Call Me Sarah
Chapter Three
"Chloe! Chloe, can you hear me? Come on, snap out of it. Chloe?" his panicked voice pleaded.
But her eyes just stared right through him, oblivious of Brady's presence or the stunned people who gathered around her. Brady turned to his father, silently begging for his help. John stepped up to Chloe as Belle and Shawn came running up.
"Dad, what's wrong with her?" Belle asked, concerned for her best friend. Her shock over the slides had finally worn off when she saw that Chloe was upset and in trouble.
"I don't know, Sweetie." John replied absentmindedly as he studied Chloe. He took her face in his hands and peered into her large, unblinking eyes.
Chloe stood completely still, her back ramrod straight. Her arms were plastered to her sides and her face was expressionless. Just the sight of her in this condition chilled the spectators and the earlier laughter and excited gossip fell away to be replaced by an eerie silence. The students felt racked with guilt, similar to laughing at someone who has just fallen, only to find that they are seriously hurt. It was the same now. It was clear that something was very wrong with Chloe.
Mr. Woods shook his head, saddened and disappointed by the behavior of his students. As a teacher he thought he had seen it all. The cruelty that the students seemed capable of inflicting on others had ceased to surprise him. Until tonight. He grabbed the microphone with a heavy sigh and addressed the crowd of students.
"What is wrong with you?" he asked, letting his emotions get the better of him for the moment. "Have you learned nothing from the events of recent years? Have you forgotten Columbine? Or the countless other acts of school violence that occur so frequently we don't even hear about them anymore? How could you do this to another person?" he asked quietly.
Silence fell over the shamed crowd. One student finally spoke up.
"Mr. Woods, we didn't do this." She protested.
"No, but you didn't stop it. And you didn't intervene on behalf of a fellow student who was obviously in distress. Instead, you laughed. You took pleasure in her pain and suffering. Well, I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Because the dance is now ended. I want you to go home and spend summer vacation thinking about what happened tonight, and how you can prevent things like this from happening. Because if I feel that there is even the slightest possibility of anything like this occurring again, I will cancel ALL of next year's dances, games, and all other events, and your Senior Year will certainly.suck. Now goodnight." Mr. Woods finished his speech as the gym lights came back on and the disappointed crowd of students silently filed out the gym door. He walked off the stage and called to Kevin and Susan.
"Let's see if we can find out who did this." He told them with a gleam in his eye.
Meanwhile John was having no luck in rousing Chloe. Belle whipped out her tiny cell phone from her sequined purse. "I'm going to call Dr. Wesley."
"Good idea, Izzy." John stepped back from Chloe who continued to stare in silence, unmoving. "I'm going to call Marlena." He said as he pulled a sleek black phone from the pocket of his dress slacks.
Hope gently caressed Chloe's face, hoping for some response. "Poor thing. Who would do something like this to her?" She turned to Brady. "Brady, that boy said that he had seen you near the projector?" Hope asked, not to accuse him, but to get some answers.
Brady tore his gaze away from Chloe's stiff body and unseeing eyes. He sighed deeply. "I saw Jan Spears and Mimi Lockhart messing with the slides earlier. I went to see what they had done, but got interrupted by the ceremony."
"Mimi?" Belle questioned as she clicked her phone shut. "No, she couldn't have. I know she doesn't like Chloe, but she would never have done this to anyone." She protested with tears in her wide blue eyes. She refused to believe that Mimi could be responsible for such a heinous prank.
"Well, she did." A voice behind Belle replied. She turned around to find Kevin, Susan and Mr. Woods coming up to them. "I hacked into the site (man that was fast). I'm sorry, Belle, but that website account was set up in Mimi's name. She's responsible for this."
"With a little help from Jan, no doubt." Susan put in dryly. She herself had been the victim many times of Jan's unique brand of cruelty.
Kevin went on to explain his role in the prank. He described how Mimi and Jan convinced him to rig a science lab explosion that would spill horrible smelling chemicals all over Chloe's hair and clothes, forcing her to shower in the school's shower room.
