The dresses above.

******************

After what happened on Thursday, and by that I mean the 'cat fight', Jennifer wasn't ready to pull off another drama. I called Zayn that evening after taking his number from Bella.
'Hello?' came his voice. He obviously didn't have my number so he didn't know it was me. 'Hello?' he repeated now in a loser voice. I didn't know how to start so I just sheepishly stayed silent.
'Okay then, I'm hanging up whoever you are,' he said again.
'No! Wait. Zayn? Its me Cheryl,' I immediately said.
'Oh, hey redhead,' he said and I could imagine him smirking.
'For the last time Zayn, don't call me that.'
'Nah, I'm good with redhead. Why did you call? Missing me?'
'Hahaha,' I mock laughed, 'as if. No Zayn, I'm not missing you.'
'Oh that's sad.'
I smiled and continued, 'I wanted to ask you something, kind of a permission.'
'Permission? From me? Is everything alright, the mighty redhead needs permission from me?'
'Shut up Zayn.'
'Okay okay, go on. What is it?'
'Would you mind if I bring Jennifer, umm to your party, like on Saturday?' I hesitated.
'You mean that girl who winked at me, blamed you for slipping on a banana peel, and was the one part of that cat fight?' he asked sarcastically.
'My cousin. Yes, i mean, that girl.'
'She's your cousin???' surprise was evident in his voice.
'Yes. Now tell me if I can bring her. If I can't, that's great, I won't try to convince you into it. She might be a lot of trouble in your party,' i said hurriedly already wanting him to say no.
'Seeing she's your cousin, and you're asking for it, even though I don't like her a bit, I'll let you bring her.'
'No Zayn, you don't have to. It's okay if I can't bring her. Honestly speaking I don't even want to.'
'I say you both aren't great friends.'
'Ummhmmm. She hates me, and trust me, the feeling's mutual.'
'Oh. Bitter. Anyways, why are you asking to bring her then?'
'Actually.......' I hesitated, 'My mom wants us to be friends again and that is why she told me to take her with me. And when I refused saying you don't like her, she said I should call and ask you.'
'Your mother? Oh no, then I'm afraid I'll have to say that you have to bring her to my party redhead.'
'What??! Why?!'
'Because your mom said so.'
'But Zayn! You hate her.'
'Yeah, but I don't want to disobey your mom, bad girl. And anyways, what harm can she do?'
'She can burn up your whole freaking house!' I said furious.
'Woah, woah, no she can't. Redhead, calm down, don't let the red in you hair get into your head,' he laughed at his own bad joke.
'Bad pun,' I stated matter-of-factly.
'Okay okay, but you're bringing her. And I'm hanging up.'
'No, don't hang up, you don't want her to come to your party Zayn. I'm telling you.'
'Of course I do. She's your cousin. How bad can she be?' and with that he hung up.
I started yelling. I started screaming crazy things.
'Stupid Jerk! Filthy little cockroach! Donkey! Monkey! You crazy old witch! No wait, Wizard! Aaaaaaaaaaaaa I hate you Zayn! I know what to do. I'm not going to that party.'
Right when I was pulling at my hair, my mom entered my room. She was staring at me with wide eyes and mouth ajar. When she saw me she calmed down, 'Thank God! You didn't break anything,' she said.
'Mom, I never break things in anger,' i answered.
'Oh yes. Let me guess, Zayn said you could bring her?'
'Yes!' I exclaimed.
'Oh sweetie, it will be okay. Just try to be on good terms with her.'
'Mom, I'm not going to that party.'
'Yes you are. Don't let Jennifer stop your life. Wasn't my daughter a fighter? The girl who stands up to everyone, who fights the wrong, who is never afraid, who faces the situation, and who sets everything right?' she said coming to side hug me on the floor where I was sitting.
I smiled at her, tired, 'Mom, you make me feel like a super hero right now.'
'So you are my Black Widow,' she laughed.
'That sounded so wrong.' i said and laughed. We had a good time together. Soon, Harmony and Zabella joined and my dad also came from the office. We all watched a movie together, ironic, we watched Avengers.

