The people with Laura immediately burst into laughter and began mocking her.
Laura mocked her in her heart as well before smiling flashing her a warm smile.
"You'll be a team all by yourself? Don't make me laugh, Kelsie. Look around you, this place is crawling with hackers who know what they're doing. And even with that, they know the importance of forming a team."
"Either way, it's good you know better not to burden anyone with a skill like yours. You're not even supposed to be in any team talkmore of this contest."
"But because we're family who are working towards the same goal, I thought it fine to involve you, but what are you doing turning me down?"
Laura spoke gently and maintained the warm smile on her face that her friends felt offended seeing how she was trying to convince her to join them.
They huffed and snorted beside her.
"Why are you trying to convince her? She already made her choice. Besides, we're already a complete team of 5 and can't bring in anyone else."
"Despite your status here, you brought yourself down to her level to team up with her, but she heartlessly turned you down. You shouldn't be nice to her anymore."
"To think you are even willing to break the rules because she's your sister, but she keeps acting like your efforts are worth nothing."
After feeling pity for her and chiding her, they turned their full attention to Kelsie and taunted.
"Hey, even if you spent the past seven years learning how to code, you can never be better than anyone in this contest."
"Don't be arrogant and accept the help being given to you."
"You already know your place. Staying out of our team isn't just enough, you should leave the contest as well."
"Honestly, I feel really humiliated to know I have an opponent like her."
Kelsie was in no mood to talk nonsense with them and was already roaming the place with her eyes.
Watching Kelsie go silent wasn't something new to Laura. In the past, it never really bothered her, but now, it was beginning to irk her.
She sneered inwardly.
Kelsie had acted so high and mighty at her engagement party the other day that she felt she would be able to defend herself now that she had slimmed down and literally became a goddess.
Who would've thought she was still the cowardly girl she used to know when they were children.
With this thought, the corners of Laura's mouth spasmed and and she sighed softly.
"I totally understand how Kelsie is feeling. When we were young, no one ever let her be on their team so she had to be in one all by herself."
"Even though she's all grown and lost those hideous weight, I bet she still feels inferior when she's in the midst of her peers."
Hearing her bring up the matter of Kelsie's weight, the people with her gulped down impatiently.
They had been biting down their tongue not to mention anything related to it knowing they already offended the Sutton family by leaving the engagement party the other day when it seemed like Laura would no longer be marrying into the Baker family.
Bryan Baker was yet to release any news to confirm who he was really marrying and Laura wasn't saying anything, so they were caught in the middle.
Without knowing which of the two sisters was marrying into the Baker family, they remained clueless.
Given that Kelsie was still the background character she used to be, they quickly concluded in their mind that Bryan was bluffing when he said she'd be the one who he'd be marrying now.
In that case, they had to butter up to Laura and get her to let go whatever grudge she held against them in her heart.
"I wanted to say this at first, but didn't want to sound rude. I don't think she lost weight naturally. She must've gone under the knife."
"My thoughts exactly. She looks too neat to have lost all those disgusting weight. And when did she become such a goddess?"
"I hadn't seen her at the engagement party the other day, but I didn't think people were right when they referred to her as a goddess. In fact, if Laura hadn't spoken to her the moment she walked in here, I would've thought she was an A-list model from a neighboring city."
"She may look prettier than you now, but it's only because she went under the knife and had some work done to look like this."
A pin-drop silence instantly engulfed the group when the last person finished talking.
A cold glint flashed past Laura's eyes at the sudden comparison and she slowly balled her right hand into a tight fist.
Indeed, standing next to Kelsie who looked like a lotus flower in full bloom, she looked nothing less like a withered lotus.
Meanwhile, the person who spoke last quickly realized he had said the wrong thing and hurriedly corrected himself.
"I meant to say that she isn't better looking than you in anyway. We all know what she looked like back then. She was so hideous neither of us could look at her for a few seconds without having the urge to throw up."
Laura didn't unclench her fist as she raised her eyes to look at him and flashed him a warm smile.
"Why apologize when you didn't say anything wrong? It's true that Kelsie went through the knife to become pretty. But there's no law in our country that forbids it."
Then she turned her attention back to Kelsie and said worriedly, "But shouldn't you have taken it easy, sister? You had so much surgery that our father barely recognized you during my engagement party."
Kelsie sighed tiredly and felt the need to comment.
"I fear you're mistaking us, Laura. Unlike you who began going under the knife since you were 14, I've never been under one."