Page 45 of Pucking Good Girl

If that happens, all my hard work and my parents’ financial struggles to allow me to attend college here will have been for nothing.

A sigh escapes me as I step outside one of the biggest buildings on campus.

Several greenhouses dot a luscious garden. This green haven is part of the Agricultural Science Department of Star Cove College, and they have graciously allowed me and my group to work here to make our garum.

We need heat to let the ingredients ferment and ooze out the liquid that made mouths water all over the Roman Empire.

Garum was left to ferment in the sun for up to three months, but we don’t have that kind of time.

We have eight days until our presentation. Storing our ingredients to ferment in a greenhouse was my idea. I think the increased heat and humid conditions will accelerate the fermentation process and leave us with a better result.

There’s a part of me that feels that I’m doing all this work for nothing, since I might no longer be a student here in the very near future. But I’m someone who doesn’t give up. I’m a fighter.

So after a lot of research, I wrote down a version of the garum recipe that should be as authentic as it gets with the ingredients available to us today.

My research concluded that garum was like chili; there wasn’t one universal recipe, but each city where the delicacy was made all over the empire had its own special mix of herbs and spices or used different types of fish to produce it.

I begin to unload the equipment and the herbs and spices we’ll need to make our version of what the ancient Romans used like we use ketchup. Carrying everything here from the Zeta House would have been a full-body workout. Thankfully, one of my sisters had a class in the building next door and was nice enough to give me a ride here.

Macklin and Becks should be here any minute with the fish components of our recipe.

“Hey, baby,” Macklin is the first to come out from the same door I used to get out here.

Becks is right behind him, both of them impossibly handsome in athletic shorts and Cove Knights t-shirts.

I brace myself for Gen’s arrival. Since our confrontation about what happened with Victor and the way she laughed at my outfit before my date with Becks last week, I’ve been actively avoiding her.

It wouldn’t be out of character for my sorority president to arrive late. And while usually something like that would annoy me, I’m almost hoping that she’ll be late today. After all, I doubt that her contribution to our group project will go beyond criticizing everything we do without lifting one of her manicured fingers to help.

Case in point, Gen was supposed to collect visual examples of the use of garum in Ancient Rome. Of course she hasn’t delivered anything, so I ended up staying up late every night this week to do the work myself.

“Did you get the fish?” I ask, looking at their empty hands.

Macklin rolls his eyes, and Becks chuckles in response to my question. “Yeah, we bought some yesterday, but our new team member wasn’t satisfied with our haul and volunteered to help.”

I blink, confused. “New team member?”

The door opens again a few seconds later. Vaughn and Tucker come toward us, laden with small plastic bags.

“What are you guys doing here?”

Vaughn answers my question with a bright smile. “I’m going to work with you guys instead of Gen.”

“Come again?”

“I got an email last night from Professor Cantucci’s T.A. I’m swapping teams with Gen.”

I’m not going to complain about that. I’d rather work with Vaughn than Gen any day of the week. I’m still perplexed, though. “I thought the professor said no swaps.”

My brother shakes his head. “Me too. I don’t know what kind of bullshit this is.”

“Apparently she couldn’t work with this group because of a toxic environment. I don’t know how she convinced Victor, but here we are.” Vaughn offers.

Oh, ok then. On second thought, I think I have a hunch about how she convinced that creep to allow her to change groups almost at the end of the project.

“Why do you look like someone peed in your helmet?” I can’t help but tease Tucker. “And what are you doing here?”

“Because if you get Vaughn on your team, guess who’s going to have to work with Gen?’