*******************
Next day wasn't much. Friday.
The classes were okay. Our English essays got marked. As expected, not boasting though, Samantha and I got an 28 out of 30 with Dawn at a 25. We are all nerds.
Also our Physics test got marked too. I got a 95 out of 100. I could get full, but, the same person is to blame, Zayn!
He got a 60. He said I was being ungrateful and I denied him on face. Okay, maybe I was being ungrateful.
We were to go to the party in our usual transport. The bus that stayed with Delancy. Being the best driver from all of us, our purple and orange bus stayed with Delancy.
We bought the bus from our combined money, and it was used for such events.
Delancy used it for herself too though.
Back at home mom forced me to go to Jennifer and ask her to come to the party with me.
I went and rung the bell of their house.
Aunt Diana opened up, 'Hello Cheryl dear!' she said extra cheerfully.
'Hey aunt Diana.'
'You want to come in?'
'Yeah sure. I wanted to talk to Jennifer.'
'Oh okay. Come in,' she said directing me inside her house.
'Jenny! Jenny honey! Come downstairs, you have a visitor!'
Soon Jennifer came running from up the stairs and raised an eyebrow when she saw me after coming downstairs.
'What brings you here?' she asked pretending to be bored but I know she was interested.
'Hey Jennifer,' I said trying to be nice as Aunt Diana was in the room too.
'Oh right. Hello Cheryl. Now get over with this and tell me why you're here.'
'I wanted to invite you to Zayn's party,' I said wrapping it up.
'Oh wow, a party!' said Aunt Diana suddenly.
'Zayn? Who is that?' asked Jennifer.
'How can I tell you that? Oh yeah, the boy you winked at when you entered the school,' I smiled sweetly. Team Cheryl, Point. She blushed a bit and then quickly normalised and looked quite interested. She likes Zayn, doesn't she? So what, Zayn doesn't like her. Why do I care anyways?
'Oh sure, I'll come. But how will I go?'
'You'll go with me of course. In our bus.'
'What? I don't want to be seen in that big thing you call a bus. I have standards.'
'Does that mean you won't come? Okay, then, ' I turned to leave, 'Bye Felicia.'
'No I'll come. I think I can manage sitting in that bus. And don't use that lame felicia meme on me.'
I pulled a face and turned back, 'Okay then. Tomorrow at 8. Bye.'
How i wish I could slap her to tell her that we were actually managing to take her inside it. I told all my friends that Jennifer was coming with us to which they all pulled faces too but they agreed saying that if I didn't have a problem, they were okay with it too.
I told Delancy to pick Bella, me and Ashley from my place.

