Chapter 522

Penelope puffed out her chest. “Piece of cake!”
Beating someone as pretentious as Maria would be easy.
The teacher blew the whistle, and the competition officially began. Penelope started picking while Julian was responsible for carrying the tomatoes back to the end of the row and putting them in their basket.
The paths between the rows were uneven, and many of the city- accustomed adults and children had trouble, with several of them tripping and falling.
The teacher could only use a megaphone to constantly remind everyone to be careful.
Penelope and Julian were incredibly fast. After all, both had martial arts training, so the uneven ground felt like a flat surface to them.
As Penelope picked, she occasionally glanced at the other teams, especially Maria’s. The two of them were completely dominating their opponents.
As the minutes ticked by, Penelope was sure they had it in the bag. But when she glanced back at their basket, she was stunned.
They had brought back so many tomatoes, yet the basket was less than half full.
What the…
Julian was just as baffled. “I feel like the more I put in, the less there is.”
They exchanged a look, stopped what they were doing, and started watching the end of the row. It didn’t take long to figure it out: Queena had been secretly taking tomatoes from their basket.
And while it was supposed to be a secret, she was doing it right under the teacher’s nose, but the teacher wasn’t doing anything about it.
Julian stormed over and caught her red-handed.
“You’re stealing our tomatoes! That’s against the rules!”
Caught in the act, Queena showed no remorse. “I’m not stealing!”
“I saw you with my own eyes! You’re still holding a tomato you took from our basket!”
“I didn’t steal anything!”
Julian was fuming. He shouted at the teachers, “You all saw that, right?”
The three teachers at the end of the row looked at each other.
“Julian, time is almost up. Your basket is nearly empty. You should hurry up and pick more!”
“You’re… you’re protecting a thief!”
“Julian! Do not be rude to your teachers!”
Julian was usually composed, but he was still a child, and at that moment, he was so angry he was close to tears.
Penelope walked over, patted Julian
on the shoulder, then went to Maria’s basket, picked it up, and the teachers’ astonishment, dumped its entire contents into their own.
“Mrs. Stapleton, you… that’s against the rules!”
Penelope put the empty basket down. “Did you see something?”
“Of course we did!”
“Weren’t you blind a minute ago?”
“You!”
“So your eyes work on and off, is that it?”
The three teachers, speechless, flushed red and then pale from her retort.
Queena looked at her empty basket and let out a wail. Hearing her daughter’s cry, Maria came running from the tomato patch.
“Mommy, they stole our tomatoes! They took all of them!” Queena cried, playing the victim.
There was no way Maria didn’t know what her daughter had done.
instead of reprimanding bar Butet
child, she accused Penelope.
“You’re a grown-up, stealing from a child! Have you no shame?” “Shame? Of course we have some. Unlike you!”
“You’re the one who stole our
34°
to, and now you’re trying There are plenty of peobet
argue?
here who can be witnesses!”
“Is that so?” Penelope narrowed her eyes. “Then I’d like to ask: who saw it? Who
actually saw the thief?”