Page 78 of Game Changer

She nods. “I don’t want to be the one responsible for problems his first year.”

“Mar, he has a life,” I point out, reaching for a cupcake.

She turns it over. “Maybe you’re right.”

We go back to gossiping, and thirty minutes later, she’s flushed.

“Everything okay?” I ask as she rises, frowning.

“Yes, I need to use the bathroom.”

She sways a little.

“Let me help. That champagne is deadly.” I follow her, holding her arm.

I’m waiting outside the stalls for a few minutes before I hear groaning.

“Mar? You okay?”

“I don’t feel well.”

“What did you eat besides champagne?”

“Nothing today except the cupcakes.”

“Maybe you should have had breakfast.”

“I never have breakfast.”

There’s another groan.

I scoot back out to the other girls. “Um, don’t freak out, but did anyone else feel weird after the cupcakes?”

Heads shake.

“It was the best buttercream icing I’ve ever had,” Brooke says.

“No, those were vegan. No butter, no eggs,” I insist.

She stares me down.

“Shit.”

I dash back to the washrooms, stopping by the lockers to fish around in my bag for the receipt. Sure enough, it says vegan, but the evidence is to the contrary.

“Mar, the cupcakes might have been slightly less vegan than we thought.”

The growl from inside the stall makes me wince.

The toilet flushes, and my sister emerges, bent over.

Chloe appears in the doorway, a bottle in one hand and a glass of water in the other.

“Hey, hon, I have pills. My emergency stash. Two of the players are lactose intolerant, and it makes for a bad media day if they’re uncomfortable.”

She passes my sister the pills and glass, and Mari chugs it gratefully. “Thank God.”

“They might not fix everything, but they’ll help.”

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