Lex had beaten her to it, rising at 5:30 AM.
She had gone outside to read so she wouldn't wake anyone.
She only returned when the alarms went off.
By the time Claire was fully packed, Zara and Skye were still dragging their feet.
Skye was at least attempting to put on her uniform, albeit with her eyes squeezed shut.
Zara was much worse-she had completely buried herself beneath her duvet.
"Zara, get up! You're going to be late!"
Claire couldn't help but warn her.
Zara clamped her hands over her ears. "I can't hear you! I'm not doing boot camp."
"Are you serious?" Claire was genuinely worried an instructor might storm the dorm to drag her out.
"I guess I don't have a choice," Zara groaned from beneath the covers. "I should've had my mom forge a medical exemption."
"You're perfectly healthy. How would you fake that?" Claire asked casually.
Zara giggled mischievously. "I have my ways."
"Wait, you can tell I'm healthy just by looking at me?"
"Do all alternative medicine students have magical x-ray vision?"
"If you're so gifted, can you hit me with an acupuncture needle and make me look jaundiced? Like in those medical dramas? I need to look completely bedridden."
"Like, a fake sickness that normal people can't expose."
Zara was dead serious, desperate for Claire to stick a needle in her.
Then she could finally skip training.
"I technically could." Claire was actually capable of performing such an acupressure trick.
"Wait, really?" Zara gasped in disbelief. "I was just joking!"
Was their holistic practice actually that overpowered?
Were the crazy things she saw on TV actually real?
"Yes, but I'm not going to help you cheat."
Claire smiled faintly. "A doctor's tools aren't toys for skipping class."
Zara suddenly looked at her with newfound awe. "Good, because I'm terrified of needles anyway."
Claire didn't bother mentioning that it wouldn't actually hurt.
"Just get out of bed. If you're late, they'll make you run laps, and you'll really be miserable."
Claire urged her.
Skye had already stumbled into the bathroom to wash up.
"I'm heading to the cafeteria. We're in different majors, so I won't wait for you guys."
"Do you or Skye want me to grab you anything? I can bring it to the field."
"I'll pass. I'm so exhausted I'll throw up if I eat." Zara never had an appetite when she was sleep-deprived.
Skye rubbed her stomach. "Even
though we gorged ourselves lastet
actually starving Just grab
mewhatever, Claire."
"I'm majoring in pharmacology, so our squads should be stationed near each other."
"Sounds good." Claire turned to look at Lex. "Do you want to grab breakfast together?"
Lex eagerly nodded.
The two headed to the dining hall. Claire ordered a bowl of oatmeal, some scrambled eggs, and a croissant.
Lex quickly grabbed a bowl of oatmeal and two plain bagels.
As they sat down to eat, Claire noticed a few students blatantly staring at her.
"Excuse me, are you that 'gorgeous med student' from TikTok?"
A girl walking past suddenly stopped to ask, holding up her phone to play the viral video.
She looked at Claire skeptically, noting the uncanny resemblance.
"No, you've got the wrong person."
"I'm just a freshman. The girl in the video is clearly a seasoned professional."
Claire lied without blinking.
"That's true, the girl agreed. No one on the internet believed the heroine video was a first year student
to the
either. o
FindNovel.net
"Sorry to bother you!"
Claire smiled. "No worries."
Thanks to that quick deflection, no one else approached them.
"Why didn't you just admit it was you?" Lex asked, bewildered.
But then again, Claire had always
kept a notoriously low profile, somet Sid the spotlight.
perfect sense that she wanted
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