Chapter 35: 33 ☆ Biggie

I want you to know that I have a heart, despite popular belief, and, trust me, I'm willing to help you get out this... emotional dilemma of yours. If you're willing to listen, of course.

Bella, if you don't want things to continue this way, what you're going to do is quite simple. Stop using your accounts. ALL OF THEM. When you do, I won't have to access them anymore. See, simple. But, first, ruin Fashionella for me. I have some helpful resources for you.

Maggie-Lyn was talking about the quite expensive worth of her tailormade onesie, and holding her phone out to Bella, but Bella's eyes were fixed on the laptop screen in front of her.

She got an email, and it was anything but nice. It was meant to be, but that didn't take the attention away from the commanding and threatening tone of it.

From: [email protected].

"Come on, Bella. Check my photos so I'll be sure which of them to post. What are you literally looking at?"

Bella slammed the laptop shut when she noticed her cousin walking over to her.

Maggie-Lyn stopped when she saw it, then pouted. "That's literally not fair. First, you've literally been dead silent since last night, and now you're ignoring me. You're literally killing my pre-onesie challenge spirit."

Bella took her phone from her, then pretended to be engrossed in her photos. "Why don't you finish up with that?" She waved a hand in the general direction of her bed.

Various sparkly clothes were piled on top of each other, and, for the millionth time, Bella wondered why Adele refused to let Maggie-Lyn stay in her room. It seemed more natural since Adele's room was more spacious and she wouldn't have minded the sparkly mess.

"What's on your laptop?" Maggie-Lyn asked, and Bella's heart skipped a beat. She almost groaned in frustration, but held it in.

She had been staring at the email for a while, but she still couldn't completely wrap her head around what she was seeing.

Stop using your accounts. Ruin Fashionella for me.

"Maggie, it's private, okay?" She stopped on a selfie of her cousin in a sea of blindingly attractive fabric, giving a kissy face to the camera, then stood. "Here. Post this one. I have to get to school." She gave the phone to her.

She quickly took her backpack from the bed, then put her laptop in it.

Maggie-Lyn didn't look happy, and, as she was about saying something, the door to the room opened and Adele walked in.

"Hey, Bella, Cody's waiting for you downstairs," she said, looking like she just woke up.

"Oh. Thank you. I'll see you two later, okay? Bye."

Bella quickly walked out of the room, ignoring the instructions from her older sister—pay attention in class, don't think too much, be happy.

If she had the chance, she would have the run-around-in-circles-with-hands-high-up-SpongeBob-style kind of freak out, so 'be happy' wasn't exactly a suggestion she was going to consider.

In the car, she read the email again and again until she was sure she had it memorized.

Cody was still ignoring her, and she wished he'd say something annoying so they would bicker until she forgot everything. But that didn't happen. Cody kept his eyes on the road and drove silently, a muscle in his jaw twitching as he tried to suppress his week-old anger.

* * *

Wyland High had probably never been this busy before. There were so many cars in the parking lot, along with a few black buses.

Bella had to walk past more cars than usual and, from a black SUV, she heard singing and the strumming of a guitar, which briefly reminded her of Beau.

The girl in the SUV gasped, then said, "Oh my goodness! Monroe, is that Belinda Quincy?"

Subconsciously, Bella's feet moved faster, like the parking lot floor had suddenly turned to hot lava. She wanted to escape before it was too late, and a part of her wanted to laugh at how funny the situation was. Two weeks prior, she would've jumped at the chance to meet a Teen Star, but now she just wanted to escape.

There were a few men setting up cameras at the entrance of the school, and she smiled at them before walking in.

She was almost at her locker when she saw Viola talking to a really tall girl in a pink jacket on which TEEN was written in cartoon letters across the back, next to a star.

That was when she realized that Viola was one of them now. She was even dressed up. And what made it hurt was the fact that they weren't together.

Even though Bella didn't get accepted, she would've eventually gotten over the fact that Viola didn't tell her she was considering the program and just been happy for her best friend. It wasn't that she wasn't happy now, but there was just a little ounce of jealousy boiling in the depths of her stomach and, combined with her current... predicament? Issues? Whatever it could be called, it made her eyes water.

That girl just lost her dad, she told herself, she deserves this, but it didn't help chase away the hurt she felt.

Bella pushed back the tears threatening to fall and, instead of going to her locker, she went to homeroom minutes early.

When the bell rang for the end of second period, she didn't move an inch. She sat in her chair and stared at the board ahead. Several historical events had been elegantly written on it, but they were all blurry to her.

"Miss Quincy, can I help you?" Mr. McClaren, the world history teacher, asked when he noticed that everyone except her had left.

"No. I'm good, sir."

"If you have a class next, you should get going. I'm about to get busy with cookies my wife baked and it's a sight you do not want to see."

She managed a smile, then packed her books, a little slowly. She was almost at the door when Mr. McClaren stopped her.

"I know you teenagers have a lot going on in your hormone-controlled heads, but, if you're going through something, remember there's a counselor—whose door is wide open—waiting for you."

She couldn't believe it. Was it that obvious? She smiled at him, then said, "Thank you, Mr. McClaren."

He beamed at her, and she walked out of the classroom. She needed to control herself and stop vomiting emotions all over the place. But how could she do that when things were starting to fall apart? Her emotions had been played with, her friendships broken up, her Twitter account hacked, her YouTube channel on the very edge of a cliff—

"There you are."

Bella turned to the owner of the voice, freezing immediately she saw who it was. Her face was painted so it looked like she was putting on a mask, her dark hair was in a crown braid, and her sequin dress shimmered. She smelled like lollipop and sugar, and Bella couldn't believe Pietra Tiorano was standing in front of her.

