The bell rang as I walked out of the announcement's center after singing that song. I had no idea how I sounded to them but I thought it was pretty okay. I wasn't much of a singer, unlike Elena but I would sing sometimes.
As Elena mentioned before, in the shower.
I didn't know what I should be expecting when I walked out of the room. Should I be expecting people to go back to their own world and not caring what I said?
Or...
Should I expect the beginning of a change I wanted to see?
For the first time in history - I didn't vote for anything.
Yeah, I was that confused.
As I walked out, I realized how stupid I might have sounded. The adrenaline in me slowly wore out - might I tell you that everything I said was out of a sudden adrenaline rush and a totally off script writing. I wasn't supposed to say all of these. It was rather to tell those five that I was sorry and sing them the song and also expose the bullying.
I happened to drag my expectations and the 'transparency' of the school.
Man, I get carried away!
But maybe, my speech did something.
Something that I hadn't expected to happen so immediately.
You wanna know?
The bullied started to write their complaints in a piece of paper and hand it to the Principal themselves. Then the Principal called the parents of the bullies and the ones who only happened to bully once were excused with a warning while the regulars - including Richard- were suspended. Richard threatened to reveal Principal Clara's secret but she dismissed his idea, saying she'd come clean on her own. She wasn't scared of this 'big reveal' as much as she was on the first day of school.
The Principal's office was crowded- for the first time in history- and the sounds of yelling and crying could be heard from a mile.
At least, my speech began the changes.
The changes wouldn't come in a day - but at least, something was better than nothing.
It was just the beginning.
My eyes scanned for the people for whom the song and speech were sung and made.
"That was one helluva speech."
I turned on my heel to find the figure behind that cocky voice. She was leaning against the Principal's office door, crossing her arms against her chest.
"You liked it?" I flashed a genuine smile her way.
She scoffed. "I knew I could count on you."
"It's a lot coming from you, Alex Snow."
She narrowed her eyebrows and cocked her head. "No nicknames?"
Wait-
Did I just call her full name without screwing up?
Did I really do that?
She must've realized how confused I was, hence the laughter. "You're an idiot."
"What are you doing here, anyway?" I asked as she slung her arm around my shoulder, a smile plastered on her face.
"School or Principal's Office?" She asked, not looking at me.
"Both."
"Discharged yesterday and as for Principal's Office.." She trailed off.
"You filed a complaint, didn't you?" I deduced.
She looked at me for seconds before speaking.
"Come on, I have a surprise."
-----
We strolled to the same place where we all talked about having to stick by each other's side no matter what happened. The garden.
A piece of soft music played from somewhere in the garden. I couldn't point the exact location. As I concentrated on the music, I realized it was from the song that I had sung in the announcement's center.
You've got a friend in me.
Cady and Jeff came from the shadows, Jeff was playing the guitar and singing while Cady held the microphone and sang along Jeff. Mia and Emma later joined and they finished the song.
All I could do was clap.
I didn't know what to say.
"We planned it for you after that split."
"We realized that the contract didn't matter if we wanted to stick together."
"We realized we missed you, Jake and also each other."
"We spent the week separately and realized how amazing things were when we were all together. Our differences were the ones keeping us together. Opposites attract, remember?" Alex nudged my shoulder.
"As for Alex's beating, she was just there at the wrong place at the wrong time. Although, we should've been there." Jeff said, thoughtfully.
"Whatever it was that bounded us to be friends, didn't work because we weren't much committed and we thought we needed to solve each other's problems without letting ourselves be vulnerable. That didn't work." Cady explained.
"So what say, we start over?" Mia suggested.
"A-And be f-friends n-not because we n-needed t-to, b-but because w-we wanted t-to." Emma smiled.
"Did you practice things beforehand?" I raised my eyebrow, smirking.
"We had to write an entire speech." Mia shook her head.
"I stayed up to two am last night to perfect my song! Does no one see that?!" Jeff whined.
"But by the end, we said 'screw the speech'." Alex shrugged, ignoring Jeff's whining.
"What she means is, we improvised. " Cady corrected it.
"Can't you go one day without correcting?" Alex sighed.
Cady shrugged. "Like I always say-"
"-Couldn't help it." We sang in unison.
"So what do you say?" All eyes were on me.
I didn't even take a second to answer. After all this long, I had people who genuinely wanted to be seen around me, who wanted to be my friends, and around whom I could be myself and not the kind of person my parents would make me.
"Friends together, STARS Forever."