Chapter Twenty-Seven - the reveal

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Chapter Twenty-Seven – the reveal

"YOU HAVE TO GO AND FIND OUT WHO IT IS," Elaine said as she left me at biology class. "Although I'll bet it was Wes," she added with a whisper, wiggling her eyebrows at me.

Wes was seated in his usual seat, middle row in the centre. I smiled as I sat down beside him. If he was the mysterious note writer, he sure wasn't acting like it. I peered at his notebook, calling to mind the handwriting on the note from earlier. It didn't seem to match, although it wasn't hard to change your handwriting.

"Here are the tickets," he said, handing me two small rectangular bits of paper. "Decided who you're going with to the game on Friday, since you hate being alone in the bleachers?"

"Not sure. I'm probably going to rope Elaine into it. Thank you for the tickets," I grinned, tucking them into the cover of my notebook.

"Also, I was thinking...after the game, did you want to head to the diner and grab dinner?" A look of horror probably flashed across my face, because he quickly clarified, "not with the team and cheerleaders, but like...just us."

"Oh...um...sure," I replied, only sort of panicking. Actually, majorly panicking.

"Awesome. If you wanted to wait around after the game, I'll drive you," he offered.

"I can meet you at the diner. I'd hate to just ditch Elaine."

"Easy. Same diner as last time, around seven?"

I nodded in agreement. Then the questions started flooding my mind. Was this dinner, dinner? Or friends going out for dinner? Was Wes interested in me like that?

Then there was the bigger question. Elaine seemed pretty convinced it was Wes, but this had blown a hole in her hypothesis. If he'd just asked me to dinner face to face, what was the need for the notes in my locker?

--

In between classes, I texted Elaine about what had happened. I was consistently surprised by how quickly everyone repleid to text messages despite it being during school hours.

E: YESSSSS I AM SO READY FOR THIS

I found myself smiling and quickly straightened my expression and tucked my phone back into my blazer.

--

At last bell, part of my body was ready to walk back to my locker and go home, but the other part, the part that had taken over my mind for the whole day, wanted to go and find out who it was. I could hear Holden's voice ringing out in my head, telling me to be spontaneous, that I'd be pleasantly surprised.

Just like that, I walked into the gym, beelining of the bleachers, not even bothering to put my books back first. It was empty, but then again, the bell had just gone, and I was just being an eager beaver. My heart was racing and thumping against my chest. I sat down on the bleachers and waited, fidgeting with my skirt.

There were some steps a few moments later, and I craned my neck out to see, but it was just Ms Johnson taking some equipment back. I smiled at her quickly before looking away, pretending that it was completely normal for sitting there.

Just as I was beginning to leave, I heard my name being called. "Daisy?" Came the guy's voice. It was vaguely familiar. Alarm bells should've gone off, but they didn't. I stood up, and several voices followed the first. That was when it was too late to turn back.

It was one of the guys on the football team – Luke – I thought his name was. There were a few others from the team and a few girls. Of course, it had to be Clarissa, Courtney and Adira.

"God you are just desperate aren't you?" Clarissa laughed. "You've just been pranked!" She cackled.

"I can't believe you came here even after Wes asked you out," one of the guys remarked.

"I – " I opened my mouth to defend myself, but no sounds came out. I was frozen.

"No hard feelings right?" Clarissa grinned, crossing her arms. "That was actually funny."

"Yeah, hilarious," I mumbled.

I couldn't come up with something smart to say. I just wanted the ground to swallow me whole. My heart felt like someone was crushing it, squeezing all the blood from it.

"You were so excited you came straight from class! That's so cute!" Courtney gushed, pointing at my books.

That was when I noticed one of the guys had his phone aimed at me. I kept my jaw clenched, trying to force a smile. Pretend like I thought it was hilarious, like I thought the joke was actually funny. It didn't work.

"You came after only two notes...maybe you have more in common with Elaine than I thought," Clarissa smirked. The guy came closer with the phone and I could feel the tears ready to escape from their ducts. I rushed down in an attempt to get out of there. "Come on, it was just a joke!" Courtney laughed.

The guy came closer yet again as I tried to push past him. "Come any closer and I'll break it," I spat before leaving.

I was so flustered I didn't even bother to grab my stuff. Carrying the books I had from the last two classes, I ran for the bus stop, making it just as my bus arrived. I hopped on and kept my head down, not daring to look back at the school.

By the time I got home, I was glad my mum wasn't home yet. I wouldn't know how to explain why I was a blubbering mess.

I dumped my stuff on my bed and took a shower to clear my mind. I let the warm water run down my body. Then the phone rang.

I got out and answered it. "Didn't you check your messages? I sent you like a hundred," she said breathlessly. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I replied. How did she know?
"God Clarissa is such a bitch. I'll beat her face to a pulp if that's what it takes for her to take it down."
That awful sinking feeling started in my throat and made its way down my gut.
"Take what down?"
"Oh my God," she said. "She posted the video on her Instagram."

I quickly opened the app and refreshed my feed. Sure enough, there it was. She hadn't tagged me and there was no caption, but it was obvious it was me. She had over ten thousand followers; most were strangers I didn't know, but almost everyone who attended Pemberton followed her, so by now, everyone would know.

Tears began welling up in my eyes and I accidentally let out a sniffle. "Daisy?" Elaine said softly.

"I'm good," I lied.

"I'll be over in ten." She hung up before I had a chance to refuse. 




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DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT COMING ? ? ? 

Let me know what you think about this chapter or what'll happen next :~)

I'm so glad I got a chance to update this week! 

Thanks again for reading, pls remember to vote xo

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