"Apparently, though I didn't know it, they had installed a hidden camera to record her in the showers, and that's where they got their pictures from. The website is set up to give you a preview screen showing censored pictures like this (he pointed to the slide that was still showing on the overhead screen.) In order to view the nude pictures, you have to then pay money to the site. Guys, this website has been up for several months now, receiving thousands of hits a day. That's a lot of people who have seen those pictures." Kevin finished.
Brady sighed and ran his fingers through his unruly blond hair. So the prank ran much deeper than he thought. It wasn't just humiliation in front of her schoolmates. No, thousands of people had seen her naked body. Brady shuddered to think of the type of people who might have visited that site, the type of crazed perverts who may have leered at Chloe's body.
His stomach twisted with pain and guilt. Not only had he not prevented her humiliation tonight, he also hadn't stepped in when Phillip began to berate her. He had stepped forward to intervene, but his father had held him back, saying that they needed to work through this by themselves.
And Brady had foolishly listened. He had reasoned that Phillip's cruel words would invoke a response from Chloe's temper and maybe she'd finally get rid of him after seeing his true colors. But he hadn't expected this. This total and complete emotional breakdown. No, it wasn't a breakdown; it was a shutdown. Like her mind, her personality had just.shut off. And if that was the case, how could they hope to bring her back?
Brady was shaken out of his thoughts by a new arrival into the gym. {What the HELL is he doing here?} He simply glared at Phillip who casually strolled through the now empty gym.
"Hey, where is everybody?" he asked as he looked around the gym. "I came back to get my coat." His eyes fell on Chloe's rigid form. "Hey, what's wrong with her?" he asked slightly concerned.
"Like you care." Brady bit out through clenched teeth. His muscles tensed. God, how he wanted to pound on Phillip. But right now there were more important matters on his mind. Uncle Phil could wait. He focused back on Chloe. "If you loved her half as much as you say you did, then you would have known that she could never do this. You would have known that someone else did this to her." He said simply and sadly, not even looking at his uncle.
"And what makes you such an expert on Chloe?" Phillip asked with blatant jealousy. He still believed that Chloe had set up the website to make money, but was incensed at the implications that Brady knew her better than he did.
Brady's response stopped dead on his tongue as he saw Chloe's eyes flutter. She blinked several times and adopted a more normal breathing rhythm. She lost some the rigidity in her stance but then straightened back in a posture that made her seem inches taller than she had been. She slowly looked around the gym as she took in her surroundings.
As her gaze fell on the people who surrounded her, Brady noticed a hard edge to her features that wasn't there before. A coldness in her blue eyes. A toughness in her stance.
"Chloe?" Brady called to her.
She didn't answer but instead her eyes focused on the giant screen above her. She simply stared at the screen for a few moments, causing others to fear that she had fallen back into her trance.
"Shut that thing off!" Brady yelled, pointing to the projector. He turned back around to face Chloe, to gauge her response to the picture.
Her face took on a contemplative expression. She crossed her arms against her chest and cocked her head slightly to the side. Slowly, her face cracked to reveal a slight smirk.
The spectators frowned; they hadn't expected this reaction. They waited quietly and just observed Chloe's actions.
Chloe tapped her full lips with a manicured forefinger as she studied the screen. "I must say. That is some nice photography. Captured all my best sides, doncha think?" She quipped with a wink at Phillip who had taken a position beside her. Her voice sounded strange to everyone's ears. It seemed to be deeper, tougher, with a harsh quality that certainly wasn't there before.
Phillip was floored by Chloe's cavalier statement. He flew off in a rage. "I knew it!!" he yelled at her, his face an unattractive shade of blotched red. "You aren't even trying to deny it. You're proud of yourself like some common slut. You're a cheap whore!"
Chloe simply cocked a bemused eyebrow at Phillip's rant.
He continued. "I can't believe I ever went out with a FREAK like you! GHOUL GIRL! SLUT!" he spat at her.
Chloe rolled her eyes and drew herself to her full height. "Phillip. Right?" she addressed him. He paused momentarily, confusion written on his features and then WHAM! Out of the blue she cold-cocked him with a left hook that sent him flying backwards to CRASH! into the refreshment table. Chloe smiled to see the boy lying on the floor, covered in red punch, out cold.