******************
'Bella, we have two hours to get ready and you're still not here,' I said to Bella on the call.
'I'm almost there. Almost there. Here I come.'
And just 15 seconds after that I heard the door bell ring. I opened the door and in cane Bella. 'Ashley already here?'
'Yeah, what made you so late? The Bella I know is never late.'
'My mom screaming at me for my grades. I had to sneak out.'
'What?!' I exclaimed, 'Bella! You should have told me. You didn't need to come.'
'But honey I wanted to.' I rolled my eyes, 'and I don't want another mom over here.' she said pointing towards me.
I smiled at her trying to lighten the situation, 'Bella, can I ask why your mom was screaming at you?'
'Because I got a 60% on my Physics test,' she said sadly.
'Oh Bella that's okay. I know you tried your best.'
'I did. At least didn't fail. But mom wouldn't get it. She just wants a 100% in all my tests. I can't do that.'
I hugged her and said, 'Come on, we've got a party to poop,' I laughed.
'Ew gross Cheryl! Pop for God's sake! Not poop. You're disgusting.' I laughed some more and we made our way to my room.
Ashley was waiting there and as soon as we reached the room she said, 'Look at my dress!'
'Ashley, stop showing off,' I said and chuckled at her sad face, 'we love your dress and you'll look gorgeous.'
Her face brightened up, Ashley is a sweet little show off but she does it in a way that nobody gets jealous, not like Aunt Diana, criticising everyone else's things. Ashley is childish just like Bella, and both of them have disagreements with their parents, in Ashley's case just her mom. Bella wasn't an A* student and she didn't have to be perfect at everything, it's clear that she liked singing and was amazing at it but her parents didn't seem to accept that and wanted her to be a high academic acheiver, she tried her best and it was okay for them to worry about her grades, but it got a bit too much sometimes. They kept giving her examples of how great her elder brother and sister were in studies and she isn't good enough. That gets Bella to be complexive about herself sometimes but then comes our role.
Ashley's dress was a light pink knee length dress which she pulled off with her white tights and black pumps. Yes, she was going to look really pretty.
We quickly got into our outfits, and looked satisfied at ourselves in the mirror. I did a nice pony tail, Bella and Ashley had their hair open and free. We did a very light makeup and were ready to go. I waved good bye to my mom after she took our picture.
'Mom! It's not prom, it's just a party.'
'You all still look pretty, you monkey,' she said making Bella and Ashley laugh.
'Yeah right. Pretty like a monkey.'
The bus arrived soon and it was loaded with everyone except of Grace and Anna. Their stop was after mine. All of my friends looked lovely and they were going to get attention, I knew that. The bus started moving when I suddenly remembered something.
'Guys! Delancy, stop the bus please, I forgot Jennifer.'
'Ugggghhhh, i thought she wasn't coming,' said Delancy frustrated.
'Calm down, I never said that.'
I dismounted the bus and went to ring Jennifer's door bell. When nobody opened after two rings, I was ready to run but suddenly Jennifer opened the door and said.
'Where is that trash of a transport?'
'Shut up, Jennifer. It's not trash.'
She couldn't say much after that as I turned to walk and she followed me.
I got into the bus and took my seat at the second row, but when Jennifer was climbing the bus, Delancy gave it a move making Jennifer scream, she didn't fall though.
Delancy winked at me from the rear view mirror and I mischievously smiled at her. Is that what we call a smirk? Maybe.
Jennifer got in and Delancy started the music, we sang along to Ed Sheeran's 'Gallway Girl' and sounded pretty deafening but we didn't care. Jennifer put her hands on her ears to block the voice, but oops we were to loud and she also yelled, 'You all sound like pigs oinking.'
We still didn't care and kept singing.
Soon Anna and Grace were also in the bus and we were enjoying our small journey to the fullest. Grace was pulling off her hoodie with jeans, she always liked to be hoodied and kept it simple yet looked so pretty still. Alice was wearing an black upper over her dress, I felt like something was fishy but I didn't want to ask her because she looked happy.

On the top are the dresses and outfits of the girls. If you think this is a bit too much, I'll let you know, I love doing this! And I'm sorry I just had to. Plus, isn't it interesting to look at?

We reached the party place in half an hour. I guessed Zayn's house wasn't very close to mine.
Anyways, the party was a typical one until we arrived, there was a heavy crowd of teenagers all over the place and music was blasting like it was last day on Earth.
We went inside and grabbed a lot of attention, Jennifer got lost somewhere, she was always the adapting one, blending into every where was so her thing.
Zayn appeared out of nowhere and said a huge hello to all of us. He took Bella's hand and went on the stage in his great hall. May I add, his house was a mansion.I frowned at him, he winked again, jerk. And then I remembered Bella was supposed to sing in the party. He took the mic from the table and started, 'Ladies and Gentlemen!' the music stopped and the crowd groaned. 'Peace, peace. We have just welcomed the gorgeous famous group of girls there,' everyone stared at us and cheered. Look, we had reputation, and popularity. Not boasting just saying. Zayn spoke again, 'Here is one of them, Bella!' everyone cheered again, 'And she is going to sing in this party. We're having a concert! The party has just begun!' he handed over the mic to Bella and she started singing after ten minutes. She sang 'Call me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen first. She was a fan of this artist.
We stepped onto the dance floor and started dancing to the song. It's one of my favourites. I caught sight of Bella dancing with a random guy and her minions. Guess she was having a good time so I moved onto the other side. All of the girls were now around the dance floor and a lot of them were nowhere in sight. I was dancing with Ashley, doing the boogie dance suddenly and laughing like idiots when Zayn approached us. Ashley winked at me, stupid her, and left. 'Boogie dance? Seriously? What are you, five?'
I laughed and said, 'I love it, ' referring to the song Bella was now singing.
He came towards me, leaned close, his breathe fanning my face, and sending a chill down my spine and butterflies fluttering in my stomach and whispered in my ear, 'You look gorgeous by the way, ' he went back and winked. Again? Yes again!
I'm going to admit, I blushed hard, but I covered it up by........guess what?

