Chapter 868
Chapter 868:
The atmosphere was buzzing with excitement.
They talked about games and the competition, and soon Ritchie joined in.
Sloane, always the life of the party, kept the energy high. She even shoved a few onion rings into her mouth, not caring who was watching.
Ritchie couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her.
He didn’t recognize the brand of her designer bag. He had seen similar bags with his classmates being handled with care, showing that they were quite expensive. Yet Sloane didn’t seem to care as she dug her greasy fingers into the bag.
Ritchie could tell that she was rich by the way she dressed. One could easily see that she had led a sheltered life, protected from all the hardships that life tends to throw at people.
Sloane seemed to have never experienced hardship, and this had helped maintain her innocence and kindness.
She had already shattered the stereotype that all rich girls were mean.
Sloane wasn’t mean. She was warm, approachable, and kind. She always had a joke to tell and was often laughing. It seemed rich girls were not always the snobs everyone thought them to be.
Fernanda, too, was different from the commanding figure he had seen in Norris’s office. She was listening to a joke being told by Levi and Alex, laughing heartily at the end of it with Sloane.
Neal kept Ritchie included in the conversation as though he had been on the team forever.
Ritchie’s shyness slowly disappeared.
He’d expected the studio to be cliquey, just like the exclusive groups he had encountered at school.
Instead, it was a team of friends.
𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝙙𝗶𝙨𝗰𝗼𝙫𝗲𝗿𝙮 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻: gⱯ𝗅𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀⩷⪻𝖼𝗈𝗺
He immediately decided that he liked it here and was excited for what the future held.
After dinner, the group parted ways.
Ritchie took a taxi alone to return to his school.
He slowed as he approached his dormitory building.
A few people could be seen lurking suspiciously.
It was the group of men who had bullied him that afternoon in the studio. One of them spotted Ritchie and immediately nudged their leader. “Andrew, he’s back!”
Ritchie, pretending not to see them, walked past. Andrew, however, blocked his path.
“We… we got you this, Ritchie,” Andrew said, an ingratiating smile on his face. Several bags were thrust at him. Ritchie peered into the bags and saw that they contained not just paints and brushes, but clothes as well.
“I don’t want them,” Ritchie said and turned to leave.
Andrew grabbed him by the arm and said, “We shouldn’t have bullied you. Please forgive us. As a token of our repentance, we got these things for you, and we’ll be responsible for your paints and brushes in the future.” His lackeys eagerly nodded in agreement.
Ritchie didn’t like the turn of events.
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