Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains novel Chapter 99

Victoria’s POV

A boisterous, chaotic explosion of voices instantly flooded the apartment, shattering the tense silence into a million pieces.

My brows knitted together in utter confusion. I slowly lowered the knife, setting it down on the counter with a soft clatter as I tiptoed out of the kitchen and into the living room.

Standing in the entryway was the entire group. Jace, Nate, Leo, Miles, Alison, and Adele were all crowding into the small foyer, shaking off their jackets and carrying an absurd number of backpacks, energy drinks, and text documents.

“Guys?” I asked, completely dumbfounded as I stopped at the edge of the rug. “What in the world are you all doing here

“Tori!” Alison and Adele shrieked at the same time, completely ignoring my confusion as they rushed forward and threw their arms around me in a tight, suffocating group hug.

“We came to rescue you guys!” Adele said. pulling back with a bright smile. “We all decided we were going to do a massive group study session tonight because everyone is losing their minds over finals.”

Elijah stood by the open door, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at the crowd of people currently invading his living room. He looked completely baffled.

-We don’t even take the same courses. Jace is in communications, Leo is doing business, Nate is barely passing statistics, and Alison literally already graduated. What are we studying?”

“The art of solidarity, Carter,” Jace replied smoothly, walking past him and dropping his massive duffel bag straight onto the sofa. “Besides, your apartment has the biggest table and the best air conditioning.”

“Wait a minute,” Nate said, suddenly stopping in his tracks and sniffing the air like a hound dog.

His eyes darted between Elijah and me. finally settling on our outfits.

“Are you two wearing matching aprons? And is that… flour in your hair, Carter?”

The entire group went completely silent, their eyes locking onto the white powder smudged across my cheek and the unmistakable white handprints on the front of Elijah’s navy apron.

“Oh my god.” Adele gasped, a massive, knowing grin spreading across her face. “Were you guys baking something?”

“Midnight baking!” Leo cheered, pushing past everyone and heading straight for the kitchen. “I knew I smelled sugar. Step aside. Zhen, the boys are hungry.”

Elijah’s entire posture shifted instantly. His jaw tightened, and he shot Leo a sharp, warning glare.

“Don’t call her that. That’s exclusive to me.”

“Oooh, the entire group chorused in unison, a collective roll of teasing echoing through the foyer.

Heat rushed to my face, and I could feel myself blushing furiously under their sudden scrutiny.

Miles let out a low, amused chuckle, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe as he looked at Elijah.

What did you copyright the word, Carter? Is it exclusively yours now? Because otherwise, we can all call her Zhen. She really is precious.”

He shifted his gaze to me and winked.

My chest warmed at the unexpected sweetness, and I caught his eye, softening enough to whisper, “Thank you, Miles.”

I braced myself. fully expecting Elijah to snap back with some sarcastic, possessive comeback to shut Miles down.

But surprisingly, he stayed completely calm. He didn’t snap, he didn’t argue-he just held Miles’s gaze, almost as if he silently agreed with what Miles had just said.

Within two minutes, our quiet, tense sanctuary was completely overrun.

The kitchen became a loud military line as everyone washed their hands and began rolling out the rest of the cookie dough

Jace accidentally dropped an entire egg onto the floor, which resulted in Nate yelling at him while Miles tried to sweep it up with a napkin.

Alison slipped into a barstool, immediately cracking open a red energy drink and looking thoroughly entertained by the mess.

Eventually, the first batch of cookies was shoved into the oven, filling the apartment with the warm, rich aroma of vanilla and chocolate.

We all piled around the massive dining table, dumping our various books and laptops into a giant, messy heap.

For the next hour, it was a strange mix of actual studying and complete nonsense.

“Can someone explain to me why the supply curve moves to the right when there’s a technological advancement?” Leo groaned, slamming his head flat against his economics binder.

“Because right now, my brain cells are moving to the left.”

“It means production gets easier, you idiot,” Jace muttered from across the table, not looking up from his media ethics paper. “More stuff, less effort. Like how you use automated apps to text three girls at the same time.”

“Hey, that’s efficiency, not technology.” Nate chimed in, tossing a crumpled piece of paper at Jace’s head.

Alison, who was sitting at the head of the table with her feet propped up on a spare chair, let out a loud laugh.

“You guys are all going doing to much. Honestly, as a college graduate, I highly recommend just dropping out. The job market is terrible, but at least you get to sleep past seven.”

“Alison, shut up and leave,” Nate and Miles snapped at the same time.

“Some of us are actually trying to maintain a GPA here,” Nate added.

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