Chapter 59 She’s Elise!
Elise was calm as ever as she hummed in affirmation, but Riley, on the other hand, was rather overwhelmed. “You’re, like, beyond amazing. You have no idea how much I look up to you. I never thought I’d actually get to become roommates with you! I go to Cloverfield High, which is next door, by the way.”
“Okay, can we save the chit-chat for later? Elise, you have to help me out with those questions from the test!” Samantha was a little antsy as she dragged Elise toward the desk.
Riley interjected when she heard this. “Are you guys going through the questions? Mind if I join in?”
Following this, the three girls huddled over the desk, and Elise went about explaining the questions from earlier. By the end of the session, even Samantha—who had looked clueless throughout the entire test—managed to wrap her head around the questions.
Riley, on the other hand, gained new understandings as well. “I went through countless workings, and my answers came out different each time. For a minute I thought I’d messed up somewhere in the calculation, but as it turns out, I was using the wrong method all along.”
“Elise, is there another approach we could use for this question?” Samantha pressed.
Elise glanced at the question and said slowly, “Well, yes… but I don’t recommend the other approach because of how complicated it is.”
Just as they were discussing this, Amanda walked in on them. At the sight of the three girls gathered by the desk, she drawled sourly, “How pretentious.”
Riley had never met or heard of Amanda before this, but she wondered how anyone could sound so unfriendly from the get-go. Riley shot her a frown, a little peeved by her hostile demeanor.
Meanwhile, Samantha simply ignored Amanda. Instead, she tugged on Elise’s arm and said, “Why don’t we go over a couple more questions before we call it a day, Elise?”
More than happy to oblige, Elise quipped, “Sure.”
Riley wasted no time in joining them. “I’ll stick around with you guys.”
At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and a voice called out from the other side, “Hey, Elise? There’s someone by the school entrance asking for you!”
Elise couldn’t help but be a little taken aback. Who would be asking for me? She didn’t stop wondering until she reached the school entrance and saw Jamie, who was carrying two carrier bags of snacks as he exclaimed, “So this is where you’ve been hiding, Boss!” Heaven knows I’ve been calling you all day only to find that you’ve turned your phone off, he wanted to say.
More to the point, he had pleaded with the security guard at the entrance with dire efforts before the stubborn man finally allowed him to pass. Presently, Jamie held up the bags and said, “These are for you, Boss.”
“What, all these?” Elise gaped in shock at the inordinate amount of snacks in those bags.
“Come on, Boss, these probably won’t last you more than a day! Eat all you want. I’ll bring more over if you run out.”
A sudden thought crossed Elise’s mind as she took the bags from Jamie. “By the way, could you log into my account and check if there’s any news? Let me know if there is.”
Jamie made a noise of agreement. “Got it, Boss! Now run along and get some rest. It’s getting late as it is.”
He had only just said this when the sound of an approaching car came within earshot. The both of them turned simultaneously to see a familiar car pulling up at the school entrance. Elise froze, and as her heart threatened to stop beating, the backseat window of the car rolled down to reveal half of Alexander’s features.
Jamie rubbed his nose sheepishly. “I’ll get going now, Boss!” With that, he hurried away from the scene. Following this, Alexander got down from the car and walked up to Elise.
“I thought you were going home,” Elise mumbled.
Alexander said nothing, but he kept his gaze on her for a while before answering, “I passed by that pan-European restaurant you like and figured I’d buy you beef stew.”
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