She shook her hand and winced at the momentary pain. "Haven't done that in a while." She remarked to herself.
Her friends were dumbfounded by her new behavior. "Chloe?" Belle called.
The girl they knew as Chloe threw her hand up in Belle's face. "Hang on a sec, willya? It's been awhile." She stated with a frown as she tried to sort things in her mind.
She looked down at her clothes and frowned in disgust. "What the F*CK am I wearing?! I swear, the girl has no taste in clothes." She cast a satisfied look at Phillip where he lay sprawled on the floor. "Or sorry- ass loser boyfriends."
"Um. Chloe?" Belle asked again, totally shocked by Chloe's attitude.
The girl finally looked at Belle, as if noticing her for the first time.
"You aren't Chloe, are you?" Kevin said quietly. A soft gasp of surprise rang in the gym. What did he say?
Chloe gifted him with a cold smile. "Give the geek a gold star. No. I'm not Chloe. She's uh, gone on a little vacation. I'm head man 'til she gets back. IF she gets back."
Brady looked at Chloe completely stunned. He could not wrap his brain around the turn of events. It seemed impossible, and yet, it was obvious that the girl in front of him wasn't the Chloe that he knew. She was someone else entirely.
"If you aren't Chloe," he asked softly, "then who are you?"
She shrugged simply. "Call me Sarah. But don't worry bout memorizin' the name. I seriously doubt that I'm gonna be spendin' much time with you losers." She sneered.
She shook the pins out of her hair and let it fall down. "Hey, quick question. What year is it?"
"Uh. It's June 2001." Belle stammered.
"That long, huh?" Sarah looked down appreciatively at the body she now wore. "I'd noticed a few changes." She commented with a wink in Brady's direction.
"Alright. Well, nice meeting you all." Sarah remarked in a tone that implied otherwise. She turned and headed toward the gymnasium exit.
"Later." She called out without a second look back. "Or not. Whatever."
And then she was gone, leaving a stunned crowd in her wake.
Chapter Three
"Chloe! Chloe, can you hear me? Come on, snap out of it. Chloe?" his panicked voice pleaded.
But her eyes just stared right through him, oblivious of Brady's presence or the stunned people who gathered around her. Brady turned to his father, silently begging for his help. John stepped up to Chloe as Belle and Shawn came running up.
"Dad, what's wrong with her?" Belle asked, concerned for her best friend. Her shock over the slides had finally worn off when she saw that Chloe was upset and in trouble.
"I don't know, Sweetie." John replied absentmindedly as he studied Chloe. He took her face in his hands and peered into her large, unblinking eyes.
Chloe stood completely still, her back ramrod straight. Her arms were plastered to her sides and her face was expressionless. Just the sight of her in this condition chilled the spectators and the earlier laughter and excited gossip fell away to be replaced by an eerie silence. The students felt racked with guilt, similar to laughing at someone who has just fallen, only to find that they are seriously hurt. It was the same now. It was clear that something was very wrong with Chloe.
Mr. Woods shook his head, saddened and disappointed by the behavior of his students. As a teacher he thought he had seen it all. The cruelty that the students seemed capable of inflicting on others had ceased to surprise him. Until tonight. He grabbed the microphone with a heavy sigh and addressed the crowd of students.
"What is wrong with you?" he asked, letting his emotions get the better of him for the moment. "Have you learned nothing from the events of recent years? Have you forgotten Columbine? Or the countless other acts of school violence that occur so frequently we don't even hear about them anymore? How could you do this to another person?" he asked quietly.
Silence fell over the shamed crowd. One student finally spoke up.
"Mr. Woods, we didn't do this." She protested.
"No, but you didn't stop it. And you didn't intervene on behalf of a fellow student who was obviously in distress. Instead, you laughed. You took pleasure in her pain and suffering. Well, I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Because the dance is now ended. I want you to go home and spend summer vacation thinking about what happened tonight, and how you can prevent things like this from happening. Because if I feel that there is even the slightest possibility of anything like this occurring again, I will cancel ALL of next year's dances, games, and all other events, and your Senior Year will certainly.suck. Now goodnight." Mr. Woods finished his speech as the gym lights came back on and the disappointed crowd of students silently filed out the gym door. He walked off the stage and called to Kevin and Susan.
