𝐆𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 || #𝟏

Chapter 41

"Be careful with Alexis," my mother warns. "I don't think she truly wants to be your friend right now. She has an ulterior motive, I can see that."

She pushes her door open, entering her bedroom, and shutting the door. I look at the closed door, contemplating with myself. Surely, today wasn't an act? She wasn't trying to lower my guard, was she?

-- ------ --

The next day at school, as Lorelei walks with me to my locker - I notice that there is a large crowd surrounding it. Students whisper among each other, pointing at something - some of them laughing, even. One of them sees us approaching, and tugs her friend's arm harshly. Her friend sees us as well, and ushers her away.

In fact, when we arrive, the whole crowd disperses. They scurry off quickly, and it isn't until they are gone I realise what they were looking at.

"Somebody vandalised your locker," Lorelei breathed, pointing at the red marks. I traced the lines on it, feeling the cold metal underneath my finger tips. "Somebody wrote 'idiot' on your locker. Do you think Alexis had something to do with it?"

"Probably," I replied. I unlocked my locker, pushing in my bag and taking out my books. Then, I slammed it shut, and I walked off to maths class. Leaving Lorelei behind, as I contemplated on why she'd do that.

I've always known that Alexis has hated me, but after last night when we were finally getting along - I thought that she wasn't as bad as I thought she was. She was kind, laughing, and most importantly, happy. Genuinely happy, and I was as well.

The sunken feeling in my chest digs deeper and deeper as I turn the corner, and see Alexis and Lilac giggling about something. They don't notice me passing by, and I hear every part of their conversation.

"I vandalised her locker with red marker," Lilac states proudly. "I'm not sure whether or not she knows that I'm the one who did it, but I'm sure that she knows that it was related to you. And to think that she might've genuinely thought that you two might've been friends one day."

Alexis snorts, hugging her books even tighter than before. "Yeah, it was really lame. Hopefully after this she leaves me alone, it was such a pain to be around her last night. I thought I might've exploded from the way she was acting."

"I'm not even sure how I managed to have a conversation with her before without throwing up," Lilac sighed. "It was so difficult, I never even realised just how I truly felt about it because I was doing it almost everyday. Anyways, I hope she'll realise how idiotic she is later on."

Alexis notices me standing by, and for a second, I can see a hint of regret in her eyes. Lilac sees me, and starts giggling, walking past me - and purposely brushing me aside. I turn my head back to look at Alexis, who looks sullen, and upset.

"So I guess you can imagine my surprise after I found out what Lilac did to my locker," I quietly said. "I thought that we could've become friends after the whole ordeal, but I think I was really pushing my luck. Wasn't I?" I look away from her, beginning to walk away, but pausing - to add something else. "Lilac's right, I really am the idiot in this situation. Aren't I?"

Any hint of Alexis being upset, or showing even one slight inch of regret has vanished. She meanly cackles, smirking. "At least you're self aware now. I'm glad that this is clear now."

My tears threaten to spill as I quickly walk down the halls. I burst into Ms Gob's classroom, notably before everybody else, as I am the first one inside. Ms Gob is marking test papers, and sees how red and puffy my eyes are.

"What happened?" She asked, "did you fail a test or something?"

"It's fine," I dismissed, setting down my books at the front. "I just had something happen to me, and I'm still not quite so over it."

"What happened?" She asks again, but this time, with a hint of empathy.

I take a breath, and as I tell her what had just happened - my words become convoluted. All jumbled up, and unable to comprehend until I give up, and start sobbing. Ms Gob awkwardly makes her way over to me, sitting on the desk next to mine. She takes a deep breath, and looks at me solemnly.

"Liste," she starts. "I'm not really good with this emotional stuff, but you aren't an idiot. You are a skilled, accomplished student. Sometimes when we're doing mathematics in class, you end up surpassing me in a couple of areas, according to accuracy. Students wish that they were like you, and not to mention, you were wondrous in the school musical."

She stops, because she thinks that it is getting too awkward. But she's gotten her point across, and I stop crying. She says something about reporting this to the school principal, so that justice could be served. And then, the rest of the students come bustling in for maths class, and she returns back to her desk.

Jolene sits on the desk next to me, leaning over in her chair to talk to me. "I saw what was written on your locker, do you know who did it?"

"It was Lilac, she was the one who wrote the thing on my locker," I said back. "It's okay though, it's not that much of a big deal."

Jolene snorts, opening up her notebook. "If Lilac did that to me, I'd probably run off crying and lock myself in a bathroom stall for the rest of the day."

"Believe me," I muttered under my breath, opening my maths textbook. "I've already had my fair share of tears."

"Seriously? When'd you cry?"

"I kind of cried like ten minutes ago, and Ms Gob had to awkwardly comfort me. It was kind of nice, but it was really weird and embarrassing at the same time."

"I never thought she'd be the type of person to do that," Jolene commented - looking at our mean teacher. She was writing up questions for us to do in our textbook, and was also yelling at Iris for breaking dress code. Again.

Her skirt was a bit too high for school, not to mention, it was also kind of transparent and you could faintly see the outline and colour of her underwear. I tried my best not to pay attention, but it was very difficult considering that her underwear had a picture of Sofia the First.