“Thanks a lot!” Ruby almost spat out the words.
THE
12
She was increasingly suspicious that something was going on between Wanda and Carlisles
After switching the water bottles, Ruby felt lost and returned to her seat.
On the other hand, Wanda was quite pleased with herself.
However, her smugness was short–lived as Harvey Cook from ss 1 approached.
Standing around 5’8” with a trendy haircut, he smiled and said to Wanda, “Wanda, can we switch seats? I’d like to chat with Carlisle.”This belongs ? N?velDra/ma.Org.
“No.” Wanda refused without hesitation, suspecting that Harvey might know Ruby.
Harvey smiled and said calmly, “Queenie is my cousin.”
Wanda froze, then reluctantly stood up and moved to a seat in the row behind, her expression now nk.
Harvey took the seat beside Carlisle and closed his eyes to rest.
Carlisle nced at him briefly but didn’t say anything
His intentions were clear. It was as if he was tantly telling Wanda, “We’re watching you<b>.</b><b>”</b>
Meanwhile, Ruby was full of confusion. She couldn’t understand why Wanda would listen to Harvey.
Queenie wasn’t even married into the Thompson family yet!
Even if Queenie did marry Zachary, Harvey would only be a distant rtive. What right did he have to order Wanda around, the treasured daughter of the Thompson family?
An hourter, the school bus arrived at its destination.
They had reached arge,prehensive training base withplete facilities, including a live–action training field.
The instructor’s whistle signaled the students to disembark and assemble promptly.
“Attention! Dress right, dress! Ready, front! At ease!”
After a week of training, the students executed themands wlessly.
Lawrence finished giving themands and then said, “Wanda <b>and </b>Carlisle, step forward. The rest of you<b>, </b>get ready for a warm–up ruh!”
Carlisle and Wanda stepped out of the formation.
“Right, <b>face</b><b>!</b><b>”</b>
Once the students had turned to the right, Lawrencemanded, “Begin running!”
The students started running in unison.
The drill instructor, Adam Patterson from ss 2, jogged alongside the formation as he shouted, “One, two, three, four!”
The rest of the students echoed him in unison.
Since Carlisle and Wanda had been absent the previous day, Lawrence took the opportunity to exin the
day’s training exercises and important points to them.
As the students began their secondp, Lawrence signaled Carlisle and Wanda to rejoin the group before heading inside the base to coordinate the preparation of the simtion training.
Afterpleting fiveps, Lawrence gathered the students to distribute imitation firearms–fake replicas of training guns.
“I wasn’t satisfied with yesterday’s simtion. Youcked teamwork, which caused the mission to run over time. Today, you must correct those mistakes!
“Just like yesterday, teams thatplete the mission within the allotted time will be rewarded with meat stew for lunch. Those who don’t will only have oatmeal!
“Carlisle, you join Team 2. Wanda, you’re with Team 5. Team 1, step forward!”
Lawrence held a megaphone <b>and </b>a walkie–talkie.
The megaphone was for directing the battle, while the walkie–talkie was formunicating with the base
staff.
At Lawrence’smand, about 20 students stepped forward, wearingbat uniforms and holding fake
<b>guns</b>.
Lawrence spoke into the walkie–talkie, “We are ready.”
“Roger that,” came the reply.
Over a dozen staff members, armed and wearing ck headgear, emerged from a warehouse carrying two boxes of props to obstruct the students‘ progress.
Lawrence put away the walkie–talkie and took out a stopwatch from his pocket. Lifting the megaphone, he shouted, “Begin the operation!”
The staff raised their fake guns and pulled the <b>triggers</b>, emitting bursts of electronic gunfire.