To say that Annabell got scolded would be the understatement of the century. She was now grounded (excluding extracurriculars- thank god) for the rest of her high school career. Which was, well, understandable but absurd. This also meant another thing. No party or gala or whatever other words for party people use instead of party.

It was an important part of the later plot, that Brooke had, of course, skipped over per usual. She should probably stop doing that. There was this whole situation between the FL and Jason's mother and blah blah blah. The important situation with tension and the FL and ML's love is tested and all that shit. Typical romance drama stuff.

The rest of Sunday night would've been spent in her room, preparing for Monday if it weren't for her phone having been called twenty times after she came back upstairs. All from the exact same number. Jason.

". . . The fuck? I was downstairs for like, five minutes." Annabell mumbled picking up her phone and calling him back. The first ring didn't even process before Jason picked up.

"Anna! Are you okay? I heard about what happened from Candice!"

Annabell's ears were instantly assaulted with Jason's worried yelling, practically making her half deaf for a couple of seconds.

"Ah. . . I'm okay. My clothes, however, had to be thrown away."

"You're really okay?"

"Yes. Really, I'm fine."

"Are you okay or fine? There's a difference."

Annabell sucked in a breath and rubbed her temple.

"Jason. I swear that I'm okay. She only left a scratch on me."

The other line went silent for a time and Annabell would've let out a breath of relief if it weren't for what came out of Jason's mouth next.

"She what?"

Jason's voice had reached a low pitch, sounding more like a growl rather than a question. Annabell went rigid and began to mentally freak out like anyone would do when it was exposed when they were lying.

"Nothing! See you tomorrow bye!" She hung up before Jason could reply and turned off her phone. Probably a terrible idea, but she'd deal with it at school tomorrow instead of tonight. As long as Jason wasn't too mad to have a calm conversation. Oh god.

The aforementioned Jason was currently seething from his seat on his bed. He called Annabell again but only got a voicemail. Then another after he called again. And maybe a couple more times. Okay, he called back fifteen times.

Before he actually broke his phone he needed to calm down. Of course, Annabell would try to deny she got hurt. She wasn't the type to pull other people into her problems, even if it was him. Which still made him kind of mad. They were dating, right?

Actually, they'd never officially went ahead and said they were dating. Jason made a mental note of that for later.

There was a high chance that Jason would've found out about the whole fight during school rather from Annabell herself if Candice hadn't been involved. Her earlier phone call was still fresh in his mind.

"Jason you won't believe what happened today!"

"You say that all the time. What's different today?"

"I was hanging out at FG with Anna and Maxine this afternoon and we were just talking and joking around and stuff."

"Uh-huh."

"And that new girl Charlotte or whatever comes over to our table with Sarah, you know. That liquor tycoon's daughter."

"Mhm. That all?"

"No! They sat down with us and the table was awkward and quiet between us but when we bring up your date with Anna, that blonde bitch goes batshit crazy and throws her entire drink on Anna!"

"What?!"

"Yeah! And Maxine starts yelling at her and Anna looks like she's about to burst into tears and I'm just trying to salvage her clothes and then! Then, Anna throws her drink on Charlotte and then we all just started fighting. Long story short, I'm grounded and we're banned from FG."

"THE HELL?!"

"I KNOW RIGHT?!"

That was only the important parts of their conversation he could recall before the rage settled in, but their phone call had lasted for a good two hours. Candice's retelling had been vivid and emotional just like her paintings often were.

Now that he thought about it, a quick call to Candice wouldn't be too bad.

He picked up his phone again and scrolled for Candice's number before picking it and waiting. It only took a couple of seconds for her to pick-up.

"Candice Han speaking, currently seething. What can I do for you?"

"Could you get me any information on that Charlotte girl?"

Candice gasped from the other side of the call. "Jason! What do you take me for? . . . I already have her file. I haven't lost my touch yet."

At that Jason smiled. Not the type he'd ever show Annabell, but one that seemed to fit perfectly with her own. One of a cold, calculating king.

--------

School the next day was interesting, to say the least. Annabell wasn't treated any differently than usual, other than with extreme worry, which didn't seem so out of place. What was out of place was her desk in Mr. Umbridge's class.

