I didn't sleep much last night because I still had many unanswered questions. I felt bad for Rosalind and for some reason I still hadn't accepted that she was dead.

I had my breakfast with my parents, Kelly and her partner. He was very silent and didn't speak much. After eating, I decided to stop by the McAllister's and check up on them.

I waited outside the door, conflicted whether it was a good time or not. Before I could ring the doorbell, Derek opened the door and I just smiled at him.

"Come in." He asked and I stepped inside.

"How are you holding up?" I questions and he just shrugged.

"I think I'm fine but there are times when I feel like she is right here." He admitted.

"Of course she is here. Watching over all of us." I told him.

Derek smiled and led me to the living room. Mr. McAllister was sitting on the couch chugging down a bottle of beer, watching the sports channel. I felt as I was intruding but when he saw me, he put on a cheery smile and got up to hug me.

"How are you, Valerie? I saw you at the funeral but we were kinda busy greeting everybody. You know how it works." He spoke.

"I'm hanging in there. How are you?"

"Not so good. Rosalind was my sweet little baby and it gets difficult every day to walk past her empty room and knowing she will never return. I still remember I held her chubby little finger for the first time. I knew that I was lucky to spend my entire life with her by my side." His voice was now filled with sorrow.

"I'm sure time will do it's magic and heal all of us." I said. "Can I see her room? If it's not much."

"Of course you can! Go on." Derek said and I smiled at Mr. McAllister before leaving them.

I entered Rosalind's bright room and the memory of how we first met hit me.

Freshman year.

Brianna and I linked our hands as we walked down the hallway. It was our first day in high school and the both of was were super hyped. We had the entire year planned.

We walked into our literature class and took our seats next to each other. Brianna and I were inseparable. Everyone knew of our friendship and most of the envied us. Brianna being herself loved the attention and I sometimes wasn't a fan of it.

Professor Reed entered and informed us the syllabus for the heat. Since it was the first day, we didn't study much. Most of the lectures were introduction lectures.

After sitting for a long time, the bell rang indicating recess. All of the students stormed in the hallway. We first walked to my locker where I neatly stacked my books and then made our way to Brianna's locker.

When she opened her locker, a hand sprang from the inside making her stumble backwards a bit.

"WHO DID THIS?" She yelled making most of the students freeze in their position.

No one answered her and I just scanned all the faces to see who looked guilty but everyone had a confused look on their faces.

"I did it." A squeaky voice echoed and my head immediately turned in the direction of voice.

It was Jessica Monroe. She was the school's typical mean girl and a bully. Every guy wanted to date her and every girl shuddered at the mention of her name. She didn't own the cheerleading squad, so all the girls there were safe from her.

The captain of the cheerleading squad was Rosalind McAllister. She was down to earth and good to everybody. She had some amazing moves and was not hard on any member of her team. She was also the only person who Jessica was afraid of. Being the captain gave her the advantage of ruining Jessica's life and of course, no bully wants that.

"What the hell, Jessica!" Brianna gritted through her teeth.

"You deserve it." She smugly smiled.

"No, she doesn't. Nobody deserves what they get from you." I stepped between her and Brianna and defended my friend.

"I don't get why you are friend with her. I mean she is mean, selfish and would choose money over you any day." Jessica spoke.

"Why the sudden jealousy, Jessica?" Brianna spoke. "Does it hurt that you have no friends at all now? I mean you had it coming coz the way you were treating Karen, it was about time she left you."

I could see Jessica's anger oozing from her aura. Everyone found it out online that Jessica's only minion...I mean friend left her because she wasn't treated right. No one was shocked but it was still news since Karen stood up to her and that needed guts.

We weren't very scared of her and usually Jessica left us alone since we were popular too because of our friendship. It was an added advantage.

Brianna was mean to a lot of people and judged girls on the basis of their fashion. But she never disrespected them. She only gossiped in front of me. I was also aware of her selfish nature and knew that she would leave me for money, but I also knew that she would come back. I didn't have to justify our friendship to someone like Jessica and Brianna knew that too.

Jessica scoffed and said, "Just see how difficult I make your life now. You asked for it, bitch."

After everyone went back to their own lives I looked at Brianna who rolled her eyes at the meaningless threat. The chances of her hurting us were low because of she did, her social status would come down.

After eating silently and receiving a few sorry looks from the students around us, we decided to use the washroom before going back to our class.

Brianna opened the washroom's door and a bucket full of coloured water fell down, ruining all of her clothes. She screamed with frustration and I clenched my fists as Jessica's laugh filled the bathroom.

"You should have taken my threat more seriously." She said, batting her eyelashes.

"You're dead." I growled and was about to charge at her but Brianna held me.

"You don't have to stoop at her level, Valerie. We are better than this." Brianna said.

"She is right." Another voice spoke as we turned around to see the one and only, Rosalind McAllister.

Jessica gulped with fear afraid of what Rosalind might do to her.

"Jessica, you can be a better human being. I am aware about your problems at home and that is the reason why you act so rude to everyone at school but this is crossing limits." Her sweet voice said. "You don't have to hurt others to get satisfaction. Plus, you are not even getting permanent satisfaction, it's just temporary. I am not going to ruin you or your status. That's not who I am. But if I see you hurting anybody else, I'll be sure to report it to the authorities."

Jessica's eyes were darted on the floor. She didn't dare to talk back because she knew she didn't want unnecessary trouble.

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again." She whispered and walked out of the bathroom.

Rosalind looked at us and gave us a polite smile. "I'll be right back."

Brianna and I exchanged confused looks. This is not how we planned our first day to go.

Rosalind came back with a fresh pair of clothes and handed it to Brianna.

"Thank you." Brianna said.

"Don't worry." She replied. "I'll be your knight in shining armour."

I awkwardly stood next to Rosalind, waiting for Brianna to come back after changing. I realised how sweet Rosalind was and how maturely she handled the situation.

After Brianna came out, we once again thanked her and Rosalind just shrugged and said she wanted to help.

"You guys should come at my place for a sleepover. This way, we will also get a chance to be friends and who knows, maybe we become really close." Rosalind said.

Brianna and I both looked at each other and then smiled.

"We'd love that."

...

My head was buried in my hands and I was uncontrollably sobbing. Tears poured out of my eyes and I couldn't stop myself.

Rosalind did speak the truth. The three of us became best friends after that sleepover.

I heard a knock and saw Rosalind's mom standing by the door with painful eyes. She came inside and sat next to me on the bed, placing a hand on my shoulder to comfort me.

"I just can't believe she is gone." I cried.

"Nobody can. But we have to deal with it." She spoke.

"She had a dream. I still remember the passion in her eyes every time she talked about it." I said.

"I hold myself accountable sometimes. I wish I had known the troubles she was facing. She was helping everyone around her but nobody helped her. It is difficult to digest that such a happy soul would kill herself." Her mom said and I looked at her with puffy eyes.

"I should have been there too. I was her friend for god's sake!" I said, still sobbing.

"It's okay. We will move on eventually. We all will."

Hello Angels!

Here is a little flashback of how Rosalind became friends with Valerie and Brianna.

I just wanted to write a chapter and give an insight of what her parents our going through before we move on start looking for clues to find the killer.

I'll be writing the plan and meeting in the next chapter. So, stay tuned for it.

A shoutout to x_crazychicx
Go check out her book 'The Side Bitch' it's amazingly written. I just want to thank her for all the votes. It keeps me motivated and going ❤️

Don't be a silent reader ;)

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