Chapter Forty-four: Dollhouse.
Seven Years Ago
Cassie just got the latest doll and she was only showing it to people she liked. Violet really wanted to see it for real, she'd only ever seen it on TV before.
It came with a car, cool outfits, a hairbrush, and the best part; a big house with a slide! It was gorgeous.
"You think Cassie would show us her doll if we ask her during break?" Faith who was just as excited to see it asked.
Faith was Violet's friend for the whole of sixth grade. She was a curly red-head with freckles and glasses.
Later on, they would grow apart as their lives unfold and Faith would move to another country.
"I don't know," Violet bit on a thumb nail, before toeing the ground, "Yesterday, when I tripped and bumped into her and made a drop of nail polish spot her new gym shoes, she yelled at me."
"But she gets a new pair every other week!" Faith sighed. "Well there goes our chance, why are you always tripping? Here let me help with your laces."
It was probably because of how small Violet was, but Faith loved to take care of her. Violet didn't mind the help.
Just as Faith got back up again, two other girls passed by.
"Cassie showed it to me! She's so awesome, I want a doll house of my own!
"I'll tell my mom we need it for school...."
Faith and Violet sighed.
(*˘︶˘*).｡*♡
In a matter of hours, all the talk in the air had changed from, "Doll house!", "Cassie's Doll", to "New girl!", "New girl!" And that was very exciting because eleven year olds did love new things to talk about.
Of course Cassie wasn't pleased about it.
"Do you think she'll be nice?" Violet asked as they waited in class for the teacher to arrive with the new girl.
"I don't know, I hope she is though." Faith said. "And rich and friendly with a nice house she can invite us to!"
"That would be so cool!" Violet agreed.
Cassie, who was on the row next to them decided she'd had enough talk of the new girl.
"Do you guys want to see my doll house?" She asked giving them a lovely smile.
Faith and Violet looked at each other before beaming at Cassie. "Yes!"
"Come on, it's at the back of the class." She led the way, her long ponytail swaying as she walked. There at the back of the class, Jason McGuire and some of the other restless boys were playing guards.
"Who goes there? State your business!" Hale Frances said and Lloyd Freedman backed him up. They all had plastic rulers as pretend guns, though Jason held his ruler as a sword and Hale kept jabbing Lloyd's side with his.
"Hi Hale!" Violet said, waving. He didn't hear her.
"I'm the owner of this house." Cassie said and she had on that pretend frown she liked to put on whenever she was talking to Jason.
"What's the password?" Jason asked but Cassie didn't seem to have the patience for that.
"I'll punch you all in the noses if you don't let us pass!" She threatened.
"That's correct!" Jason grinned, displaying his braces before moving himself and his friends aside.
"Yay, dollhouse!" Violet squealed and went to kneel next the beautiful thing with Faith beside her. "It's so pretty..."
"Don't touch! You'll get your peanut butter hands all over it!" Cassie snapped before tossing her hair. "My Daddy says it was really expensive."
"My Daddy says it was really expensive!" Jason mimicked and laughed when Cassie turned on him with more threats which would have made her seem angry if she wasn't blushing and fighting a smile.
"Jason is so cute." Faith sighed and expected Violet to sigh along with her but she was already near the side of the dollhouse where Hale stood, telling Lloyd a story.
"...so that's why I have to take extra lessons after school, I'm so going to crush my cousin in tennis when we see again..."
"Hi Hale." Violet greeted as casually as possible.
"....my cousin's so cool, he's been to space before, he showed me his moon rock. When I go, I'm gonna get so much more moon rocks than him..."
"H- hi Hale..."
"...told me that's how he got taller and it's true! On the internet, they say you grow some inches taller when you go to space, because gravity..."
"Hi Hale, Hi Hale!" Violet would have kept going too, except this time he finally noticed her presence.
Now that he did, she had no idea what to say. "Um... Do you...? Uh... nothing."
Lloyd and Hale exchanged an odd look and they were probably about to call her names when the teacher finally walked in.
"Sorry to take too long, children. Please settle down now." She said and everyone hurried to their seats.
