Chapter Thirteen
Riley Matthews

    "Riley, it's time to get up, sweetie," My mom whispered into my ear.

    I groaned. It has been two months since my little incident in the bathroom with Missy. Ever since then, she has been bullying me with every chance she gets. Of course, she always bullies me when no one else is there to see her. Not only that, but somehow she got my cell phone number and is now sending me very mean texts. She has called me many bad things, such as worthless, weak, pathetic, ugly, and many other names that are too horrible for me to say. She also said that I deserved to get cancer and deserve to die at a young age. She also said that I don't deserve to be happy and that I deserve to be sad and miserable instead. She had also threatened me, saying that if I told anyone that she'd beat me up so badly that the doctors wouldn't know where to stitch my legs back onto.

    I just can't take it anymore. I know that if I start to wear dark clothes and start acting depressed again, Missy will stop bullying me and leave me alone, but Maya would start questioning me. I would either have to lie to her or just flat out ignore her for the rest of my life since I can't tell anyone that Missy is bullying me. Also, I can't continue to wear bright clothes and continue to act happy or else Missy will continue to bully me. Not being able to wear bright nor dark clothes and act happy nor depressed in school only left me with one option.

    "Mom, I don't feel good...," I lied, "I think that I have a fever."

    All of the sudden, Mom placed her hand on my forehead. "Huh, you don't feel warm at all. You feel cool as a cucumber."

    "Could you take my temperature?"

    "But, Riley, I felt your forehead. You're fine."

    I faked a cough. "But, I don't feel fine. Can you please just take it just to make sure?"

    "Alright, let me just go get my thermometer," Mom announced as she placed the cup of coffee that she had been holding down on my nightstand.

    With that being said, Mom left my room to go get the thermometer. I smirked. The one thing that my mother had forgotten was that the last time I was sick, she put it in the drawer of my nightstand. Nobody ever touched the thermometer since. Not only that, but she was stupid enough to leave a cup of coffee right next to me! Well, my mom's not really that stupid. In fact, she's really intelligent. She just hasn't quite woken up all the way yet.

    I opened the drawer on my nightstand and dug around until I had found the thermometer. I then turned it on and stuck it in my mom's cup of coffee for a few seconds. I quickly pulled it out and stuck it in my mouth. I decided not to leave the thermometer in the coffee for too long because if it said that I had a 140 degree fever, my mom would know that I stuck it in there.

    "Mom, I found the thermometer!" I called with the thermometer still in my mouth.

    "Really, where was it?" Mom asked.

    "In the drawer of my nightstand!"

    "Oh ok! I'm coming!"

    I heard loud footsteps coming towards me. Seconds later, my mom barged back into my room. The thermometer beeped. Mom took it out of my mouth and looked at its digital screen.

    "Oh my gosh, Riley, you really are sick!" She cried, "You have a 102 fever!"

    I faked another cough, making it sound more real this time. "Gee, I hope that the affects of my cancer aren't starting to kick in!"

    "Me neither! How about we give this a day and see how you feel? If your fever doesn't go down by tomorrow, we'll take you to the doctor's."

    "Sounds like a plan."

    "But for today, you'll have to stay inside, which means that you're not going to school."

    I groaned, pretending to be upset. "Uggghhh, I hate missing school! That means that when I go back, I'll have to make up work!"

    Mom frowned, then gently patted my shoulder. "I know, honey, I know. I'm so sorry that this had to happen to you, Riley."

    "I'll be ok, Mom."

    Mom bent over my bed and placed a kiss on my forehead. "If you need me or your father for something, just call us, ok?"

    "Ok, I will."

    With that being said, Mom slowly walked out of my room. As soon as she left, I threw my blanket over my head.

    "I need to do something about this," I thought to myself, "If I fake being sick for another day, my family will take me to the doctor's where they'll discover that I'm faking it."

    "Hey, Riley!" I heard Maya exclaim, waking me up.

    A few minutes after my mom had left my room, I had managed to fall asleep. I peeked my eyes out of my blanket to see that she was climbing in my room through my bay window.

    "Riles?" Maya questioned, confused, as I heard her walk over towards my bed.

    "Go away, Maya," I mumbled as I pulled my covers over my head even further.

    "Why? What's wrong? Is it something that I did?"

    "No, you did nothing wrong! Absolutely nothing at all!"

    "Then, why do you want me to go away?"

    "Because I'm sick with a 102 degree fever and I don't want you to catch anything."

    "Hey, if you're sick, then I'll be sick with you. At least I'll have a reason not to go to school."

    "Maya, I don't think that you want what I have; it's pretty bad."

    "Nonsense! I once had a 103 degree fever before! I can handle it!"

    All of the sudden, I felt Maya grab my blanket.

    "Maya, I wouldn't-" I began.

    I was cut off when Maya tore my blanket right off of my face. Maya stared back at me blankly.

    "You're not sick," she stated.

    "Huh?" I questioned.

    "You're not sick, Riley."

    "Yes, I am!"

    "No, you're not. Riley, you're my best friend; I know you."

    "Maya, I am telling you right now that I am sick and that you need to get away from me before you catch anything!"

    "No, you're not! Riley, I have seen you sick many times before and know that this is not what you look like when you are sick! Besides having cancer, you are perfectly fine."

    Maya sat down on my bed besides me. "Now, tell me what's bothering you. Why don't you want to go to school today?"

    Before I could say anything, my phone, which was sitting on top of my dresser, let out a loud, "Ding!"

    "Here, since you're so sick, I'll go get that for you," Maya announced as she hopped off of my bed and walked over towards my dresser.

    "No, Maya, don't!" I cried as I sat up in bed, knowing that it was probably Missy, bullying me again, "Just because I have a 102 fever, that doesn't mean that I'm immobile! Let me get it."

    But it was too late; Maya already had my phone in her hands and was staring at its screen. Her face fell. She put my password in, unlocking my phone. As you can see, since Maya and I both trust each other, we shared our phone passwords with each other. Her phone began to go up and down as if she was scrolling through something.

    "I can't believe this...," Maya began, shocked, as she looked up from my phone and into my eyes, "How could you not tell me about this?"

A/N: Uh-oh! Maya found out about the bullying! What do you think that she's going to do about it? What do you think that the text says?

Did anyone watch Girl Meets the Forgiveness Project last night? I watched it in the car on my phone on the Watch Disney Channel app since I was busy last night. I really enjoyed watching the episode, but I'm not going to give anything away. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

-C77