Don't Mess with the Girl with Candy novel Chapter 566

Back in the dorm room, Juniper dropped her bag onto a chair. "I brought you guys some food," she announced to Hattie.

"Whoa!" Hattie opened the bag to find two boxes of sushi and two of raviolis, both looking absolutely delicious.

"Thank you, Juniper!" The three of them clutched the food containers, moved almost to tears.

"Don't mention it." Juniper arched an eyebrow with a small smile, taking a sip from her water bottle.

"The opening ceremony is about to start," one of them said. "We should save the rest for later."

"Sounds good," Juniper agreed. Just as she spoke, her phone rang.

"Juniper, you've made it to campus, right?" It was the faculty member in charge of her speech, her voice warm. “The freshman representative’s speech is early in the program, so don’t be late.”

“Okay,” Juniper replied softly. “I’m heading over now.”

After ending the call, Juniper took her speech from her bag, and the four of them headed towards the main field.

“This is a long speech.” Hattie was holding the script for her, flipping through it. “It’s written so formally. You’d think this was for a political rally or a doctoral defense.”

“I know, right? I’d probably stumble just reading it. Good thing they didn’t make you memorize it.”

“Don’t be nervous, Juniper. We’ll be in the audience cheering you on.”

Nervous? Juniper was busy texting Shanley. Hearing her friends, she glanced over with a polite smile. “Sounds good.”

As they neared the field, her advisor suddenly called out, “Juniper, come to my office for a moment.”

...

The opening ceremony was about to begin.

Juniper hurried back, grabbed her speech from her friends, and went straight backstage. The moment she arrived, a stagehand started running through the procedure with her, the most frequent reminder being to not get nervous.

As they were talking, the host began introducing the special guests on stage. When a few university deans were introduced, the applause from the students was polite but uninspired, a purely perfunctory gesture. Until—

"Hello, everyone. I'm Shanley Schwartz." Shanley stood up, a faint smile playing on his lips as he offered a few conventional words of greeting.

Suddenly, the atmosphere erupted. A roar of applause and screams ripped through the field, the energy of the crowd instantly electric.

"AHHH! He's so handsome! Those legs are longer than my will to live!"