"Teacherrrr, Jason took my scrunchieeee!" Cassie whined. "Give it back, Jasonnnnuuhhhh!"
"I don't have it" Jason said from his seat, holding his hands up, even though the scrunchie was currently holding up his black, unruly hair so he looked like a pineapple.
Everyone laughed with him when Cassie reached forward from behind him and snatched it off his head.
"Alright, now that's settled, let's welcome your new classmate." The teacher said and gestured for the new student to come in.
"Her hair is so pretty...!" Violet turned and whispered to Faith who nodded in agreement.
She had black curly hair which she'd styled with a few braids and hair gel and cute hair clips so her hair stayed up in one big puff. The pink dress she wore was the perfect shade to compliment her light brown skin and she was waving at everyone with a shy smile.
"Wow, she's beautiful." Jason said quietly and Cassie glared at the back of his head in disbelief.
Her voice was rather quiet when she spoke, "My name's Mary-Anne Norway and um..."
"What?" Someone asked having not heard her.
"What did she say?" Faith asked from behind but Violet hadn't really heard either.
Jason did apparently, "She said her name's-"
"My name is Annie!" The new girl said, much louder. "Nice to meet you all."
"Welcome, Annie." The teacher said and pointed, "The desk in front of Jason is free, so why don't you take a seat?
"Yeah! Take a seat." Jason said and made a show of wiping imaginary dust off the chair, making everyone laugh.
Cassie shifted in her seat before snapping, "Stop trying to embarrass the new girl, Jason, she just got here." Then she leaned to the side so she could see Annie "Watch out for whoopee cushions, he's a prankster."
"Hey!" Jason said while Annie smiled at her gratefully.
Cassie couldn't even bring herself to fake a smile.
(◍•ᴗ•◍)✧*。
"Bye guys, see you after school!" Violet waved at her parents as they dropped her off.
"Have a nice day Violet!" They called back and drove off.
Faith was just on her way in too. "Hi Violet! Did you do all your homework?"
"Yep!" Violet replied, linking her arm with the bigger girl as they walked through the near empty hallways. "We're so early."
"Yeah, it's so nice. I should do this more often." Faith said with a laugh. Her giggle cut short when they passed the girls' bathroom door.
"Did you hear that?"
They both stopped and listened. It sounded like someone was having a breakdown in the bathroom.
"...stupid school! Stupid classmates! Everything is just so stupid...!"
Faith pushed the door open and Violet followed suit, walking in to see Annie with her hands in the sink with the water rushing hard.
"Annie are you okay?" Violet asked, closing the door and the girl looked up with tears running down her face.
"I've had enough of this school!" She said and Violet noticed she only had a pair of shorts on as bottoms, her skirt was in the sink. "It's gotten out of hand!"
Faith let out a big sigh of sympathy and Violet could understand why.
Over the past few weeks since she came, someone had made it a point to make Annie's life miserable.
First it was little objects of hers going missing and then bigger things like her school bag which they found in the bushes at the back, then someone had written in big letters on the board: "Go Away, Annie!" for everyone to see first thing when they came to school.
The teacher had no clue what to do and she had tried different means to get the culprit to own up, even punishing the whole class, but that only made Annie feel worse.
Today, the culprit seemed to have gotten Annie to sit in a pool of ink or something.
"I didn't check my chair before I sat." She sniffed, staining her face with a blue smudge when she wiped her tears. "I thought I'd beaten my prankster to school this time, I was really early!"
"Here, let me help." Faith said, going to squeeze out the skirt while Violet offered Annie a hug.
"We have to do something about finding these guys, maybe set up a secret camera or something." Violet said, patting Annie's back. "But what do you wear now? I could get you an emergency skirt from the nurse."
"I guess" Annie said, before adding quietly, "now everybody's going to think I got my period or something."
Violet silently admired how Annie could say the word "period" with a straight face. She was so mature! But she understood her plight, all the emergency skirts had the school stamps on them so it was pretty easy to tell.
"There's no saving this thing." Faith said, raising the ruined skirt with a distasteful look. "But I have a better idea, my house is just down the street, I could get you a pretty one and be back before the assembly even starts."
