Laura was sitting behind the door of Mamzelle Lizanna's French class, crying.
How could Petunia do that? How could she?
Laura sniffed. She hadn't expected Robinson Hills to be like this!
She felt anger. Petunia had attempted to frame her up for flinging her hair-tie at Mamzelle! Just to make Bridget angry! Just because of her own jealousy!
There was commotion inside the class.
She heard Mamzelle ticking Petunia off.
Then, suddenly...
"FREEZE!" someone screamed.
Laura jumped.
The next thing she knew, Bridget fled out of the class.
Curious about what had made Bridget act so strangely, Laura peeked into the classroom.
She gasped.
Everyone was frozen!
Like ice sculptures!
In fact, exactly like ice sculptures.
#
Laura ran like she never ran before.
"I really ought to tell someone about this!" She thought.
She had no clue what she was running from, or where she was going.
"Lily and Cora," she thought to herself. "I need to get to them."
So she ran all the way from their French class, all the way to the East Wing, where Lily and Cora's rooms were.
#
"Laura?"
"Lily," gasped Laura, panting. "I need to show you something." "Where's Cora?" She added.
"I'm here," Cora replied. "I was playing one of my best violin pieces for Lily."
"Lily, Cora," said Laura, urgently. "Bridget! Go! Now!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Cora. "Hold up for a sec. Listen to this!" She played a beautiful melody on her violin.
"No time!" exclaimed Laura ,in exasperation. "Come on!"
"I'm not going anywhere," said Cora, stubbornly.
She hated it when people interrupted her music. "And Lily isn't too. She is staying here with me. Right Lily?"
"Err.... it does sound important right?" Lily replied, feeling uneasy. "Laura sounds distressed."
"How could you?!" shouted Cora, stamping her foot. In her opinion, there could be nothing more important than music, especially her music! "You're supposed to be my best friend!"
Laura gasped, in shock. She had never seen this side of Cora before.
"But it really does seem important," begged Lily. "I'll be right back to listen to your music when I'm done!"
"Lily!" exclaimed a very hurt Cora. "Don't you like my music?"
Laura cleared her throat loudly.
*cough* *cough*
"Sorry," said Lily, glancing at Laura behind her. "I...gotta go."
#
Lily and Laura ran back to the French class.
"They're frozen!" Lily gasped, looking into the class.
Indeed they were. All the students were frozen, including Mamzelle Lizanna!
There was Petunia, standing on her chair, pointing at Mamzelle, with a mean look on her face.
There was Mamzelle, glaring at Petunia with her mouth open mid-shout.
The other students were frozen too, there was Beth, the class clown, with an excited look on her face, as if she was enjoying the fight.
The other students were looking at the horrific scene, with wide, terrified eyes.
"But where's Bridget?" Lily asked.
"I saw her run off."
Laura and Lily entered the class.
"Yikes!" exclaimed Laura, as she touched Mamzelle's frozen arm. "They're cold!"
Immediately, Laura knew why they had frozen like that.
Bridget froze them.
#
Laura and Lily were fetching buckets of hot water from the washroom nearby. They had got the buckets from Miss Grace in her art class.
"So if I'm right, we just pour these buckets of hot water on their heads, they'll start to thaw."
Lily had thought of an idea to melt their classmates and their mistress. They were going to melt their ice sculpture classmates with hot water.
WHOOSH!
Laura poured the water on the head of one of the students
She instantly started to melt.
"It's working!" Laura shouted excitedly.
One by one, Lily and Laura poured water on their classmates' heads and melted them.
They watched as one by one their heads started to melt, then their hands, all the way down to their feets.
"Oh! What just happened?" exclaimed Mamzelle Lizanna, once they had melted.
Students started to regain consciousness as they unfreezed.
"Our job here is done." said Laura, dusting her hands, even though there wasn't any dust on them. "Let's go Lily."
With that, they turned on their heels ,and left the bewildered students who were gawking at them.
