After getting dressed and putting on her cologne, she put on her silver watch and then took her bag and left her room. With her boots in her hand, which she took out of their box, and slippers on her feet.
After greeting everyone she passed on her way, she arrived in the dining room and took her seat.
"What do you want, my dear?" asked Grace, smiling.
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"Water." She wasn't really hungry, even drinking water didn't appeal to her, but Grace's question needed an answer.
"Harmonie-"
Harmonie didn't let her finish her sentence and said, "A pain au chocolat and milk then."
Grace sighed and said, "Okay." And went to get her milk. Unlike yesterday, the table was nearly empty. But at least there were bowls with different fruits.
After she finished, Harmonie grabbed her bag and prepared to leave.
"By the way, where's Chloe?" asked Grace in the hall outside the front door.
Before she could answer, they heard the door open behind them. Then they saw Chloe walk in, wearing the same clothes as yesterday.
"Good morning," Chloe said as she handed the car key to the maid next to her who had come to open the door.
Harmonie turned to Grace and said, "She's right there."
Then she headed for the exit as she passed Chloe, saying quickly, "Hello to you too. Tell me about it later. Bye."
Of course, Harmonie was talking about how the night with Sylvia had gone.
And she left, hearing the door slam behind her, Chloe suddenly widened her eyes, "Did she just leave without me?" she said, turning to Grace. Grace smiled, shrugged her shoulders, and left to finish her unfinished chores.
Chloe raised her hands to the sky, "I can't believe she left without me, that bitch," she said, still stunned.
Now that Adelaide was gone, no one could stop her from cursing.
....
The bell rang. It was break time.
"'Harmonie, wait for me!" Chloe called, realizing that she had to go to the fountain near the stairs.
Chloe noticed that instead of stopping, Harmonie was picking up her pace. "Are you serious? Wait for me, damn it!" she said, raising her voice and starting to trot to catch up, but as if Harmonie had sensed that she was getting closer, Harmonie started to trot as well.
"Don't be such a bitch!" And she started to run, which Harmonie did as well.
"I promise if I catch you..." she yelled as she accelerated, of course, some students noticed the commotion, but it was recess, so the noise didn't bother them.
For their part, Corine and Cassidy, who were already sitting on one of the low walls surrounding the small fountain, were having a heated debate about which was better, the lollipop or the gummies.
"At least the lollipop lasts longer," Cassidy said.
"Gummies can last too, and the texture is better, at least you're sure you're not risking chipping a tooth."
"But..." Cassidy started but stopped when she saw Harmonie running towards them with Chloé, who frankly didn't look happy. Corine, seeing that Cassidy was distracted, turned to see what had caught her attention and saw the chase.
Harmonie ran up, and her eyes quickly fell on the phone in each of their hands, stopping quickly in front of them, "Hi!" she said, smiling playfully, then took the phones from their hands and quickly made her way up the stairs.
The girls, who had obviously forgotten to react, jumped slightly when Chloe suddenly appeared in front of them, "Hi..." she said under her breath.
"Hi," they both said, still stunned by Harmonie's sudden change.
Chloe looked at them, then her gaze landed on Harmonie at the top of the stairs, phones in hand, fiddling who knew what on one of the phones.
"Did she take your phones?" she asked, suddenly turning back to the other two girls.
Both girls' eyes suddenly widened, and they looked down at their hands, finally realizing that the object was missing from their hands.
"I really don't want to panic you..." Chloe began, looking at them, "Do you remember what happened last time in PE?"
Both girls nodded, and she continued, "Harmonie was in a playful mood, and now we're going to be her volleyball balls..."
They looked at her questioningly, and Chloe elaborated, "We're her pawns, she's going to take it out on us - not literally - basically, she probably knows your codes, or knows a way to unlock your phones... so if you have intimate photos or conversations..." Chloé didn't finish her sentence; Cassidy had already started sprinting towards Harmonie the moment she heard the word photo.