"You'd do that for me?" Annie asked, looking so relieved already.
"Yeah, see you in a bit, wait here!" Faith said and she was out the door.
Annie sighed heavily and sat down on the bench near the wall. "Thanks Violet, I'll wait here for her. I think... I just want to be alone..."
Violet wondered why anyone would want to be alone at a time like this, but she shrugged. "Okay."
Then she went to sit on the far side of the bench, folding her legs up to her chest and resting her chin on her knees.
Everything went quiet for a while, then Annie asked. "What are you doing?"
"Um..." Violet raised her head. "I don't know. My mom does this when I'm upset, she just sits quietly with me and it works. She says it's so I don't feel lonely. Should I leave for real?"
Annie let out one last leftover sob. "No, this is fine."
So they lapsed back into comfortable silence, listening to the sounds of students resuming school. Luckily, no one else entered the girls' bathroom, but that became a bit of a concern after the bell rang for assembly.
"You think she's supposed to take so long?" Annie asked, starting to look worried again.
Before Violet could reply, the girls' bathroom door slammed open and Faith ran in with a panicked look. "Quickly before they come in!" She exclaimed and they jumped up to help her hold the door close against a group of people while she bolted it shut.
"Faith who is that?" Violet whispered as the people outside banged on the door.
"We just want to talk!" A voice called.
"Is that Lloyd?" Annie asked.
Faith nodded. "And Hale and Jason and Cassie!"
They waited with their backs against the door till they stopped shouting and the noise outside went down.
Faith explained what had happened.
"I passed the old back gate to get to my house, I didn't think anyone would be there, but they were there! Cassie and Jason are the ones making you suffer, Annie!"
"What?!" Annie exclaimed. "What have I ever done to them!?"
Faith leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially, "Cassie thinks Jason might like you, and she really, really likes Jason herself!"
Annie's face morphed into something dark. "That's what this is all about?"
"Yeah, I heard her mock him for it and I think that's how she gets him to do these things to you. When she makes fun of him, he denies liking you and he has to play a prank to prove it!"
"That's unbelievable!" Violet chorused with Annie.
"It is! I didn't mean to catch them there, I just did! Then they saw me and they started chasing me through the school. We have to report them to the teacher." Faith said.
"Cassie's and Jason's fathers are big and scary, Annie's going to have to face them?" Violet asked.
"It might get them to stop." Annie said. "I hope it does, if not my parents would move me to a new school and I hate being the new girl..." She paused and turned to Faith. "You know, I'm going to have to mention you if they ask me for proof... I'd hate to drag you into this."
"It's fine," Faith said with a determined look. "I dragged myself into this. I'll testify against Jason and Cassie."
"But Faith," Violet touched her friend's shoulder. "Jason's your true love!"
"I know, I'm in love with a criminal!" Faith squealed, holding her cheeks. "Oh I feel like I'm in a forbidden love drama! Anyways, here you go, sorry it's a bit rumpled." She handed Annie a plain pink skirt that went with her top.
"You're an angel, Faith." Annie sighed, giving her a hug. "Sorry about all this and thank you so much! I don't know what I'd do without you both."
"Don't you worry, now that we know the culprits, everything's going to be fixed, there'll be justice and we'll all be happy!" Violet said with a beaming smile.
Things wouldn't go that smoothly, unfortunately.
The school would go on to contact all the parents involved and call a meeting.
Due to the affluence of the McGuires and the Manuels, Jason and Cassie would only escape with three days of detention which would only stoke their childish egos.
Cassie would conclude that she didn't want the name she was called to rhyme with that of a snitch.
Jason would still be the "cool guy" everyone loved and...
Annie would end up retreating to the shadows, slowly pulling herself away from Violet and Faith and basically everyone in order to keep a low profile while vowing to despise Jason, Cassie and anything that had to do with them till the end of all time.
And she would stay that way until a pair of rowdy twins that nobody liked would arrive and decide to never leave her alone till she basically adopted them.
Another long story.
A//N: So here I am, writing this when I haven't read a word for my Physics Exam tomorrow, haha. By the time you see this, I'd probably be done with it but still, wish me luck!
Rhodes.