❝𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙚𝙭𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙚'𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙤𝙛❞
salene has a terrible power within her and a torment she could never escape. that was, until...
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THE BUS RIDE and the first part of the competition might have been more enjoyable if Salene wasn't losing hair over the stress of Peter not being back from the mission last night. She couldn't stop thinking of all the different ways he could be too injured to move, captured, or worst of all, dead. Ned knew exactly why she was on the verge of a full-on meltdown, but everyone else on the team just seemed to think she had a severe case of competition jitters. Liz even asked her if she wanted to step down but Salene refused.
She knew the team needed her now more than ever because of Peters's absence, she just hoped that she could focus enough on the problems in front of her to get it right. Her best subjects were Art and Math, but she also excelled pretty well in English and Economics. She knew that the last subject was always a challenge with her team and that's why she finally just had Cindy slap some sense into her and screw her head on straight. Salene knew they couldn't afford her stepping down now since only three members of the team are honors and she and Peter are two. She had to sit through each of the segments though she was instructed to only answer the questions she knew without a doubt the right answer to, otherwise, she was there to just fill the seat.
The team was now finally nearing the end of the competition and they were still going strong despite Peter not being there much to her dismay. She had pretty much taken over the Art subject, something that no one on the team objected to, if it wasn't Salene answering questions, it was MJ who was better with sketches while Salene felt more comfortable with paints.
They had gone through Economics, though Salene couldn't seem to forgive herself for getting two of the answers wrong. But it was back to Math and she knew she could make up for it. They were at a tie with Manhattan Bridges, their rival school, and Salene had one more calculation to make, her hand was over the buzzer but someone else's had already gone off. It was MJs.
Salenes hand twitched as she retracted it, her palms were sweaty and at some point, her hair had gone up in her signature ponytail to let her neck breathe, she knew her baby curls were having a field day now that she had a light sweat on her brow and the back of her neck. It didn't help that her banana jacket wasn't breathable and that her hair was thick, the numerous lights casting down on the team didn't help either. But Salene wasn't sure those were the only factors considering her powers and the amount of stress they're under.
"Zero," Mj finally spoke, the team looked to the moderator who had a shocked look on her face as she looked to her card. The moderator looked to the crowd of people watching Salene could see Adrian in the front row with a camera and she recognized other college recruiters that she had conversations with at last year's competition.
