When Dream entered the cabin, closing the door behind her, she was greeted by many shocked stares.

"Um, why are they staring at us like this?" Francesca asked.

Dream sighed. "There's no way to put it bluntly. They hate you."

Francesca nodded. "That's fair."

Finally, Chloe broke the awkward silence, running out of her room to see Dream and Francesca, with the rest of the gang glaring at them. "Awkward," she sang.

Savannah, who was sitting on the couch, turned to look at Chloe, then turned to glare at Dream and Francesca. "Look Dream, I know you want this tension to stop, but you're just making it worse. Us being friends with Francesca is never going to happen."

"Hear me out," Francesca said.

"What?" Axel said. "Are we supposed to listen to you talk about how great and amazing you are, and what pathetic losers we are? On our vacation? Um, no thanks."

"I promise I'm not talking about any of that," Francesca said. "But you have to promise not to tell Fatima any of this."
"Why?" Savannah said. "Because Fatima is such a sweet, kind, amazing, soul, and you're a nasty, spoiled, brat, and you're jealous of her?"

"Stop," Dream pleaded. "It's not at all what you think."

"Yes," Francesca said, sighing. "I'm a horrible, nasty, bully, and Fatima is nice, sweet, and everyone loves her. Is there anything else you guys would like to address before we get to the point?"

The room fell silent, shocked at what Francesca just said.

"Okay," Francesca said, an annoyed tone in her voice. "Do we all hate Mrs. Woods here?"

"Duh," Zac said, not even looking up from his phone.

"I don't know her, but I've heard terrible things about her," Axel said.

"Same," Sawyer agreed.

Savannah shrugged. "I don't know her either, but I have only negative feelings about her after what she did to Lili Robinson. Also, she tried to kidnap Dream and Zac, and they're my friends."

Dream smirked. "Friend."

Savannah groaned, already hating Dream's teasing.

"So, we all agree that she should go to jail for kidnapping?"

There was a mumble of "yeah, I guess"'s.

"Then, we have to work together," Dream said. "You have to put aside your differences."

"What differences?" Savannah demanded. "She was the school bully for eleven years. If she's so great, why does she bully kids? And why has she been bullying kids for so many years?"

Francesca looked down. There were several minutes of dead silence. Finally, when she looked up, her eyes were red and her lip was quivering.

"I know I shouldn't have," Francesca said, tears in her eyes. "I really wish I hadn't. But I just--can't. All my life I was scared of becoming like my mother, I was scared of people judging me because of her, I was scared of being related to her, and that's exactly what has happened, hasn't it," she said, sniffling.

"Your mother?" Savannah demanded. "Who the heck is she and what does she have to do with anything?"

There another period of awkward silence.

"Your mother is Mrs. Woods, right?" Zac said.

"How do you know?" Francesca frowned.

"I kind of figured it out. There had to be a valid reason why you knew about Mrs. Woods's whereabouts and plans, and that's the only reasonable one. You mentioning not wanting to become like your mother pretty much confirmed it for me."

"Wow, you're smart," Savannah said, subtly.

"Real subtle," Dream said sarcastically, earning herself a glare from Savannah.

"Anyways, no one knows who your mother is," Zac said, confused. "Why don't you just act like a normal kid? No one would figure it out."

"They did," Francesca said, still crying. "A few kids in kindergarten found out. They had older siblings who were in my mom's class. And they spread rumors about how my mom was a witch. And everyone hated me. So the only way to do it was to be mean to everyone and threaten them if they dared tell. It's been so long, I think many of them moved away or forgot. But--I can't help it. I try. I just can't."

"You can try to be nice now," Dream said. "You haven't been mean on this trip so far."

"I guess," Francesca said.

"And," Dream said sternly to the rest of the group, "You guys have to help her instead of insulting her all the time."

There was a mumble of "okay, whatever"'s.

"Good job," Chloe said. "Being persistent AF does pay off, doesn't it?"

"Chloe," Dream said, with a warning tone in her voice.

"AF stands for 'as fudge', don't ruin the mood," Chloe said sourly.

The door burst open.

"Looks like I'm not the one ruining the mood," Dream said.

---

A/N

Sooo a bit of a filler chapter...Oh, and sorry for posting a day late!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter btw! Next chapter is going to be...interesting...

Please vote, comment, and share :) I cannot stress how much it means to me when you guys do so!! 

Thanks for reading! Love you all <3

Next update: Wednesday (tomorrow!!)

💙, Stella Rose