Slapping him on his face.

'Don't try to flirt with me!' I laughed as he rubbed his cheek.
'Ouch. It hurt here, ' he pointed towards his cheek, 'and here,' he pointed towards his heart. I laughed louder and he joined in.
We danced for sometime when Ryder arrived and they both fist bumped. He waved at me and I waved back. I looked at them both awkwardly not knowing what to do as they were talking. But then came my life saver, Aaron and I fist bumped him.
We all started laughing and Zayn did the boogie dance too!
'Why call Bella to sing when you could have music? Don't judge me, I'm just asking,' asked Aaron.
'Because, if I do the same,' said Zayn, 'my parties won't be as amazing and worth dying for,' said Zayn.
'And don't you like Bella's voice? I think she sings beautifully,' Ryder said dreamily.
'Uhmm uhmm,' I coughed and Ryder came out of his daydream, 'And Zayn, you're parties are really good but they are not worth dying for please. No one is dying.'
Right then, we heard someone dancing at our back, probably drinking from a spiked drink, because he so looked drunk.
'I'm going to die!!!' he sang sleepily and we laughed, except of Zayn who said, 'What the hell. Who spiked my party punch? There's no alcohol in here!'
We laughed some more until I saw that boy falling over Jennifer, i rushed over there to find Jennifer drunk herself, 'Zayn, change your drinks.'
'Okay,' he said and rushed to do it.
'Leave me you redhead! Why do you care? I hate you.'
'Jennifer trust me. I hate you too but right now we need to get you into some safe place.'
She grabbed a flower vase from the nearby table and was about to crash it right onto my head when Zayn held it back.
'I'll take that,' he said coolly, 'nobody touches my mom's furniture.'
'Jennifer!' I shrieked.
I got her in a guest room and laid her there.
'Told you she is trouble,' I told Zayn.
He just laughed, and we returned back to the dance floor.
It was a lot of fun. Ryder, Zayn and Aaron were a awesome trio there. Just like Bella, me and Ashley. But then again, I never wanted us to be a group, and nor will we ever be, because I have one group and it's gigantic and pretty famous so you all know it.
I went towards the snack table and took a bite out of the cracker with Zayn staring at me. I blushed struggling not to mess up my clothes with the crisp of the cracker.
'What?!' I said.
'Nothing.' he replied and looked down. He's also mysterious like Minerva.
Speaking of Minerva, she was also invited as she was sitting with us but she didn't want to come so we didn't force or insisted.
Then I got a call from Dawn, 'Hey Dawny Mawny! What's up?' I said picking it up.
'Cheryl,' she said, her voice sounding worried.
'Dawn? What happened?'
'Cheryl, Alice is in the bathroom. She's vomiting. I don't know what to do. Samantha isn't picking up.'
'What? Dawn, calm down okay?' i said consoling her, 'I'll be there in a sec and we'll figure something out okay? Just be there with Alice and try cleaning her up, yeah?'
Zayn stared at me concerned at my worried look.
'But Cheryl, I can't do that. She is crying her eyes out, she is in the stall and she isn't opening up.'
'Wait there Dawn. I'll be there.' I said hanging up.
Was her dad being abusive again? I was so worried.
'Zayn. Where is your bathroom?'
'They're four in my house Cheryl, which one?'
'Ughhhh. Where is the nearest one?'
'Come with me.'
He took me to the nearest bathroom but i didn't find Dawn there so he directed me towards the second one.
I saw Dawn there and went towards her, 'Dawn? Where is Alice?' I asked.
'She is in there,' Dawn said worriedly.
I heard Alice crying again, and I started banging on the door.
'Alice open up please! Alice please! We'll figure something out!'
'Cheryl?' came her small voice, 'I want to die.'
'Alice! No!' I said alarmed at her sudden use of words. No, she can't die. From this group Alice, Delancy and Kacie could be expected to do any thing.
'Cheryl, please can I?'
'No you can't!' I said sobbing.
Dawn was calling Bella and Zayn came over to me and kept his hands on my shoulders from the back and gave them a little shake.
'Cheryl, let me break the door,' he slowly said in a low voice.
I looked back at him, and hugged him crying into his shoulder, he patted my back comfortingly and I quickly moved away for him to break the lock.
He did it in five seconds and I pushed myself in to find Alice going to cut her wrist with a small knife.
'Alice! No! Where did you get that?'
I snatched it away from her, and she fought for its grasp but she was too weak right now and I threw the knife away.