"Let's see if we can find out who did this." He told them with a gleam in his eye.
Meanwhile John was having no luck in rousing Chloe. Belle whipped out her tiny cell phone from her sequined purse. "I'm going to call Dr. Wesley."
"Good idea, Izzy." John stepped back from Chloe who continued to stare in silence, unmoving. "I'm going to call Marlena." He said as he pulled a sleek black phone from the pocket of his dress slacks.
Hope gently caressed Chloe's face, hoping for some response. "Poor thing. Who would do something like this to her?" She turned to Brady. "Brady, that boy said that he had seen you near the projector?" Hope asked, not to accuse him, but to get some answers.
Brady tore his gaze away from Chloe's stiff body and unseeing eyes. He sighed deeply. "I saw Jan Spears and Mimi Lockhart messing with the slides earlier. I went to see what they had done, but got interrupted by the ceremony."
"Mimi?" Belle questioned as she clicked her phone shut. "No, she couldn't have. I know she doesn't like Chloe, but she would never have done this to anyone." She protested with tears in her wide blue eyes. She refused to believe that Mimi could be responsible for such a heinous prank.
"Well, she did." A voice behind Belle replied. She turned around to find Kevin, Susan and Mr. Woods coming up to them. "I hacked into the site (man that was fast). I'm sorry, Belle, but that website account was set up in Mimi's name. She's responsible for this."
"With a little help from Jan, no doubt." Susan put in dryly. She herself had been the victim many times of Jan's unique brand of cruelty.
Kevin went on to explain his role in the prank. He described how Mimi and Jan convinced him to rig a science lab explosion that would spill horrible smelling chemicals all over Chloe's hair and clothes, forcing her to shower in the school's shower room.
"Apparently, though I didn't know it, they had installed a hidden camera to record her in the showers, and that's where they got their pictures from. The website is set up to give you a preview screen showing censored pictures like this (he pointed to the slide that was still showing on the overhead screen.) In order to view the nude pictures, you have to then pay money to the site. Guys, this website has been up for several months now, receiving thousands of hits a day. That's a lot of people who have seen those pictures." Kevin finished.
Brady sighed and ran his fingers through his unruly blond hair. So the prank ran much deeper than he thought. It wasn't just humiliation in front of her schoolmates. No, thousands of people had seen her naked body. Brady shuddered to think of the type of people who might have visited that site, the type of crazed perverts who may have leered at Chloe's body.
His stomach twisted with pain and guilt. Not only had he not prevented her humiliation tonight, he also hadn't stepped in when Phillip began to berate her. He had stepped forward to intervene, but his father had held him back, saying that they needed to work through this by themselves.
And Brady had foolishly listened. He had reasoned that Phillip's cruel words would invoke a response from Chloe's temper and maybe she'd finally get rid of him after seeing his true colors. But he hadn't expected this. This total and complete emotional breakdown. No, it wasn't a breakdown; it was a shutdown. Like her mind, her personality had just.shut off. And if that was the case, how could they hope to bring her back?
Brady was shaken out of his thoughts by a new arrival into the gym. {What the HELL is he doing here?} He simply glared at Phillip who casually strolled through the now empty gym.
"Hey, where is everybody?" he asked as he looked around the gym. "I came back to get my coat." His eyes fell on Chloe's rigid form. "Hey, what's wrong with her?" he asked slightly concerned.
"Like you care." Brady bit out through clenched teeth. His muscles tensed. God, how he wanted to pound on Phillip. But right now there were more important matters on his mind. Uncle Phil could wait. He focused back on Chloe. "If you loved her half as much as you say you did, then you would have known that she could never do this. You would have known that someone else did this to her." He said simply and sadly, not even looking at his uncle.
"And what makes you such an expert on Chloe?" Phillip asked with blatant jealousy. He still believed that Chloe had set up the website to make money, but was incensed at the implications that Brady knew her better than he did.