It was covered in rude messages in permanent black marker, crudely written. The common things one would expect. 'Whore', 'No one wants you here!', 'Bicth'. . .

Wait. Did they spell bitch wrong?

Annabell began trembling in front of her desk. Other people who came in began to whisper amongst themselves, having seen the desk's state as well.

"Poor Anna! She must be mortified!"

"Who would do such a thing?"

"Who else but Charlotte?"

"You mean the Witch?"

[ Host, the hate towards the FL has gone up to 99%! Your acting skills are so amazing! ]

Actually, Brooke wasn't acting at all. This was pure raw emotion. She was trying to hold back her laughter, eyes tearing up and body shaking with the force of her giggles. She just couldn't get it out of her mind after it'd gone in.

"Yes. She is a bitch. B-I-CT-H."

The more Annabell heard it resound in her head, the harder it got not to burst into a fit of laughter. Everyone else took it as her holding back tears, which was only half the story. It was getting really, really hard to not fall to the floor and start dying.

That was when Maxine finally walked in and saw the state of the desk. Her face went as red as her hair as she marched over to the desk and threw her jacket over it. "Why are you all just standing there?! Grab some Clorox wipes or something!"

An angry Maxine was something no one wanted to deal with, so everyone else in the room got to moving. Within no time Annabell's desk was clean and looking like nothing had ever happened to it. It gave her the time needed to recover.

"That coward! I oughta go and show her how a real fight goes again-"

"Max. It's fine."

"It is so not fine! She totally ruined your desk!"

Annabell didn't say anything but instead gave that smile that she loved and hated at the same smile. It was the 'everything is completely fine, I'm not dying inside' smile. Trying to go down like a martyr or something.

"It's really okay. They don't know how to spell anyway. Can't be offended if I can't read it."

The rest of the week had torment that would get progressively worse. Her desk and locker were defaced again on Monday, Tuesday her textbooks disappeared only to turn up in the trash, Wednesday water was dumped on her, and Thursday was by far the worst. It was honestly what Annabell had been waiting for. She had done nothing in retaliation towards Charlotte for her anger to bubble to this point. The thing that would lead to her downfall.

Ironically, Charlotte's actions had done nothing but strengthen Annabell's bond with Jason. They were connected by the hip almost this entire week, even going as far as to cause an event Monday afternoon. Jason and she had officially started dating. According to the entire school after he screamed it out to the entire student body and kissed her. It still caused her to blush bright red when remembering it.

He had belted out during lunch period, thinking about it their lunch periods were totally different, with his arm around her waist.

"Listen up! Anna is my girlfriend and if anyone messes with her, they mess with me."

Then she'd been pulled into a kiss that left her breathless and at a loss for what happened afterward. She had seen Charlotte's enraged face after it though. That was pure gold. And probably led to Charlotte's desperate act.

At the end of the day, she walked into the familiar Room 5 with Jason to her left, the two of them chatting with his arm around her when they both fell completely silent when the interior came properly into view. The table and chairs were overturned, the walls were filthy with a marker and some other substance. Neither of them wanted to mention the carpet of the floor. It was at this moment that Annabell finally 'broke down'.

"Wha. . . Oh my god. . ." Annabell started to tremble and actually stumbled a bit, almost falling to the ground had it not been for Jason's firm hold on her. She buried her head into his shoulder and began to cry. She had dealt with many things this well.

"She destroyed it, she destroyed it. Why. . ."

Jason could only gently soothe her despite the rage burning through every vein of his body. His blue eyes had gone cloudy and dark, an expression only a few lived to have burned into their minds. It was ironic considering Anna was smiling through her tears.

"It's alright, Anna. She'll pay for this. She'll pay. . ."

--------

Friday was tense. As Room 5 was school property, the incident had to be reported to the staff. Along with everything else that had happened. Every student was just waiting for the last spark to set off the explosion.

And it came.

Not in the form one would expect either. It wasn't a final cruel act to push Anna over the edge, nor the perfect revenge against Charlotte who had practically become a social outcast excluding the ever-loyal Sarah. It was actually a slip of paper.