"I thought we'd shoot the video and I'd leave without seeing you. Hi, um, I guess we don't need to introduce ourselves." Pietra smiled, a bit nervously, and Bella wanted to pinch herself to confirm that this was real.

"Hi."

"This is a dream come true for me, Bella—can I call you Bella?"

"Um... sure."

Pietra looked nervous for a few seconds, then she hugged Bella, engulfing her in her candy perfume. It reminded her of Maggie-Lyn.

"Yes, I literally made it!"

The voice was so loud, it caused Bella and Pietra to jump away from each other. Speak of the devil.

Maggie-Lyn was walking towards them with a pink bag in her hand. Her grin could tear her face in half, and she broke into a little strut Bella recognized as the ML Swagger. Anytime she walked like that, it meant she wanted to catch someone's attention. It was initially to catch the attention of boys, but she eventually grew out of it.

She was putting on a similar dress to Pietra, except hers was straight while Pietra's was bouncy. It was also obvious Pietra's was more expensive—the fabric looked better.

"Wait," Pietra said once Maggie-Lyn was close. "Aren't you that Literally Maggie girl?"

Maggie-Lyn curtsied, then said in a fake English accent, "'Tis I indeed. Literally."

Pietra laughed, and Bella shook her head, then asked, "What are you doing here, Mag?"

Maggie-Lyn lifted the pink bag in her hand. "I brought you lunch?"

Bella folded her arms, knowing that that wasn't the only thing that brought her.

"Okay, fine. I literally saw Pietra's Instagram post. She said she was about shooting a dance video right here and couldn't wait to literally find you. I told my followers I was coming to see her, so here I am."

Pietra let out a small laugh, and Bella watched her as she spoke. "Look at us. I'm hunting Bella down and you're hunting me down. I wonder who's hunting you down, Maggie." The look on Maggie-Lyn's face made it obvious she was a little freaked out by the statement, but Pietra continued, not giving her a chance to fully react. "I love your videos, by the way. A friend of mine just introduced me to your channel and I haven't subscribed yet, but maybe I'll do that now. Oh—happy onesie week."

As Maggie-Lyn gasped and asked if she was participating, Bella noticed something about Pietra—something familiar—but couldn't point it out. The face paint wasn't helping either. There was something about the way she spoke and that smile on her face that struck the chords of her memory.

A group of teenagers came into view before she could stare longer. The girls were putting on various colored dresses, but the fabric was similar, and the guys were dressed like ballroom dancers. Now that Bella noticed, Pietra actually looked like a ballroom dancer, too.

The hallway had emptied at this point, and Bella was sure she had missed the bell.

"That's my cue," Pietra said, smiling. "The video title is Sueño, by the way. I might post a rehearsal clip later."

"I'll wait for it and amp up my fans, of course," Maggie-Lyn assured.

"That would be great. I know I'm just throwing videos at people, but I have too much energy sometimes."

"It's better to dance the energy out than to literally use it to rob a bank, right?"

Bella laughed along with them this time, then said, "Your music's really cool, Pietra."

"Teamwork," Pietra replied. "If you don't mind, can we trade numbers? Maybe we could talk sometime."

Bella stared at her like she just sprouted horns, and Maggie-Lyn bounced on the balls of her feet, clearly excited.

"Um, sure. But I don't have a phone right now, so will you take my cousin's for now?"

"Of course. Anything works."

Maggie-Lyn typed her number into Pietra's phone and Pietra typed hers into Maggie-Lyn's. Immediately they were done, Maggie-Lyn demanded a selfie.

Bella made a serious model face to hide her suffering. She knew people were waiting to attack her, and she wasn't going to give them that pleasure. She didn't look too great standing between Pietra and her cousin—who was really good at posing for selfies—but her eyes made her stand out.

Pietra hugged the both of them goodbye, then left with her dancers, and Maggie-Lyn practically jumped up and down like a toddler.

"Hashtag YouTube Princesses," she said, and Bella sighed, trying to hide her happiness.

"You should go before you're caught. And before I'm caught by some cranky teacher."

"Come on. I literally blend in. You could even mistake me for a Teen Star; I literally look the part." She flicked her hair over her shoulder with all the pride she could muster.

"Say it until you believe it."

"You're late for class, Belle," Beau said, walking past them. When Bella's eyes met with his, he winked, his smile breathtaking.

She smiled back, and Beau broke the contact to give Maggie-Lyn—who had a swoony look in her eyes—an eyebrow raise of acknowlegement.

"He's so old-fashioned," Bella commented when he was out of earshot, and her cousin took her hands and squealed, jumping from foot to foot.

"That's him, right?"

"Maggie-Lyn Lila Kenriek, please go home," Bella said, slightly embarrassed, "however you came."

"Oh, I drove here. Adele let me take the car... after making me recite a page-long pledge of safety."

"You drive?"

"Of course. It completes my celebrity status. I even have a car back home, and you would know that if you checked my updates."

"Whatever. Get out of here, you smell like something I can eat."

Maggie-Lyn gave her the pink bag in her hand, then patted the side. "Healthy sandwiches. I heard you've not been eating healthy—"

"Thank you, doctor. Now leave."

"Share it with Beau." She ran away before Bella could respond, and her giggles echoed in the hallway.

That girl was going to get in serious trouble if she didn't control that sugar-induced laughter of hers.

"Real mature, Mag," Bella shouted behind her. "Real mature."

As she turned around to head to her locker, already coming up with an excuse for her teacher, she saw Travon a few feet away, watching her. He visibly tensed when she saw him, and that, combined with the beating in her chest, forced her to wonder what he was doing.