#
Soon, the news that Lily and Laura had saved the first formers in Mamzelle Lizanna's class spread like wildfire.
And also, everyone had just discovered that Bridget Watsons was missing. The principal assured them that everything was fine, and told them that Bridget sprained her wrist and was at the town hospital.
Petunia was considerably happy nowadays, that Bridget was gone.
"Finally! I get my peace! Without that medling Bridget stealing my attention." she had said to one of her friends, when she was relaxing on a beach chair at her balcony.
"Ummm......, You know that is not very nice," said Petunia's friend, called Ashley Mc.Dickson, who was slowly starting to like Bridget.
"Oh! So now you're on that 'show off' Bridget's side!" Petunia said, annoyed.
"No! I like both of you equally the same!"
"Pish-posh!"Petunia said, putting her hands on her hips. "There is only one friend! And that one friend is me!"
"Well it was, last time!"
"Well, I can't believe it!" cried Petunia, tears filling in her eyes.
"Well, cry all you want, cry baby! 'Cause you know what? I am not going to be your friend anymore!" exclaimed Ashley, glaring at Petunia. "I'll go help Lily, Laura and Cora find Bridget! So there!" And she walked away in a huff.
"Wait please don't go!"Petunia said. "I have feelings too,'' she said, holding her hand out for her friend.
It was too late, Ashley had walked away not wanting to hear from the spoilt girl again.
She had enough of her mean tricks!
But for once, Petunia had been right, she had feelings though ,she was known for the meanest girl in her form. Right then, Petunia was feeling like nobody had ever cared for her, her father had died years ago and her mother was cold and spoilt. So she only gave Petunia her best but had never loved her girl anyway.
"Okay, I guess. No one ever liked me anyway, not even my mom!" Petunia said to herself, holding back tears in her eyes.
#
Petunia and Ashley weren't the only ones having friendship problems, Lily and Cora had been having problems too.
Ever since Lily and Laura saved their class, they were known as the first form 'heroines', and Cora felt as though she was missing out on the action.
"I helped too!" Cora would insist as she walked down the hall with Laura and Lily, when they were asked to recount what had happened. "I am their best friend!"
"What?!" exclaimed Lily, whipping around. "You helped? Seriously?"
"Hey, we're best friends right? If you did it, we should share the glory!"
"Excuse me?" retorted Lily. "After all that you said to me that day?"
Laura watched, helplessly, as her two friends bickered. But honestly, she thought Lily had a better point than Cora did.
"I don't want to be best friends with a girl who lies and loses her temper," said Lily, flaring up. "Laura is my best friend now."
"Are you?" Cora asked Laura, coldly.
Laura gasped. She didn't want to be part of this!
Thankfully, Lucy Brown, the new head girl after Petunia was fired came up, "You girls should really be going back to your rooms, it's getting late."
"Hey, Laura," said Lily, glancing at Cora. "Mind if I sleep in your room tonight? Bridget is gone right?"
Laura didn't really like the idea, but she agreed anyway.
#
The girls were back in their rooms, Lily was sleeping in Laura's room tonight.
"Where do you think Bridget is gone?" Laura asked Lily.
"I don't know. Maybe we can search for her tomorrow, I'm really tired."
Meanwhile Cora was in her room, feeling a bit lonely. She now wished she hadn't been so mean to Lily. Lily was right! She lost her temper and lied about saving the first formers!
She realized she had been a terrible friend.
"I have to go apologize," she thought.
She crept out of her room, and went down the dark corridor that was lit up by floating balls of light.
She reached Laura's room, which was a few doors down.
Then she heard Lily say, "That wasn't nice of Cora to lie in public just to get attention isn't it?"
"I guess," came the reply.
"Gracious! How could Lily say that about me?!" Cora thought to herself, angry. "I was about to apologize!"
And with that, she stomped off.
Laura heard Cora's stomps, and immediately knew what had happened.
That night, before she drifted off, the last thought that came into her mind was,
"Jealousy is always one of the worst enemies."
Yes, Laura is very right. One of the worst