Our Differences

Chapter 16

Chloe's POV

I tapped my foot on the ground as I waited by Felicity's locker to tell her who the project destroyer really was. Obviously, it was the evil, venomous Kristen. Felicity arrived at the front gate looking better than she has in days. 

I mean, she's been looking better ever since we've made up and stuff but today she looks much, much better. She looked a little less.... Sleep deprived. She looked much prettier today as she walked in the school grounds with her brown hair flying behind her in the morning breeze. 

I saw a guy, Ryan Ross, walk up to her. I felt like squealing for her. He said something to her and she giggled.

She said something back to him and he walked away. She approached me with a slight smile on her pretty face. 

"What'd he say?" I asked with a smirk. 

"Nothing much. Just that I looked pretty today." She said, smiling. "And that he wants to hang out." 

"Aw..." I cooed. "That's so cute. Actually, I think that you look much better today too." 

"I had a better sleep last night than most." 

"Well, anyway, back to business. I think we both know who really destroyed your Eiffel Tower model." I said. 

"Kristen." We both chorused and then laughed at how in sync we are. 

"Yeah, I think so too," Fe said. "We'd better confront her and see what she has to say." 

"Lies, lies, lies," I sang. "You know that telling the truth is like speaking another language to her." 

"She might accidentally give herself away while talking." She said. I shrugged. "It wouldn't hurt to try." 

So we went searching for Kristen and we found her bullying a junior in the 5th grader's classroom. 

"Kristen, we'd like to speak to you." I said, crossing my arms. 

"Can't you see I'm busy? Or are you blind?" She said, rudely. 

"Now." I said, firmly. She groaned loudly and pushed the 5th grader off her seat. "Move, you stupid little girl," she said. "I'll get back to you later. Now get out." 

The poor girl ran out of the room. "Pathetic." Kristen said, shaking her head. 

"Kristen, we believe it was you who ruined Felicity's Eiffel Tower project." I said, getting straight to the point. Kristen looked hurt. Fake. I thought. 

"I would never!" She exclaimed. "Just because of a few little mistakes and you're ready to think the worst of me, aren't you, Chloe?" 

"More than a few 'little mistakes'." I corrected. 

"Well, I can assure you that I am certainly not guilty this time." She said. 

"That's what you say everytime you're accused of doing something." Fe said, rolling her eyes. 

"Ah, but this time, I have proof." She said with a smirk. A mischievous one.

She pulled out her phone and opened her gallery. "Watch." She instructed as she played a video. 

In it, one of my friends, Anne, was seen opening Felicity's locker door and using a pair of my scissors to cut up Felicity's work. Both of us gasped and exchanged glances. My good friend Anne Wilson was a homework destroyer?! No, there must be a mistake. She wouldn't do something so low. 

"Well?" Kristen asked, smirking. 

"There has to be an explanation!" I protested. "Anne isn't like that. She's not that kind of person." 

"Or is she?" Kristen asked, still smirking. 

"Anne is really nice. She's not one to cause misery to others on purpose," I said, not ready to accept the fact that she did this. "I refuse to believe this! I'm going to her right now and ask her myself." 

Kristen stopped smirking. "Don't believe a word she says, Chloe," she said, hurriedly. "She'll put the blame on me. I'm 100% innocent, I swear!"

 "Then why didn't you stop her when you saw her doing that?" Fe asked. 

"I-I didn't want to cause any drama," Kristen said, innocently. "I thought I'd show it to you in case you'd suspect me to prove my innocence." 

"Likely story." I said with plenty of sarcasm in my voice. Fe and I went off to find Anne. She was chatting with her friends. 

"Anne, we need to talk." I said, interrupting her conversation. 

"Oh, okay." She said. 

"Anne, did you destroy Felicity's Eiffel Tower model?" I asked, gently. 

She looked at us with wide eyes. "N-no," she said. "I didn't even know that she brought such a thing to school." She swallowed hard. 

"Anne...." I said. "The truth."

Tears pricked the corner of her eyes. "Okay, okay!" She said, those tears now rolling down her cheeks. "I admit it. I did it. I'm sorry."

Fe and I looked at each other uncomfortably. I was really hurt to hear that my friend would do something so mean. 

"Anne, how could you?" I said, hurt and disappointed. Even though the damage wasn't done to me, it still breaks my heart to know that someone as nice and gentle as Anne would do something so Kristen-worthy. 

"Let me tell you the whole story...." she said, after calming down a little. "My family was facing financial issues. My dad's company had to close down as their business wasn't so good. He became a clerk but he didn't earn much money. My mom became a babysitter and did odd jobs. But we still didn't have enough money. I wanted to help my family so bad. When Kristen offered me 100 bucks to ruin your project, I couldn't refuse."

She blew her nose into her handkerchief. "So I did. And Kristen instructed me to specifically use Chloe's scissors to destroy the tower with so that she would get the blame. Kristen particularly hates you." I nodded, knowingly. 

"But how did Kristen know that you were facing financial problems? Did you really tell her?" Fe asked. 

Anne shook her head. "She asked one of her friends, Jack, to befriend me so that I would tell him all my problems. She knew that I had a huge crush on him and I would trust him. So I told him my problems and he told Kristen. I can be so foolish sometimes." She said, ashamed of her foolishness. 

I stroked her arm. "It's okay. But we can't let Kristen go around ruining lives like that," I said. 

Fe nodded. "We should tell Miss Kennedy. She's bound to believe us since she's already seen Kristen and her friends' despicable behaviour. The other teachers might not but Miss Kennedy is more likely to." 

I agreed and we went to find Miss Kennedy to tell her about Kristen. We made it to her office and left Anne to explain everything. 

"Guess the deal is over," I said, smiling triumphantly. "Looks like I've proven myself not guilty. We good now?" 

"Of course," Fe said. "I was just super mad at seeing all my hard work go to waste that day and the moment I saw your scissors, I suspected it was you. I should've thought it over first. I'm sorry." I gave her a hug. 

"We all make mistakes. But that's what makes us human." She nodded. 

"We should really get working on that speech." She reminded. I gasped. 

"Oh my god, I forgot all about it!" I exclaimed. Fe laughed. 

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out. After all the drama, this should be a piece of cake." I nodded. 

We went to the library and began discussing ideas until the bell rang for classes. We worked hard. She came over to my house after school to finish it up. We read the whole thing to check for grammatical mistakes and to make sure what we say stays in the students' minds until they graduate and hopefully after that too. 

"I think we're done." I said, proudly. Fe agreed. We high fived each other. 

"Tomorrow, we'll say this speech in front of everyone during assembly." Fe said. 

I nodded. "We're going to change things for the better. Once and for all."