#Chapter 130: May The Best Candidate Win

The evening of the fundraising gala, Elva and I changed into our glistening golden dresses and waited in the parlor with the other candidates for Nathan to come and bring us to the event. We stood near Susie for a while, but she was distracted. She had prepared notecards for her pitch, as well as some responses to questions she might be asked. She read through them aloud, over and over. “I’ll hide them up my sleeve if I have to,” she said, when I asked her about them. Elva twisted and turned, catching light on her puffy shirts. Then she tried to catch it with her hands. She giggled at her own antics. “So pretty…” she whispered to herself. “Piper. Speak with us.” I glanced up to see Veronica approaching, with Tiffany close behind. My nerves spiked, and I worried they had seen Jane again. But when I looked closer at Tiffany, she wasn’t carrying her tension in quite the same way she had the previous two times she approached me. This time, she seemed more excited than anxious. “Wha