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.

Alessia was stood up behind her seat, unpacking her bag, when someone joined her.

"I really hope, for the sake of my new manicure, that the vandal isn't you," a voice threatened behind me. I turned to see Kiara before swallowing, but it was Alessia who responded.

"Why would I mess with Olivia's stupid locker? I don't even know the code," she said, making Kiara's nostrils flare.

She took a step closer, and Alessia suddenly felt very claustrophobic. "If I find out that it was you, this will be the last time that you see this classroom—I'll have you killed,"

Alessia's eyes widened, "Even you can't go to those lengths, it's...it's too far, Kiara,"

"You say my name as if we are familiars," she spat, taking another step toward, "but make no mistake, if it was you, everyone in this school will hate you. And your life will become such a living hell that, one day, you'll just want it all to stop. I guess it would be a favour to us all if you were gone anyway." Kiara finished her death threat with a simple shrug as if it were merely nothing to dangle someone's life before their eyes like a simple joke.

I was disgusted. I couldn't believe Kiara was this way. A simple warning would have been suffice, but to threaten Alessia this way...it was no wonder that she was so keen to hurt me.

Alessia was aware that this wasn't the first death threat she had received, which shocked me, but it was the first one she had received physically. The others were on social media, where the kids hid behind the blue screen internet, using names that couldn't be recognised, or saying what they needed to say before deleting it all as if Alessia had only imagined the hate and abuse. They were sick in Alessia's view. And I agreed—but it doesn't disregard what she did to me.

Once it had begun, the RE lesson didn't go too smoothly and, with the teacher being closely acquainted with the Headteacher in the ranks, it was easy to get distracted by pestering him for information. All he told us was what we could have already guessed—it took place in St. Andrews corridor, a student's possessions were vandalised and personal items destroyed.

Whispers spread in the classroom about whether or not it could've taken in St. A3, which was our registration room since that was the only registration room in the corridor that belonged to a Year 11 class. It made sense too since there were lockers inside, which would explain the vandalism. They all thought the vandalism happened whilst opening the locker, and that expensive stuff was stolen.

The rumours carried out into the corridor, and as I made my way to Alessia's fourth lesson, they turned more imaginative. Word had got out to some pupils from other year groups, who seemed to believe that a teacher had gone rogue or someone had broken in.

Alessia was finally realising the magnitude of what she had done. She only meant to hurt Olivia; she didn't think about the consequences or the fact that the whole school would be talking about it. She watched as Year Nine pupils got scolded for telling Year Seven pupils what they knew, before slipping into her next lesson. Biology.

When she got in, she was surprised to see Dylan there.

"Hey, Alessia," he greeted her as she sat down next to him. She noted that he already had everything for their project out and was already working. I knew for a fact that Dylan had left me fifteen minutes before the end of lesson three, and so he probably just went straight to Biology. Alessia guessed that much, though grew annoyed when she realised her crime had only brought us closer together.

"You okay?" Alessia greeted him as casually as she could, taking her books out from her bag.

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Not really," he said, and Alessia stayed quiet, waiting for him to elaborate, "Olivia had a bad morning, and it's just hard to see," he said honestly, looking for Alessia's response.

She smiled, "We all have bad mornings sometimes," she said, shrugging, making me angry.

Dylan smiled, though shook his head gravely, "This is different," he said, yet said no more.

Alessia looked away awkwardly. "Is she okay now?" She asked him, watching him glance at her.

He sighed, "Not really, she might be taking tomorrow off, even though she really doesn't want to, and," he began, running his hand through his hair, "she doesn't know it yet, but I'm going to go 'round hers for the night with a Big Basket of Cheer Up."

Alessia laughed, though a bitter feeling crawled up her throat. They were going to spend the night together?

That's the thing, Alessia, Dylan and I are best friends, and nothing can stop that. I wish that I could scream that at her, but it's too late now.

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hihi :)

this updating schedule is poopy
feel like I haven't updated in time :(

also I'm vv tired and just finished eating pizza!! Yay!!

-theeeee end

FABULOUS SONGS

Songs that played when I was writing this chapter (in order):
Bird - Billie Marten
Salt Skin - Ellie Goulding
bellyache - Billie Eilish
Every Time You Go - Ellie Goulding
This World Of Ours - RAIGN
Find You - Ruelle
Seventeen - Troye Sivan
Talking to Ghosts - Foxes
Cosmic Love - Florence + The Machine
Only If For A Night - Florence + The Machine
Louder - Neon Jungle
Believe - The Bravery

END OF FABULOUS SONGS

Date written:
15/09/18

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Next update: Tuesday :)
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX SPOILER: (the halfway point of the book!!)

The game gets serious as Alessia finds the perfect thing to ruin Olivia's life.