Chapter 580 - 576: Targeting

On Friday morning, Cecilia Sterling was once again in the classroom early for her morning class.

When she looked down, she found a bottle of warm milk and a box of small pastries in her desk drawer.

Cecilia blinked. The girl next to her leaned over slightly and whispered, "Simon Spencer put them there this morning. He left some the day before yesterday, too, but you weren’t here. He probably saw you were suddenly back yesterday, so he left them again today."

Simon Spencer?

Cecilia frowned slightly. ’Who?’

Seeing her expression, her deskmate couldn’t help but laugh. "You don’t remember who he is, do you?"

Cecilia gave an awkward smile and asked in a low voice, "Is he handsome?"

"He’s average," the girl said, pursing her lips.

The next second, the milk and pastries appeared in front of the girl. She looked at Cecilia in surprise, only to see Cecilia smiling as she said, "You can have them. I already ate this morning."

"Huh? But these pastries are from Mrs. Bauer’s. You have to wait in a long line to buy them."

"It’s fine. I’m on a diet lately. Don’t be shy."

Just as she finished speaking, a classmate walked into the room, looked at Cecilia, and called out, "Cecilia, someone’s here for you!"

Cecilia said thanks. As she stood up, all eyes in the classroom followed her, and everyone craned their necks to look toward the door.

Cecilia walked out of the classroom and saw Yates Sanders by the hallway window directly opposite the door.

Cecilia didn’t have a very good impression of him, so the moment she saw him, a look of impatience flashed across her face.

Yates, however, didn’t notice. His face lit up when he saw Cecilia come out, and he approached her cheerfully. "Hey, Cecilia."

"You were looking for me?" Cecilia asked, her expression blank.

"Yeah," Yates said, quickly explaining, "Well, it wasn’t my idea to come looking for you. The captain sent me. You haven’t shown up since we all met and did that one problem set arranged by Mr. Stone. The captain led us through three more sets after that, so now you’ve fallen behind quite a bit."

"The captain sent me to ask you..."

At this point, Yates suddenly trailed off. Seeing this, Cecilia raised an eyebrow, gesturing for him to continue.

A troubled look suddenly appeared on Yates’s face. He lowered his voice. "Well, it’s not really asking. The captain’s intention is more like... informing you. If you don’t show up again today, there’s no need for you to stay on the school team. He’s going to ask Mr. Stone to replace you."

After speaking, Yates nervously watched Cecilia’s perfect face.

Meanwhile, Cecilia was trying to picture the captain, Elias Warner, but found her memory of him was a complete blur. ’As expected,’ she thought, ’I only remember handsome faces.’

Speaking of handsome guys, her mind subconsciously drifted to Emeric Grant, and his gorgeous face instantly materialized in her thoughts, crystal clear.

Since they parted two nights ago, neither she nor Emeric had sent the other a single message.

’To be honest, I was kind of hoping Emeric would take the initiative and text me something...’

"Cecilia?"

Yates’s soft call brought Cecilia back to her senses. She had been so lost in thought about Emeric that she’d zoned out.

"I get it."

Cecilia nodded and turned to leave.

Yates froze for a second, then hurried after her. "Wait, Cecilia, what does ’I get it’ mean? Are you coming or not?"

Cecilia let out a soft sigh, then silently nodded.

Seeing her nod, Yates couldn’t help but light up. He quickly pulled a notebook from his bag. "I took notes for you these past few days. Take a look when you have a moment today. That way, if the captain gives you a hard time this afternoon, you won’t be completely lost for words. You should at least get some of the key points down."

"No need, but thanks." Cecilia didn’t take Yates’s notebook and walked straight into the classroom.

Yates stood frozen in place, blinking. He muttered, "Guess it’s true what they say. Beautiful women usually have bad tempers."

When Cecilia returned to her seat, she saw that the girl had already finished the pastries, but the bottle of milk was sitting untouched on her desk.

"How come you didn’t drink it?" Cecilia asked softly.

The girl smiled sheepishly. "I’m allergic to plain milk."

"But the pastries just now..."

"I checked the ingredients list. No milk. They were delicious, thank you."

Cecilia understood. After sitting down, she pushed the bottle of milk aside. Seeing this, the girl leaned over and asked curiously, "Cecilia, was that guy outside your boyfriend?"

Cecilia: "?"

She looked at the girl in shock and earnestly suggested, "You should probably drink some of that milk."

In the afternoon, following the message in the group chat, Cecilia showed up at the lecture hall on time.

As expected, she was the last of the students to arrive.

"Cecilia!"

Yates was the most excited to see her, immediately standing up to greet her. "You came!"

Lee Warner raised an eyebrow, subconsciously glancing at Elias Warner, whose expression was cold.

Sheila Hughes just gave a small wave as a greeting.

Cecilia looked unfazed. She glanced at where the others were sitting. The desks and chairs there had been deliberately arranged in a circle to make it easier for them to work on problems together.

She walked straight over to Sheila Hughes and sat down, glancing at the pile of scratch paper on the table. It was obvious the other three had been there for a while.

Seeing her completely unapologetic expression, Elias Warner’s face grew even colder. He couldn’t help but speak up. "Everyone else got here at three. You’ve already fallen behind by missing several days. Why couldn’t you come earlier?"

He stared at Cecilia, his tone clearly laced with accusation and resentment.

The others didn’t dare to interject, merely watching expectantly from the side. After all, besides being the team captain, Elias was also the vice president of the student union. No one dared to cross him.

Except for Cecilia.

Cecilia looked back at him, her expression blank, and replied softly, "Didn’t you tell everyone to meet at four p.m.?"

As she spoke, Cecilia lit up her phone screen and glanced at the time. "It’s 3:57. Technically, I’m early, not late. If you wanted me to be here at three, you could have just set the meeting time for three. I definitely wouldn’t have been late then. But you can’t set the time for four and then demand I show up at three. What are you doing, making a wish?"

After that speech, Elias’s face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

The others were secretly blown away by Cecilia’s audacity. The captain was already seriously displeased with her, yet she still dared to confront him head-on.

But she wasn’t done. Cecilia continued, "As for my three-day absence, didn’t I ask you for leave in the group chat for all of them? Two days sick, one day for personal matters. I didn’t miss any days without a reason. It’s all on record in the chat. You approved my leave on the surface, but now you’re using my absence against me. I think that’s incredibly lame."

"Cecilia..." Seeing her getting more and more aggressive, Yates quickly stepped in to smooth things over. "The captain was just worried you’d fall too far behind. He’s not targeting you."

"Is that so?" Cecilia sneered.

As for Elias, despite being ruthlessly refuted by Cecilia on the spot and fuming internally, he didn’t explode. From the very beginning, he had only one goal: to get her replaced.

"Here are the three problem sets we did over the last three days. Go to the back and finish all three of them by yourself before we finish our session today." Elias pulled out three sets of papers and tossed them in front of Cecilia, his tone impatient. "If you don’t get a passing grade, you don’t have to stay on the school team."