Chloe looked at her, then her gaze settled on Corine, "Gotta go." And she started up the stairs as well. Corine, finally remembering that she had what she thought were embarrassing photos of herself in her phone, finally joined the chase.
" HARMONIE! GIVE ME BACK MY PHONE!" screamed Cassidy at the top of her lungs as she ran after her, but of course Harmonie kept running, laughing.
…
Several minutes later
"H, don't you think you'd better come down? The bell's going to ring soon," Cassidy said with her head up and Corine at her side. Harmonie was standing above the building where the school supplies were stored. And they didn't even know how she got there. The warehouse had to be at least 3 meters high.
"Oh, fuck!" Harmonie thought as her eyes fell on her friends, then shook her head and looked away, fists clenched, arms straight along her body. Her friends didn't know it, but she was tense.
"It's okay, I've got them back," Chloe said and returned with Corine's bag, Cassidy's, and her own.
And the bell rang for the first time.
"She's still not coming down," she said, looking at Harmonie on the roof of the ten-foot building.
"No," Corine and Cassidy said at the same time.
"H ? Seriously, we have to go. I hope for your sake you didn't do anything to my phone," Cassidy said, Chloe smiled and looked at her.
"What I said, it's all fake," Chloe said suddenly.
Both girls turned to Chloe, "What do you mean?" asked Corine confused.
"If you didn't give her your codes, she can't get into your phone, especially without your permission. On the other hand, that doesn't stop her from taking goofy pictures and videos of herself without unlocking the phone," she said with a shrug and a smile.
Cassidy tapped her shoulder, "Ouch!" exclaimed Chloe, looking at her.
"I hope that hurt. I was stressing over nothing," she said, looking at her with a furrowed brow.
"Oh, you have secrets. Naughty girl," Chloé says with a grin and a shake of her eyebrows, then she starts to laugh, then she catches her breath and says, "But seriously, the photos she takes are disastrous. My gallery is full of pictures of her with a stupid grimace on her face."
"Just delete them," Corine said, Chloe looked at her with a mischievous smile.
"No, I can use them against her, and I won't lie to you, she looks cute in some of the photos, even though she's making a face, and I can see that it amuses her somehow." She avoided mentioning that through her photos she saw the ever-cheerful Harmonie from before.
"I can't wait to see her photos," Cassidy said with a devilish grin.
The bell rang a second time, announcing that they were officially late.
Corine, who hadn't taken her eyes off Harmonie, suddenly said, pointing with her finger, "Hm... I think Harmonie has a problem."
They looked up to see Harmonie hunched over, hands covering her face, rubbing her head in frustration.
"Harmonie?" called Chloe, seeing that her friend's movement showed a moment of panic.
"H! Are you okay?" called Cassidy, also seeing that her expression and movements showed distress.
"Oh, oh..." whispered Chloe, looking around.
Cassidy saw her move and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Trying to figure out how she got up there. Because if we don't do something about it, it's going to end in drama very quickly," Chloe said, feeling the uneasiness rising inside her.
"Why doesn't she come down? She can just jump down, there's grass next to it," says Corine, her eyes still on Harmonie, who hasn't been seen since she hid her face - even after she removed her hands.
"She won't make it, it's already started. Her meltdown" said Chloé simply as she walked around the building looking for a way up before the other two asked what had started.
Then they heard a faint call, "Chloé..." Harmonie said almost out of breath.
Chloé looked up quickly, "I'm here!"
"Breathe, Harmonie. Breathe, we're coming," said Corine, seeing how hard she was breathing, even though she was sitting with her legs stretched out.
"Chloé..." called Harmonie again, who looked out of breath from the cold sweat that appeared on her forehead.
"I'm here."
"Don't worry. I just forgot for a moment that I was afraid of heights," she finally finished, completely out of breath, her voice trembling, a faint smile on her face.
The girls' eyes widened in shock, their bodies frozen.
