam. There’s no such thing as a ‘pure‘ illegitimate child.
The next day, after everyone arrived at school, they boarded a bus to Aylesbury Ancient Town.
Since the group was arriving in stages, this first bus was filled with performing
students from the first and second years.
~The group leader had a lot of responsibilities. After they reached the guesthouse, they
care of their meals, and handle a bunch of other tasks.
had to collect room keys, assign rooms to the students, take
Of course, Eliana wasn’t doing all of this alone. Senior students from the third and fourth years were helping the group leaders with everything.
By chance, the first group to head to Aylesbury Ancient Town included Roman. He would be led by the student council’s vice president.
was leading the group personally this time, and the next trip
Willow was completely focused on Roman, always eager to help him out. Last semester, she had spent a lot of time interacting with the student council, and most of them were quite familiar with her by now.
She was generous and unpretentious, often giving the boys cigarettes–who could resist free, good stuff? Because of this, the student council members were more than willing to share information about Roman with her.
Although Eliana was technically the real leader of the class, Willow was the one who took charge.
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3:14 PM
Chapter 202
As soon as they arrived at the guesthouse, she squeezed her way into the student council’s line to grab all the room keys, while the other class leaders were still waiting.
The other class leatlers were irritated by Willow’s blatant line–cutting, but since she had the student council in her pocket, they let her take the keys first.
Stella grumbled, “Willow really loves showing off.”
Eliana smiled faintly. “What’s wrong with that? At least she got us the better rooms.”
Not every room at the guesthouse was great. Some were located in remote corners, and others didn’t even have windows or bathrooms. After all, the school had partnered with the guesthouse to book the rooms, so cost was a factor.
The student council handed out the room keys in order of arrival, so those who showed up first took the better rooms, leaving the worse ones for the latecomers.
Willow, thanks to her connections, naturally grabbed one of the best rooms. After getting her room number, she happily came back to help with room assignments.
As luck would have it, there was one less double room than needed–just enough to leave Eliana and Stella without one.
“Oops, sorry! Looks like I missed one room,” Willow said, feigning innocence. “Eliana, you and Stella should go ask the student council for another key.”
Since Willow had cut the line earlier, most of the class leaders had already gotten their keys. If Eliana and Stella went now, they’d either have to wait in a long line or settle for the worst rooms.
It was clear Willow was doing this on purpose. She didn’t want to give up a good room for Eliana and Stella.
Stella was fuming. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Eliana calmly cut her off. “It’s fine, Stella. We don’t need to go wait in line.”
Shaeryl scoffed. “Oh, so you’re not going to wait? Are you waiting for the student council to just hand you a room? How shameless.”
Before she could finish, Eliana casually pulled a room key from her bag. The number on the card was 309.
Eliana flashed a smile. Willow, thanks for helping the class get their keys earlier, but didn’t you know? The leaders‘ room keys are handed out in advance. And look, I got a nice one on the third floor, with a terrace.
“I was actually planning to give up the better room if I didn’t manage to get one in the queue. I didn’t want to be the only one with a good room, so I thought I’d give it up if needed.
“But I guess I worried for nothing. With you around, who could possibly be without a good room? Well, since everyone has their rooms now, I’ll just keep this one for myself.”
Willow’s smile faltered.
The guesthouse had plenty of rooms, but the best ones were on the third floor. Those rooms had the best views, overlooking the entire ancient town, and only the third–floor rooms had terraces. None of the other floors had that.
The student council had already grabbed the best rooms on the third floor, and there weren’t enough to go around. Turned out, those rooms had already been divvied up between the leaders and the student council themselves.
Willow only managed to get rooms on the second and fourth floors–nothing on the third. To her surprise, Eliana had scored one of those rooms. Willow thought, ‘So all my effort has been for nothing?‘
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