As mentioned before, the tension was high and no one was as high wound as Charlotte. No matter what she did, Annabell did nothing to retaliate against her or expose her. She had acted as if what happened was nothing to her knowledge, nor did it concern her. It was driving Charlotte mad.

"No one can last that long, can they?! Why hasn't she done anything?!"

"C-Char. . . Please quiet down. You should really stop doing this."

Charlotte couldn't help but glare at Sarah who instantly shrank back. "That's rich coming from the girl who helped me do all this. You didn't say anything then, why are you now?"

Sarah went silent at that, clenching her fists. She honestly felt terrible about the whole situation, but what was she supposed to do? Charlotte was her only friend, and friends help each other.

'What has she done to help you?'

Sarah wanted to fight back against the voice in her head, but it continued as she seemed to tune Charlotte out.

'All you've been is a pawn for a faux queen. Why continue?'

But. . .

'But what? Who has the money?'

Me, but. . .

'Who could step on her entire existence without remorse or repercussions?'

. . . . . .

Before Sarah could delve deeper, the sound of a locker opening caught her attention. She almost forgot she was walking with Charlotte to her locker.

Charlotte was rummaging through her stuff before coming upon a piece of folded paper. It was baby pink in color and smelled like overpowering perfume, the kind you'd test out at a store and instantly put back because of how strong the scent was. It made Charlotte a bit teary. She never used this type of perfume nor did anyone she knew.

Curiosity eventually got the better of her when she unfolded the paper to read its contents. It was a single word in cute cursive writing, but it sparked a flame of rage deep within her.

'Bicth'.

Only that simple misspelled word had set everything into motion like what Brooke expected. First, Charlotte had approached her trying to get to her confess to leaving it in a rage unlike Annabell's reactions to what she'd done. A slip of paper that wasn't even in her handwriting. Of course, it causes enough outrage for them both to be sent to the office to finally settle this. Also according to plan was Jason and Candice being in the Principal's office reporting something.

That something would be all of Charlotte's harassment and destruction of school with proof in the form of pictures, security camera footage and more. Charlotte was called into the office on the spot, leaving Annabell sitting in the office with Sarah.

Had she mentioned that Sarah was here too? Well, she'd get that 1% regardless of what she remembered to put in.

"Sarah?" Annabell's whispered voice shook Sarah out of her stupor. She had some of Charlotte's stuff in her lap, practically surrounded by her possessions but seemingly none of her own. It was quite sad.

"Y-yes?"

"I just wanted to say. . . While I don't know what I did to offend you or Charlotte, I'd like to apologize."

"Oh, you don't need to-"

"Yes, yes I do. I must have done something terrible to you for you have to do so many things to me, so. . ."

Annabell pulled out her own bag and dug through it for a short while before pulling out a bag of cookies. They were simple and small, the bag scarcely decorated except for a tag that said 'Happy Birthday!' In big happy letters.

"Today's your birthday, right? I hope you can accept these as a birthday gift and apology gift."

Sarah sat in silence as she held the bag of cookies in both her palms. She had absolutely no idea that it was her birthday. Everything had just been Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte. Never Sarah. Before she knew it, big fat tears were running down her face.

"Oh, are you alright? Do you not like cookies? Oh no. . ."

[ Congrats, Host! The FL's hate has reached 100% and you've gained another eternal ally! All tasks have been completed! ヽ(;^o^ヽ) ]

"Thanks, Jules. Kind of busy calming down this girl though. . ."

[ Upgrade me enough and I'll have the option to be muted~ o(≧∇≦o) ]

. . . Brooke should've learned by now that Jules has no EQ. Why would she ever want to mute him?

Things continued to fall into place after that. Charlotte was expelled from the school and Annabell got a restraining order on her due to multiple attempts to continue harassing her. Charlotte just continued to spiral and ruin herself.

Somehow, the Cinderella turned Witch had her side of the story finished quieter than expected. It left Annabell with a sense of foreboding. Not that she could act on it. No one even knew where Charlotte had gone after the restraining order.

Not until almost ten years later.