I made her wash her face and clean her clothes as much as I could.
She hugged me and cried. I pulled her out of the bathroom and sat down hugging her back. Zayn just watched us from behind me, and Dawn sat with us patting Alice's back.
'It's okay. It's okay, you're okay,' I whispered to her in my most consoling voice ever.
'But i don't want to be okay! I want to die!' she screamed.
She was clearly broken and I already knew her father had been abusive again. He always brought his anger out on Alice and she had to be abused like this. Since her parents got divorced and her mother moved away, she has been his victim. And when we try to complain to the police about this, we know we didn't have any evidence. And she didn't want to.
But we had never seen Alice in such a bad condition before.
We were catching a few eyes towards us so Zayn told me to help Alice up and carry her to another guest room. I swear his house was huge. I did as I was told because I was too dumbfounded to do anything on my own.
We laid her on the bed where all other girls arrived and we sat around Alice who had just passed out and was sleeping soundly. Zayn was also standing there not knowing what to do. We just sat their quietly, no one daring to speak a word to prevent Alice from waking up. She looked peaceful and pain free in her sleep, unconscious and away from the atrocities of reality.
Suddenly, Aaron entered the room with Ryder following behind hurriedly. Aaron had a crush on Alice from Grade 6 when we weren't even friends but we all still knew because of the clear hints he gave.
That crush developed into a deep liking for Alice but he only had a few hints about what Alice was going through. We were also positive about Alice liking him back.
'Cheryl, you have to tell me now,' he whispered shouted at me. I took him to a corner.
'Aaron, Alice doesn't want to and I can't do it.' Alice demanded privacy and I respected that.
'Cheryl, it's important!' his voice raised and eveyone shushed him. But Alice woke up anyways, she woke up and became a sobbing mess again.
Grace went over to her and hugged her and we all proceeded to do it. That turned into a huge group hug and Alice smiled a little. We all smiled back and Aaron went over to her.
'Alice what happened?' she looked at him scared.
'Aaron! Don't force her into it!' I told Aaron.
'It's okay Cheryl, tell him. I think he should know,' Alice said.
Ryder suddenly spoke, 'Then why us left out?' signalling towards Zayn and him.
Alice started crying again, I hugged her again, 'Cheryl, everyone will get to know that I'm ugly with scars!' she said.
'No Alice, you know that nobody over here thinks like that. You're beautiful and we all know that. It's the reason why Aaron has a crush on you since Grade 6,' I smiled knowing I had done my trick.
Aaron and Alice both blushed a crimson.
'Cheryl, are you sure we can trust them?' Alice whispered in my ear. I knew she was talking about the boys.
'Alice it's okay if you don't want to tell them. They can only help when you want them to. No one will pity you if you tell them, and they are trustworthy. But if you still don't want to tell them, it's okay.'
She nodded and said, 'I need time.'
I smiled at her and told her she has all the time she needs.
Zayn said we all could stay at his house for the night as his parents were out for a trip and he won't mind it. We decided that Dawn, Aaron and I would stay and all the others would go back to their houses. Most of the people had returned to their homes by now. I told Delancy to wake up Jennifer and take her home. Thankfully she was back to her senses and wasn't going to smash someone's head. Stacie went back with Ryder.
I called my mom and told her all about what happened and she said it was okay if I stayed with Alice. I didn't know why my mom trusted Zayn so much but that a matter for another day. We had Aaron right here so I didn't worry and Zayn has also made himself trustworthy by now.

*************

What do you think? Please let me know your thoughts about this chapter as I'm nervous about it. I've never written anything like this and it deals with a sensitive topic of abuse and suicide which just adds to my nervousness.
How do you like the dresses. Which do you think is the best? I like Grace's and Samantha's.
Yes, I also love hoodies. And panda ones are adorable.
This is a super long chapter I know because it consisted of the whole party and some events before that.
You have now read Alice's story too, what do you think about it?
Vote. Comment. Share.
Love love
-Happy Miracle 😉