What was your first guess as to why Gemma suddenly left school? Were you surprised she didn’t return?
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I thought she ran out of money and didn’t want any help from Mebel. Yes, I was surprised she didn’t return. I think that also took some courage on her part realizing she liked doing what she was doing at home.
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I was very surprised and very sad to find out why she left.
I thought she just ran into financial hard times, or had a family emergency, had no idea that Alain was harrassing all the female students since initially he seemed like a good guy. If she was really passionate about cooking, she could have lodged a complaint but she was probably afraid of him, and afraid to tell Mebel what was going on since she was dating Alain.
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Alain turned out to not a good person. Still, he helped Medel realize she was worth something.
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This was a great twist, and honestly, I thought it had to do with financial reasons and that Mabel would end up helping her out.
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I thought she got into some kind of pickle with a man - but I was surprised that it was Alain. Alain was definitely too smooth with Mebel, something felt off, but I did not see this coming!
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Honestly, had no idea why Gemma left.
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I had no idea why Gemma suddenly left the school. This was an excellent plot twist to the story.
Yes, I was surprised (and a bit disappointed) that she did not return to school.
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I really thought it was a financial issue. I’m glad she had another way to continue her passion of cooking from her home.
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I thought she must have run into some financial troubles, but suspicious at the same time. Why did she make it so hard for anyone to get in touch? I thought she might return.
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Kathleen, I didn’t think of this before until you mentioned it, I can’t think of a logical reason why Gemma went “silent.” Thinking about it now maybe it was just the author’s way to get us to believe Alain was a nice guy and also how much tenacity Mebel had. I
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Perhaps Gemma was embarrassed and felt she was to blame for the situation with Alain and therefore, shut herself off knowing her friends would have questions. So often the victims of abuse blame themselves as well as fear some sort of retaliation.
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I was actually caught off guard by that whole story line. I thought this was gonna be a “[insert middle aged woman name] gets get groove back” situation, so I assumed he was only going to play a role of helping her discover her sexuality and was not expecting him to be that much of a villain. I was really sad for Gemma. 
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I believed her that she no longer was interested in the school anymore.
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I was really surprised that Gemma just disappeared. Especially when she had just formed this closer relationship with Mebel. I was glad that Mebel went on the hunt to figure out what was going on with her and solved the difficult mystery.
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I thought she had s family issue or someone close to her was very ill or died. I was surprised when she did not return and especially surprised when she cut off phone communication
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I was unsure as to why Gemma left but suspected that added responsibilities due to having “the sex” was responsible for her departure. The actual reason was quite an unexpected twist.
After learning why, I was not surprised that Gemma chose to leave the school and attributed her decision to age and status. Yes, she had strong opinions and dreams, but the perceived threat to her future would have made it pretty much impossible to continue there successfully.
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Same here.
I am so happy Mebel looked for her.
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I had thought that Mebel had done something to upset her. I thought that she had disagreed with their plan for the competition, but was afraid to tell her.
The real reason was so much sadder, but made more sense.