𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 ✔️

Chapter Twenty-Five

When she found out, the whole school was called for an assembly. I never went to the assembly, and neither had Dylan, so he couldn't report back to me. That's because I was in the Headteachers' office in tears and Dylan was right beside me, trying to calm me down.

I took a seat next to whoever was next to Alessia in the register. I looked up at the person who had joined me, seeing it to be Lucas.

I stared at him, open-mouthed. Of course, R is close to T in the register.

He cleared his throat, "You're sitting in my seat," he said.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I'll move if you want me to."

"It's okay," Lucas said, eyes flickering down to me for only a moment, "I'm sure no one will notice."

I nodded, looking forward, waiting for the assembly to begin.

When it did, the Headteacher appeared. We all stood up but she quickly ushered us down.

"Now," she began, "I've called you all out of your classes to discuss a very, very serious matter," Alessia gulped; the Headteacher was very angry.

"Just this morning, a violation of a pupil's property took place," she began, and whispers began to erupt, "we're discussing potential culprits at the moment, but if you know or saw anything, or you are the culprit, I would urge you to come forward." She said, doing laps across the stage.

"Not only is this misconduct, but this is a serious, serious offence. A lot of things were vandalised, including the destruction of items that held great personal value to the student. This is unacceptable behaviour, and it will not happen in my school." The students stared at her, faces ashen as her voice rose.

"So," she began, "if I do not get a culprit by the end of this week, we will be calling the police." Again, whispers erupted and shocked faces emerged.

"Until then," she said, "we are closing off the St. Andrews block, as it is now being treated as a crime scene. You'll now be dismissed to your third lesson." With that, we were dismissed and, as soon as the students left the hall, talk began.

Alessia snaked her way through the crowd and made her way to RE, her next lesson. She ignored all the talk, walking straight by people, the biggest piece of evidence to the crime sitting upon her shoulders.

When Alessia finally made it to RE, she walked in with her noisy and curious classmates, who were all trying to figure out what had happened, to whom and who was the culprit. Alessia felt almost smug at what she had done; she blamed Olivia mostly for her bullying since Kiara was one of her main bullies and she worked for the interests of Olivia. Johnny was much the same, and then the rest of the school just joined in, blaming her for anything Kiara said she had done, whether she had actually done it or not. As well as this, Olivia had taken the only one who cared about Alessia—Dylan. She was also acutely jealous that Dylan fancied Olivia and not her.

I didn't know how to fight this one; Alessia's argument was valid, yet vandalism was a serious offence—and the guardian angel...

It still breaks my heart to this day, though Dylan said he'd look out for another one. It has been over a year, and he's not the kind to forget, so maybe there just isn't another one. There was only one. And Alessia destroyed it.