"THE FUCK?! HOW CAN YOU FORGET THAT?" shouted Cassidy, who felt her body start to shake, not at all reassured by the smile, she was starting to get scared.
"Cassidy, calm down," Chloé said curtly, trying to find a solution.
Then Corine remembered something: "I think I saw two janitors with a ladder cutting branches from trees that have lost their leaves. I'll go ask them for help," she said quickly in a panic, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.
"Okay, go ahead. I'll try to distract her."
Coming down the stairs, Corine almost fell, but luckily Cassidy was able to catch her.
"Be careful, we don't want anyone to get hurt." She took her hand and didn't let go.
They finally found one of the maintenance workers with a ladder and the branches of the trees in the first inner recess yard cut to the ground. They accelerated towards him. Except for them, the courtyard was empty. Everyone was in class.
"Sir. Mister! We need your help," Corine said almost in tears, Cassidy stopped herself from showing that the situation was getting to her enormously to give Corine strength as she still held her hands.
"We need your ladder." Seeing the panic on their faces and the tears at the edge of Corine's eyes, he asked no questions but told them to show him the way. His ladder was put on his shoulders.
A door suddenly opened, "Corine, Cassidy!" a woman's voice said.
The two girls turned their heads momentarily to see who had called them, then concentrated on their destination.
Seeing their panicked expressions, Cassandra turned to her class, "I'll be right back. An emergency. And above all, no fooling around," she said sternly at the end, then closed the door and trotted off to catch up with the two girls who hadn't stopped quickening their pace.
After catching up to them, she asked, "What-"
She hadn't even finished her sentence when Cassidy cut her off, "Harmonie," she said simply, her voice shaking.
A few minutes earlier, when the two girls had gone to get help.
"H?" called Chloe, hearing no answer, she called a second time.
"H ? Can you hear me?"
"Hm..." she waited, Harmonie grunting slightly, she couldn't see her since she was lying on her back to calm down. "Let me lie down for a moment, I'm feeling a bit dizzy right now."
"Okay," Chloe said, nodding, then swallowed her saliva a few seconds later and said,
"Remember, last time you hadn't finished telling me how you and Cassandra finally got together."
She looked up, not expecting an answer from Harmonie for a few seconds.
"Yes..." Harmonie finally said lowly.
Harmonie opened her eyes after her shaky breathing finally calmed down.
Her eyes rested on the slightly gray sky; it would probably rain in a few hours, she thought.
After what happened yesterday and the day before, she knew that today would be a good day. So she tried to free herself emotionally, but now she found herself in a foolish situation.
It's always the same, every time she tries to open up, something happens. It's like she's being prevented from opening up for even a moment, she thought to herself.
She looked a little closer at the sky to distract herself, then began to think about what Chloe was referring to. Her encounter with Cassandra. She let out a sigh, then finally opened her mouth.
"A-After we talk on the phone for the first time... we started messaging each other every day and talking every time, but a week later she decided she had to go get her stuff..." Harmonie paused for a moment, Chloe waited for the next part, but Harmonie still didn't speak.
"H ? Are you okay?"
Harmonie's eyes finally focused, and she realized she was lost in thought again.
She pulled herself together and continued, "So I offered to go with her, and after a long debate with her and a promise that I would behave myself, she agreed."
"What happened that day?" said Chloe after a moment of silence from Harmonie.
"I slapped her, I told Cassandra it was because she called me a dwarf. Even though I was the appropriate height for my age." She whispered the last sentence.
"But that wasn't the reason for my violence, what Cassandra told me about her, let's say, I remembered it at the time, and it pissed me off. And I understood the reason why she called me a dwarf, she was tall, very tall. But that didn't stop me from knocking her lightly behind the knee and making her bend over and punch me."
"Didn't you say it was a slap?"
