Chapter 23

The next few days came and went like a hurricane. Prentice was right about the difficulty of Monday’s lecture, and about half the class stayed after the period was over for the special two-hour study session he had arranged. A few of them scheduled tutoring appointments for the next week, which was good news for Bella’s bank account. By the end of it all, she was exhausted, but she agreed to go out for coffee with Sandra once she managed to get ahold of her.

While Bella had been avoiding her for a day or so, Sandra had made herself an even scarcer commodity lately. She was hardly ever in the room, and when she was, it seemed to only be for ten-minute intervals that “mysteriously” occurred during times when she knew Bella would be away.

To her relief, she was the same old Sandra when they finally got together. They talked briefly about the competition, and Bella apologized in person for blaming her, but so much had happened since then. What had seemed li