Shout-out to these three for following my updates bumper to bumper: Urgrl_Ari Kemi-Harper victorampeire MUCH LOVE <3.

{ F O U R T E E N } : D I D  Y O U  J U S T  S A Y  G L I T T E R?

Chloe Black moaned as she twisted from left to right under her blanket.

"Coming!" Shrieked, a disoriented Bonnie as she ran out of the bathroom with a hot water bag.

Yanking the covers away, she placed the item on Chloe's exposed belly.

"Bonnie, it hurts." Chloe managed through gritted teeth, taking a handful of her white bed sheet and squeezing on them till her knuckles turned white.

Chloe was having those bad first day menstrual cramps again. Bonnie didn't want to leave her sister's side but she had too. Wednesday morning assembly was compulsory for all students who were Hale and Hearty.

In what was her most Marilyn Monroe act yet, a single tear slid out of her eyes as she said, "Bonnie please don't leave."

Bonnie's expression had never been more grave. She looked strained and exhausted and she hated seeing Chloe like this– reduced to nothing– because of some goddamned matured reproductive system.

Good thing was, Chloe's cramps never lasted long, they were extreme in the mornings and always stopped exactly before noon and then it would be like it never happened.

Bonnie bent low and kissed her perspiring forehead. "I'll be back before you know it. Anything in particular you want from the Brown House?"

"Yogurt is fine."

"Just, get some sleep, I'll be back before you know it." Bonnie cooed and tucked her back in.

The moment the door clicked shut, Chloe shoved the duvet aside. Exhaling heavily as she dropped the act. She couldn't believed she just fooled her sister.

At least it worked and Bonnie had helped her call in sick.

Chloe Black for best upcoming actress of the year Oscar's.

She didn't have much time so she quickly donned on her school uniform skirt to cover her once exposed thighs and drew her oversized Bubble Academy branded purple hoodie over her sports bra, lastly she hurriedly wore her sneakers and bounded warily out of her dormitory.

The school environment was dead quiet safe for the singing birds soaring around the compound and perching on the trees as they pleased and the sound of crickets.

Chloe made it pass the Brown House and fought the urge to go in and grab a can of Trix yogurt. The key to the shed lay still in her hoodie pocket.

Staring out at the rather unkempt expanse of what was supposed to be a grassy field but now contained weeds, uneven shrubs, overgrown grass, dead branches and scattered decaying leaves from the overhead trees. The trees could use some pruning and thinning as well. Chloe cringed inwardly as her feet left the interlocked flooring and pressed into mushy earth.

The Earth beneath the grasses was moist. Her shoes were all she could think about. She'd have to pay someone to have it cleaned back to brand new.

Chloe treaded carefully as she made her way to the creaky wooden storage building just a few steps away. The grasses here attempted to bury her feet. It was creepy being here alone. The big overhead trees made the surrounding behind and around the shed dark and ominous.

Unfazed, Chloe stuck her hand in the hoodie's pocket and felt for the silver key Allen had given her last weekend. Prying the key into the keyhole, it refused to click.

Her irritation grew on seeing the growing moss and mushrooms on the decaying wooden door.

"You'll have to pull it up before unlocking it." Came a very unfamiliar matured yet feminine voice from behind Chloe.

Jerking around, Chloe's tension eased.

It was a girl whose extravagant brunette hair mass was trapped in a messy ponytail that dangled behind her as she shifted her weight to one leg. Her palm was caressing the wooden handle of a long rake and she was wearing a dark blue overall– the Janitors uniform? Chloe puzzled– yet she looked around Chloe's age. Her wide green eyes glowing.

Despite the many questions bubbling in Chloe's mind, she couldn't ignore the fact that this girl was actually beautiful. With her looks, her voice was a far cry from Bubble Academy's cliche like those Livia Solace's monotonous remote controlled minions.

Chloe tried what the girl had suggested but the door still didn't budge.

She smiled warmly, "It's tricky, allow me."

She stepped closer and Chloe realized the girl was two inches shorter than she.

"Do they still give students working detention?" Chloe asked, crossing her arms under her breast.

The girl chuckled.

She pulled the door up and then twisted the key in the lock and it clicked immediately, "My Dad's the school's gardener and workshop guy and I help him most times."

Was she also a student? Chloe assumed she had to be.

"Why aren't you at assembly with the others?" Chloe asked the girl standing between her and the now open shed.