Brady's response stopped dead on his tongue as he saw Chloe's eyes flutter. She blinked several times and adopted a more normal breathing rhythm. She lost some the rigidity in her stance but then straightened back in a posture that made her seem inches taller than she had been. She slowly looked around the gym as she took in her surroundings.
As her gaze fell on the people who surrounded her, Brady noticed a hard edge to her features that wasn't there before. A coldness in her blue eyes. A toughness in her stance.
"Chloe?" Brady called to her.
She didn't answer but instead her eyes focused on the giant screen above her. She simply stared at the screen for a few moments, causing others to fear that she had fallen back into her trance.
"Shut that thing off!" Brady yelled, pointing to the projector. He turned back around to face Chloe, to gauge her response to the picture.
Her face took on a contemplative expression. She crossed her arms against her chest and cocked her head slightly to the side. Slowly, her face cracked to reveal a slight smirk.
The spectators frowned; they hadn't expected this reaction. They waited quietly and just observed Chloe's actions.
Chloe tapped her full lips with a manicured forefinger as she studied the screen. "I must say. That is some nice photography. Captured all my best sides, doncha think?" She quipped with a wink at Phillip who had taken a position beside her. Her voice sounded strange to everyone's ears. It seemed to be deeper, tougher, with a harsh quality that certainly wasn't there before.
Phillip was floored by Chloe's cavalier statement. He flew off in a rage. "I knew it!!" he yelled at her, his face an unattractive shade of blotched red. "You aren't even trying to deny it. You're proud of yourself like some common slut. You're a cheap whore!"
Chloe simply cocked a bemused eyebrow at Phillip's rant.
He continued. "I can't believe I ever went out with a FREAK like you! GHOUL GIRL! SLUT!" he spat at her.
Chloe rolled her eyes and drew herself to her full height. "Phillip. Right?" she addressed him. He paused momentarily, confusion written on his features and then WHAM! Out of the blue she cold-cocked him with a left hook that sent him flying backwards to CRASH! into the refreshment table. Chloe smiled to see the boy lying on the floor, covered in red punch, out cold.
She shook her hand and winced at the momentary pain. "Haven't done that in a while." She remarked to herself.
Her friends were dumbfounded by her new behavior. "Chloe?" Belle called.
The girl they knew as Chloe threw her hand up in Belle's face. "Hang on a sec, willya? It's been awhile." She stated with a frown as she tried to sort things in her mind.
She looked down at her clothes and frowned in disgust. "What the F*CK am I wearing?! I swear, the girl has no taste in clothes." She cast a satisfied look at Phillip where he lay sprawled on the floor. "Or sorry- ass loser boyfriends."
"Um. Chloe?" Belle asked again, totally shocked by Chloe's attitude.
The girl finally looked at Belle, as if noticing her for the first time.
"You aren't Chloe, are you?" Kevin said quietly. A soft gasp of surprise rang in the gym. What did he say?
Chloe gifted him with a cold smile. "Give the geek a gold star. No. I'm not Chloe. She's uh, gone on a little vacation. I'm head man 'til she gets back. IF she gets back."
Brady looked at Chloe completely stunned. He could not wrap his brain around the turn of events. It seemed impossible, and yet, it was obvious that the girl in front of him wasn't the Chloe that he knew. She was someone else entirely.
"If you aren't Chloe," he asked softly, "then who are you?"
She shrugged simply. "Call me Sarah. But don't worry bout memorizin' the name. I seriously doubt that I'm gonna be spendin' much time with you losers." She sneered.
She shook the pins out of her hair and let it fall down. "Hey, quick question. What year is it?"
"Uh. It's June 2001." Belle stammered.
"That long, huh?" Sarah looked down appreciatively at the body she now wore. "I'd noticed a few changes." She commented with a wink in Brady's direction.
"Alright. Well, nice meeting you all." Sarah remarked in a tone that implied otherwise. She turned and headed toward the gymnasium exit.
"Later." She called out without a second look back. "Or not. Whatever."
And then she was gone, leaving a stunned crowd in her wake.