Phoenix Rising: From Heartache to Heroism
Chapter 224 Unlikely Alliances

Since Lucy's party included not only heiresses but also many wealthy second-generation kids, attending it guaranteed a worthwhile experience. Being invited to Lucy's birthday party was an unspoken honour, so Zelena and Hattie started bragging about it early in class.

"What are you doing, Hattie?" asked Candy.

"Picking out clothes," Hattie replied.

"Hattie, you have so many clothes that you never wear the same thing twice. You still need to pick out clothes?" Gillian chimed in.

"Yes, I'm going to Lucy's birthday party," Hattie said.

"Wow! Really? I heard from seniors that you can meet many important people at that party. They even serve champagne that costs six figures per bottle! I wish I could go just to see it," Candy exclaimed. "Ugh, if I had known, I would have joined the dance club too," Gillian sighed.

Everyone in the dance club was invited to the birthday party without any restrictions.

Not all dance club members were wealthy, so even ordinary people could get a glimpse of high society.

Hattie spent class time picking out clothes, selecting them, and buying many outfits.

"Hattie, how do you decide what to buy?" Gillian teased.

"I stop when my eyes get tired," Hattie replied.

The others fell silent at her show of wealth.

News of Zelena and Hattie attending Lucy's birthday party quickly spread through the class, making many classmates envious.

Besides the dance club members, only those from influential families in Mapleton received invitations.

In their class, only Zelena and Hattie got invited, giving them plenty to boast about.

"Actually, I was supposed to go home that day, but Lucy invited me so warmly that I had no choice but to go to the birthday party. Finding a gift was such a headache. I had no idea what to get," Hattie bragged. "It feels like our school needs a Hall of Fame, haha," someone joked.

"Yeah, everyone who gets invited will be in it!"

"Unlike some people who didn't get invited at all, I'm not naming names."

"Money isn't the issue, haha. Why weren't they invited? So funny, especially since they were flaunting that Jour 24 outfit before!"

The front-row girls kept mocking and bursting into sharp laughter.

Kaylee covered her ears.

"So noisy. Vio, let's go to the library. Who cares about that stupid birthday party anyway!"

"Okay," Violeta agreed.

Violeta had been working on her computer, completely ignoring the girls in the front row.

She closed her laptop and left the classroom with Kaylee to go to the library.

After the competition, Violeta had been trying to handle the black market's bounty on her.

It wasn't a huge problem, but it was still a persistent risk.

She knew Zelena would leak her secondary WhatsApp number, leading the black market to trace her location.

Although pinpointing her exact IP would take time, she needed to address it quickly to avoid unnecessary complications.

...

Meanwhile, at the dance club, Casey noticed Lucy seemed down lately, like she had something on her mind.

"Lucy, you don't seem happy recently," Casey observed.

"Yeah, I'm worried about whether Jasper will come to my birthday party," Lucy admitted.

... He should come, right?" Casey tried to reassure her.

"I don't know. From what I know about him, I can't be sure he'll come," Lucy said, still uncertain.

Casey knew that Lucy still hadn't given up on Jasper.

After all, he was her first love, and Jasper definitely had the charm of a rogue.

She heard there was going to be a pool party at the birthday bash that night...

"Lucy, if you invite Jasper alone, he might not come. But if you invite his close friends too, he might be more inclined to join," Casey suggested.

Lucy glanced at Casey, thinking she was too naive.

Among Jasper's four friends, Zoren was the most likely to attend parties, followed by Jasper, then Liam.

The hardest to invite was Hayden.

If she couldn't get Jasper to come, how could she expect to get the others?

Casey pondered for a moment. "Actually, if you want them all to come, there's someone who might be able to influence them."

"Who?" Lucy asked.

"Violeta."

Even though Casey didn't like Violeta and even found her quite annoying, she had to admit the truth: Violeta had the ability to bring Jasper and his friends together. They had always thought Violeta got along well with the group because she was Jasper's girlfriend.

But after Jasper clarified that they weren't dating, they realised Violeta's bond with them wasn't based on that relationship.

No matter how much they disliked admitting it, Violeta was the first woman in years to integrate into Jasper's group.

Whether it was being in the same club or during the recently concluded college competition, Violeta was always surrounded by those four guys.