"Yes, but they were the kind of slap that makes your face swell and bleed. They were blows. And Cassandra didn't like it. Luisa had to be taken to the hospital. There were no broken bones, but she was angry and hurt. And by some miracle, she decided not to press charges. I thought maybe Cassandra had threatened her. Anyway, I couldn't get Cassandra on the phone for a week after several attempts, and I didn't know where she lived at the time. Because when I had gone with her, her father had been there, and I had been dropped off first if you're wondering..." Harmonie said, sensing Chloe's question.
'Luisa? Wasn't that Lucie? Wasn't it? Was it Julie? Yes, it was Julie, wasn't it?' Chloe thought for a moment before continuing to listen to her friend.
" It was awful, I felt like a boat capsizing for no reason. And I was in a lot of pain. And that's how I finally realized that I might have feelings for her. I thought it was just a crush and that it would pass, and that the fact that I wanted to be with her all the time just meant that I liked her... After that conclusion, I disconnected my phone for a week, I didn't understand why I was hurting, and when I finally figured it out, I told myself that I was too young and that I was just imagining things. And so I became a bit self-destructive, I had created this destruction, where at the slightest thing that went wrong, I criticized myself relentlessly and a hatred of myself was created...".
Chloe remained silent, unsure of how to respond.
"Another week later, Cassandra showed up at my house. I had been sick for 2 days with a fever that came out of nowhere, cough, headache, runny nose, and the whole shebang. And by the time she got there, my headache and fever were gone, my nose was no longer runny but stuffy, and I wasn't coughing as much as I had been. In a way, getting sick helped me think about physical pain more than emotional pain.
"She arrived when my brothers and sister went to the store with my mother to buy groceries. I hesitated to open the door when I saw her through the peephole, but I'd missed her too much. So I opened the door in my pajamas and slippers, with a blanket around me and a glass of tea in my hand. When I saw her, I felt a pang of fear that she was still angry with me-" Harmonie stopped her story when she heard footsteps approaching.
They finally arrived out of breath, "Where's Harmonie?" asked Corine, catching her breath.
"I'm here!" said Harmonie, raising her arm and waving at them.
"She's lying down, if you step back a little like you're going to the playground, you can catch a glimpse of her form," said Chloe as she helped the janitor set up the folding stairs.
"How did she get up there?" the janitor asked after setting up the ladder.
Harmonie shrugged as if they could see her. She wondered how she did it, too. Adrenaline made everything go pretty fast for her.
"We don't know, all we know is that she can't get back down and apparently forgot that she's afraid of heights like a fucking idiot," Cassidy says.
"I can hear you, you know?" says Harmonie suddenly.
"You're not going to be the one to tell me otherwise. You've been acting like a stupid, stupid bitch," Cassidy said, raising her voice, ready to argue at the slightest refusal. Corine put a hand on her shoulder to help her relax.
Harmonie, for her part, said nothing more, completely agreeing with Cassidy.
"Someone has to go up and get them while I hold the ladder, the ground is wet, and the ladder could slip."
All four looked at each other, then Cassandra said, allowing no one to refuse with her look, "I'll go."
Unable to contradict her in front of the janitor, the others nodded.
Harmonie, who had heard what she had said, suddenly said, "With all due respect, miss, if you're the one who comes to get me, the situation will be even more stressful. I'm not saying you're stressful per se, but you scare me a little. And I don't want to have one more thing to stress about." She whispered her last sentence, thinking it would be better for her to keep her mouth shut so as not to cause more trouble.
Chloe looked at Cassandra, who of course didn't like being stopped. "I'll go," Chloe said and started to climb up the ladder.
Harmonie sat with her legs close together, her chin in the middle of her knee and her eyes closed.
When she reached the top, Chloe looked up at her friend and then down, "So, what are we going to do?" she asked herself, rubbing her neck.
"I think I can make it down the stairs, I just don't have to look down," Harmonie said as she got down on all fours, being careful not to rub her knee on the concrete. She moved a little closer to Chloe, then closed her eyes, "Get on the ladder first..."
Chloe complied, then Harmonie turned so that her legs were facing Chloe. She opened her eyes and said, "Now guide me, I can't see what's behind me."