"Yunno normally, people just say thank you." She turned now, the long rake cradled under her arm, "Plus, I could ask you the same question, Chloe Black."

Chloe shrugged, she had to play nice.

"Even worse, you're at the shed."

"Rightly so, how else do you think I have the key?"

"I could think of a thousand ways."

Chloe let out a weary sigh and conceded, "I came to have a good look at the Vending machine, yunno the one that 'exploded'."

"Oh!" The girl blinked, "You're Aubrey Simon's best friend."

"And I don't trust nor feel safe with you here and in my business."

"The feeling is highly mutual." She retorted, stepping away from the shed.

"Nerd, what's your name?" Chloe asked as the girl began to turn away.

Nerd was Chloe's way of calling people uncool, weird and even creepy. The garden girl got the memo instanto.

"Doesn't matter." She sighed, "I'm not your regular student, I also work for the school so my fees can be cancelled out. This is me just going about my morning duty."

For the first time, Chloe felt guilt creep into her.

"For what it's worth, I believe you. Plus I could use a hand checking out the Vending machine besides you seem to be more conversant with the area than am I."

"Did the Chloe Black, I mean, Aubrey Simon the second just ask me for my HELP?" She gasped dramatically.

"Don't make me change my mind."

Gripping the rake with her left hand, she extended her right one, "Call me Alicia."

Chloe looked from her face to her extended palm. It was probably sweaty.

Chloe's brows furrowed at the thought, "I'm not about to shake your miss garden duty hand, Alicia."

"At least, you said my name." Alicia laughed as the pair strode into the dusty and dark shed.

It was more arranged than Chloe had expected. She'd half expected to be moving stuff out the way to find her footing but the shed looked cleaned out. Although the wooden floor was dusty as hell and creaked like it would break in half as they stepped on it.

The morning sun only illuminated half the shed but suddenly a light came on. Alicia had found the switch to the dim orange bulb fixed on the ceiling that had spider webs coiled about it.

The vending machine that had almost taken her best friend's life stood against the left wall.

"Moment of truth." Chloe mumbled to herself, Alicia already crouching in front of her.

The show glass was broken, pieces of broken glass lined the purple frame. The black plastic shelf of snacks was bare. The vending machine had been cleaned out before being moved here.

Chloe's shoulders sagged.

She wasn't sure what she hoped to find but whatever she hoped didn't matter anymore because it had all been cleaned away.

That's when she noticed a speck of dried white substance in the pick-up box. And it definitely wasn't a Dunkaroos cookie frosting.

Alicia broke the lingering silence, examining the vending machine closely with her little torch light, "When you're on the sidelines, you can observe everything. But I don't know how Aubrey did it in the spotlight."

"Hmm." Chloe answered offhandedly, "Alicia, bring your torch closer. What do you see?" She pointed at the white substance.

Alicia moved in to get a closer look and scraped at the substance. Chloe winced as she touched her finger to her tongue.

"Dried yogurt?"

"Bingo!" Chloe exclaimed.

"Forgive me but I don't–"

"Don't you see? Aubrey's my best friend and in all our years at this school, she'd never had yogurt."

"I'm still failing to see it."

"Alicia, this proves somebody was in here with her that night. The vending machine didn't just explode and put the golden girl in a coma. Someone is behind this." Chloe gushed.

"Oh, Chloe, I don't know– if you're looking for proof that someone attacked Aubrey then..." She trailed and stood to her full height, "I helped my dad move the vending machine in here and I took the liberty of looking at it myself and I found something I thought was unusual."

Alicia paused and beckoned to an agitated Chloe, "Come take a look."

Handing Chloe the torchlight, she pulled out two identical black wires that seemed to have been snapped apart from behind the vending machine.

"There's glitter on the wires where it seemed to have been broken apart. I'd like to think it was a single big wire snapped into halves."

"Did you just say glitter?" Chloe asked, hoping she'd heard wrong.

"Here have a look." Alicia exchanged the wires for the torchlight.

She took the wires with shaky hands.

Chloe staggered backwards like she'd just received a knockout blow from a professional MMA fighter.

Chloe gulped.

Alicia was right.

There was glitter on the broken wires.

Could it be?

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A/N: cliffhanger...
could it be?????????????
yikes. please vote and encourage a tiny writer. see you in the next chapter. xx.