Bullies Choke New Girl — Unaware She's A Deadly MMA Fighter
Chapter 31
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Ren found a quiet bench near the animal pens an hour before the open-mic session, trying to settle her nerves before whatever the afternoon intended to demand of her. Odessa found her there, sliding onto the bench beside her without asking."You ready?" Odessa asked."No," Ren admitted. "Not even a little.""Good. Anybody who says they're ready for something like this is lying to themselves."Ren managed a small laugh despite the tightness in her chest."Whatever they've got planned," Odessa said, "you don't owe them a performance. You don't owe anybody proof of anything. You already know what you're capable of—that's enough whether or not today ever asks you to show it."Ren nodded slowly, letting the words settle. "My grandfather said something similar last night," she said. "About letting the truth do the work instead of trying to win something.""Your grandfather sounds like a smart man.""He usually is," Ren said. "Doesn't make today any easier."They sat together a while, watching families pass, watching the ordinary rhythm of a county fair moving forward, unaware of everything gathering quietly beneath its surface."Whatever happens," Odessa said finally, standing to head toward the crowd, "I'll be right there, front row. Try not to make me watch anything too disturbing.""No promises," Ren said, the ghost of a real smile finally reaching her face.The open-mic session began at 2:00 that afternoon: a wooden stage set up between the main tent and the judging tables, a crowd of several hundred gathered loosely around it in folding chairs and standing clusters.Grady's plan, built carefully over the last few days, called for a diesel diagnostics demonstration—a public setting where he and his friends would ask Ren, in front of everyone, to walk them through a repair sequence they knew she hadn't been taught yet. Engineered to make her fail publicly, deniably; no rag required this time. Cody had signed them both up under the guise of a peer demonstration exercise, standard enough that Dean Whitfield had approved it without a second look weeks earlier. Ren didn't know the trap was coming until she was already called up."Next up," the announcer said, checking his clipboard, "we've got a demonstration from Cody Renner and Ren Boone: diesel fuel injection sequencing."A ripple of quiet interest moved through the crowd. Silas, standing near the back with Duke and several other Iron Wolves, felt his jaw tighten immediately; he hadn't heard about this pairing. Neither had Ren.She walked up onto the stage slow, aware immediately of the setup, aware of Grady standing just off to the side with his friends—all of them watching with the particular stillness of people waiting to enjoy something.Cody handed her a diagram printed deliberately dense and confusing, a sequence two levels beyond what their coursework had actually covered. "Go ahead," Cody said, voice pitched just loud enough for the front rows to hear. "Walk us through it."