Chapter 1860

A guy in the crowd was practically bouncing with anticipation, already stretching as he headed over to Tyler, ready to prove himself.

Up in the stands, a few girls exchanged quick glances, then made a beeline for Fiona. Each of them had a different snack in hand, like they'd been planning this all along.

On the court, Tyler's match had already kicked off, drawing everyone's attention. The whole gym buzzed with energy.

The bleachers were just as chaotic, but in a cozier way. The girls clustered around Fiona, pretty much cocooning her in a circle of snacks and chatter.

Fiona blinked in surprise. She took off her headphones, paused her game, and glanced at the suddenly growing group around her, eyebrows raised.

"Fiona, I bought you these chips. I always see you eating this brand," one girl said, holding out a bag.

"I brought you some chocolate, too!" another offered, grinning.

"And I grabbed spicy sticks-your favorite, right?" a third added.

Fiona was honestly a little stunned. She knew she snacked a lot, but she didn't expect anyone to notice, let alone remember exactly what she liked. Their thoughtfulness caught her off guard.

Still, free snacks were free snacks-no way was she turning them down.

As soon as Fiona opened the chips, the girls' faces lit up. Laughter and conversation filled the air as everyone started sharing what they'd brought, passing bags around and munching together.

"Fiona," one of the girls said, lowering her voice, "there's no way any of us could beat Tyler. Guys are just stronger, it's not a fair fight. Isn't there some other way for us to compete that actually gives us a chance? We're kind of at a

disadvantage here. If something bad happened out there, most of us wouldn't even know how to protect ourselves."

Another girl nodded. "Yeah, if that news story had been about us... we'd probably have ended up hurt, and no one would even care. It'd all just get swept under the rug."

"Don't get us wrong, Fiona,"

someone else chimed in. "It's not that we're scared to face Tyler, but look at him-he's already beaten six guys in ten minutes. Someone like

me wouldn't last a second

Honestly, Fiona had never expected them to actually take Tyler down. The whole thing was more about giving them a reality check-to show them the difference between them and someone like Tyler. Maybe then, they'd cut back on the posturing. After all, there were always people out there who could put them in their place, but most just couldn't be bothered.

After thinking for a moment, Fiona nodded. "Alright."

Just then, Jane showed up, carrying a few bottles of water. She tossed one to Fiona.

And just like that, an idea sparked.

Fiona pointed at Jane, who was standing there taking a drink. "How about this: you all compete with Jane in a design challenge."

Jane was a natural-she studied design, partly because her family expected it and partly because she genuinely loved it.

"I don't care what you make," Fiona said. "I'll judge by how clever, useful, and sellable it is."

The girls perked up at that. Some of them had actually studied design, so this was

a contest they could get behind.

"You've got five days," Fiona

continued. "After five days, I'll post about it on the school forum. Dropz your designs in the comments. If any of you get more support than Jane, you win. But don't even think about faking votes-I'll be watching the numbers."

Any sneaky ideas the girls might've had got shut down on the spot.

Jane just stared at Fiona, totally confused. She'd only come by because she'd

heard their class had taken over the gym and caused a stir. She never expected to get roped into one of Fiona's wild ideas.