𝐆𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 || #𝟏

Chapter 59

"Let's go," Claudia hastily says - pulling onto my arm roughly. "I'm driving us home, let's leave."

-- ------ --

My mother, Claudia and I all sit in silence on the living room couch as Claudia fills my mother with everything that has taken place today.

"I... I'm not even sure how they got a photo of him," Claudia shakes her head. "It's absolute chaos, the whole school probably judges us now. What should we do?"

"I never knew Alexis would do anything like that..." My mother darkly says, "I'm going to have a talk with her mother later... Not now, but later... Oh Jasmine, I'm so sorry this happened. Are you alright?"

I shake my head, sniffling. "I could've stopped all of this from happening if I had just given up the stupid campaign."

"I'm glad you didn't," Claudia comforts. "At least you still have a chance at making sure Alexis doesn't win."

"Yes," my mother agrees. "Prom is tonight, right? I think you should still go, and at least try to win. You cannot let that girl win, not after what she did. Don't you understand? She's ruthless, and I don't care that you and her were once friends."

"You're still going to prom, and I'm going to make sure that you win." Claudia proudly declares, "if anybody looks at you weirdly I'll punch them in the face. Does that make you feel better about it?"

"I-i guess... But won't more people look at us if you punched somebody in the face?"

"Eh, I can punch pretty hard," Claudia smiles. "Come on, let's get you dressed. I still want you to have fun, you deserve it."

"Yes," my mother grins. She intertwined my hand with hers. "I know I haven't exactly given you the easiest time... But, now that I realise what an amazing daughter you are - I'm happy to say that I'm... I'm proud of you..."

"Really?"

I look up, looking at my mother's gleaming eyes.

"I'm so proud of you," my mother beams. Her eyes start to get glassy, as her smile grows. "I'm proud of both of you. You two are both so resilient, I'm so glad that you two are my daughters. I wouldn't have it any other way, and even if we haven't always had the best relationship - I hope that the two of you are happy."

"Thank you..."

"Thanks mum..."

Claudia helps do my makeup, while my mother focuses on my hair. Strategically twisting it into braids, while Claudia applies very slight eyeshadow.

"I don't think you need makeup," Claudia wistfully sighs. "But at least with it, you'll feel like the prettiest girl in the room..."

"There, do you like your hair?" My mother asks, "I think it looks quite nice."

"Mum," I laugh - marvelling at her work. "You should focus on doing Claudia's hair now, Claudia... I don't need anymore makeup, I'm fine... I think this is enough..."

My mother chuckles, forcing Claudia to sit down as she does the same thing to Claudia's hair. I stand up, straightening out my prom dress. It was long, almost reaching the ground - littered with an array of snowy butterflies on the skirt.

"How do you think I look?" Claudia asks, twirling around in her black dress. "It suits me quite a lot, don't you think?"

"You two both look so beautiful," my mother smiles. "Now come on, I'll drive you there. Let's go into the car."

The ride to school is short. It always has been, but today it feels like it has gone by in a matter of seconds. Claudia holds my hand reassuringly, trying to ease my nerves.

"It'll be fine," Claudia says. "We've dealt with worse, haven't we? We're strong Jasmine, just remember that."

"I know, we are..." I slowly say, the words feeling foreign in my mouth. "I just want to find out who leaked that photo, and be done with this."

My mother pulls our car into the carpark, where all of my friends are waiting. Lorelei, Emily, Aubrey, Alice, Abigail, Angel, and Jolene. I quickly push open the heavy door, reuniting with them as they pull me in for a huge group hug.

"Aubrey," I joked, "you changed your dress. So did you Abigail!"

"Yeah, my mum made me change it. She said it was ugly," Abigail huffs, "but this doesn't look half bad. I like the dark navy blue, I think it suits me quite well."

"I thought that perhaps wearing an anime character's face on my dress was embarrassing..." Aubrey slowly admits. "And maybe it was a little ugly... Okay, it was really ugly. I've seen the light, you can get off of my back."

"But most importantly, we found out who anonymous is," Lorelei said. I look baffled, seeing all of my friends and Claudia look concerningly at me.

"W-who is it?"

"Well, it's a lot of people," Angel continues. "Of course, Alexis and her friend group are involved in it. Tina, Amelia and Maddy as well. However, there's one person who you may be surprised about..."

"We're going to go confront them," Alice boldly states. "You don't have to come, but if you want to-"

"I'll come," I cut in. "Let's go confront them."

Aubrey is the first one to file into the corridor, holding the door for everybody else. As we make our way back to the gym, music blasting in the halls - Claudia stays particularly close to me. Abigail opens the gym's doors, and I hold my breath.