Chapter 633: Going to See Mom (Part 1)
Chapter 633: Chapter 633: Going to See Mom (Part 1)
Susan Caldwell was drenched in sweat, her hair a mess and her face smeared with dirt. She looked utterly wretched, completely stripped of her usual dignified air—like a bedraggled chicken.
In stark contrast, Vera Xavier stood there looking fresh and clean. Her fair skin was so immaculate under the lights that it seemed almost translucent, and a faint smile played on her lips. She looked like a high and mighty phoenix.
To Susan Caldwell, Vera Xavier’s smile was exceptionally grating.
Susan Caldwell gritted her teeth. The incident in the cafeteria yesterday was still fresh in her mind, giving her a new appreciation for Vera Xavier’s fighting prowess. On top of that, her unreliable older brother was the chief instructor for this military training. She knew that if she started a fight with Vera right now, she wouldn’t gain any advantage whatsoever.
So, without another word, she turned to leave and resumed her frog hops.
But Vera Xavier decided she could needle Susan Caldwell one more time. "Hey, are you thirsty? I have extra water. Want a bottle?"
Susan Caldwell ground out through gritted teeth, "I’m not thirsty!"
’God, I’m so thirsty my throat feels like it’s on fire!’ The sight of that water bottle was a huge torment to her.
Vera Xavier put on a regretful expression. "Oh, what a shame!"
Then, she turned to a girl behind Susan Caldwell and asked, "Are you thirsty?"
The girl didn’t hesitate. With a quick "thanks," she took the water from Vera and began to gulp it down. The sound of her drinking was loud and exceptionally clear in the night.
Susan Caldwell instantly felt even thirstier. She was so furious she wanted to tear Vera Xavier to shreds!
Vera Xavier, however, paid her no more mind. She thanked the instructors again and then began to stroll unhurriedly back toward the dorms.
Susan Caldwell was now certain that Vera Xavier had come over deliberately to torment her. She had always been fiercely competitive, and the fact that she was being punished tonight while Vera was not was, in itself, unbearable. But she knew she couldn’t make any rash moves until she had a foolproof plan.
Then Susan thought of her brother, the one whose life mission seemed to be screwing her over. ’With him around,’ she realized, ’I probably can’t even get away with plotting against Vera behind the scenes. So, for now, the best way to strike back at Vera is to crush her in the military training.’
Vera Xavier probably had no idea that her simple act of deliberately annoying Susan Caldwell had ignited such a fierce competitive drive in her rival.
But it didn’t matter that she didn’t know. ’After all,’ Vera thought, ’I have plenty of ways to teach Susan how to behave. And while I’m at it, I’ll let her experience what it feels like to be completely and utterly crushed by superior strength!’
When Vera Xavier got back to the dorm, Fiona Wright and Shirley Ewing asked where she had been, worried she might have been punished. Vera just made up an excuse to brush them off. Everyone was exhausted after a full day of training, so no one pressed her for details.
Laura White watched Vera with a curious gaze. For some reason, the more she learned about Vera, the more this girl who looked as delicate as a flower seemed to be an enigma.
Vera Xavier noticed Laura White’s probing gaze and gave her a small smile before lying down on her bed to sleep.
’After all,’ she thought, ’who knows if that huge pain in the ass, Sheldon Caldwell, will blow the assembly bugle in the middle of the night just to mess with us.’ A guy like him, who seemed to thrive on chaos, was capable of pulling any crazy stunt.
As it turned out, her worries were unnecessary. Everyone slept peacefully through the night, and the sound of the assembly bugle was not heard again.