Chapter 3

Victoria. Victoria Chase just invited her to work together. The girl Kate was just thinking about on her way here, and now Kate had a chance to spend several hours with her. Kate's happiness and excitement completely exceeded the bounds of what she expected on her first day back in school, but then, she thought about the possible reasons for Victoria's proposition… and she thought she understood, which made her happiness go away instantly.

"Victoria, I heard that you felt really bad about bullying me before, but that doesn't mean that you have to recompensate it to me somehow. I really appreciate the proposition, but…" Kate said with a quiet but honest voice, but she was suddenly cut off by the other girl.

"I think we have to set some things straight, my dear" Victoria's usual 'bossy' tone was back. "First, I'm sorry for… bullying you, but I already told you that many times, so I don't see why I would continue apologizing. Plus, it was Nathan that convinced us to bother you" Victoria's voice was still her usual public one, but Kate had a feeling as if this time, it was hiding mixed emotions. "If I wanted to make it up to you, I would already have done it, trust me." Victoria kept on going. "Second, my two sidekicks ditched me to have Dana join them, so it's not like I have much choice." For some reason, Kate didn't believe a word from that sentence, but as a quick look confirmed that Taylor and Courtney were sitting at a table with Dana and planning a photo shoot, she decided not to inquire about the truth.

"You're… you're serious?" Kate asked, shyly, with her smile slowly returning to her face. "You want me to work with you?"

"Yes!" Victoria answered. "What, did you go deaf in the hospital? Just give me an answer already, you're wasting my time!" Victoria exclaimed, visibly irritated… but also a bit nervous?

Kate couldn't believe what was going on, but if it was a dream, she didn't want to wake up.

"Of course! I mean… yeah, sure!" Kate enunciated, unsure of what Victoria's reaction would be if she were to know how eager Kate was to work with her.

"You're sure?" Victoria replied, with her usual sly, confident smile back on her face. "You wouldn't prefer to work with the zombie-team over there?" She said, while pointing to Daniel and Alyssa, who still didn't appear to be doing much in terms of communication. Kate gave a short laugh and answered. "Yes, I'm sure. I would really enjoy working with you, Victoria." Kate might have just been imagining things, but she was almost sure that she saw Victoria's stance relax. Kate didn't pay attention to Victoria's position too much, so she didn't notice how tense she was before. "Or am I just imagining all this?" Kate thought. "Well, whatever it might be, I get to spend time with Victoria, and that's all I care about" her train of thought continued.

"Great! Let me just grab my stuff, and we can take that table over there" Victoria said while pointing to a table that was miraculously not only free, but also had quite a lot of free space around it, opposing to the other tables that were all close together. I all no seemed up to Kate, but she decided not to complain. While making her way to the said table she gave Victoria a quick look just to see her… being congratulated by Taylor? Kate quickly turned away.

Kate sat down at the free table, and she was soon joined by Victoria, who was struggling to hold both her laptop, her stylish handbag and her expensive, "top-of-the-shelf" camera. All the style and money that Victoria showed was a bit intimidating to Kate, but for the first time, Victoria was nice to her, which gave Kate a bit of self-confidence.

"So… I suppose you already started working on something?" Kate asked after helping Victoria with connecting her laptop.

"I may have started something, but… you know… I don't want to impose my idea on you just because you weren't there." Victoria argument made sense, but Kate felt weird to see her not pushing people around and giving orders, and asking for someone's opinion instead. That fit just a tad too well with the version of Victoria that Kate always imagined and wanted to see. "Ma… Someone told me… I heard, that you had some ideas for projects to do with your drawings and photography." Ah. Max. Apparently she should now add 'Max the Matchmaker' to her ever-growing list of nicknames. Kate didn't like her involvement in Victoria's seemingly-sudden change of mind, but Kate decided to confront Max about it later, and for now focus on the situation at hand.

"Well… yeah, I guess. I had one idea for a book that would show the world through a child's eyes. I imagined some interesting transitions from pictures, that could represent the normal world, to drawings, which could represent the children world. And well, I also planned and made some sketches for a book to make children aware of depression and suicide." Kate said. Victoria's expression darkened after hearing that last word.

"Kate" Victoria said, with an unusual seriousness in her voice. "Are you sure that… after what happened…" she didn't seem to be able to express herself with a proper sentence, but Kate understood what she meant.

"Vic" Kate started talking with a serious tone, while actually mainly worried that the other girl would mind her shortening her name. "I went thought hell, but now that that's over, I prefer to make sure that it doesn't happen to anyone else, rather than hide from memories that can't hurt me." Kate herself was surprised at how profound her words ended up sounding.

"Wow…" was the only way of answering to Kate's monologue that Victoria could think of, amazed at how strong of a spirit hid behind Kate's shy personality. As Kate saw that Victoria didn't know what to say, she became worried and decided to break the awkward silence that was forming as fast as possible.

"So… what idea did you have in mind?" She asked, to get Victoria out of her thoughts. The other girl thought a bit, and then put her sentences together very carefully to try to hide the fact that she really wanted to do Kate's project to please her.

"Well… I did have some fabulous photo collection ideas in mind, but considering the situation… I think I can agree to working on your second project." She said, with excitement shining through her fake confidence. "You know… not only is it an interesting idea, but it could also help the society and stuff like that."

The idea of having Victoria Chase help her with her own project brought a smile back to Kate's face.

"Awesome" she said, while reaching to her bag in search of her sketchbook. "Oh, shoot." She exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Victoria asked immediately.

"Don't worry, I just forgot my sketchbook in my room, and all of my ideas are in there" Kate answered. "Do you mind waiting a second? I can go get it and be right back."

With her usual smile back on her face, Victoria suggested a different option. "Actually… Why don't we get out of here? Since we have to go to the dorm anyway, why not stay there? We'll be much more comfortable working in my room" she said.

"Well, o… okay then!" Kate answered, her voice trembling with excitement. She would get to see Victoria's room!

They gathered all their things (well, a majority of the things was Victoria's), and proceeded to make their way out of the room, with many surprised pairs of eyes following them. Apparently, not everybody was working with Max on this one. Victoria's eyes quickly shot back to the table where her (as she called them) 'sidekicks' worked on their project, and was answered by a 'thumbs-up' from both Taylor and Courtney. Meanwhile, Kate looked at Max, and her face, once she noticed Kate looking at her, was instantly filled with a confident smirk. Kate reminded herself not to forget to text Max about all this later.

The two girls put their names down on the presence sheet, and headed to the girls' dorm. Kate was still wondering about what she did to earn a chance with Victoria, with her main thought being thanking God.