Chloe anxiously sat there in the clinic with her estranged companion, a mixture of unrestrained forehead sweat and uncontrolled twin trickles of tears forming a dual pool of tiny moisture down by her trainers. Why is Sab being so… I've never seen her like this… and how the heck does she know about…
The heiress decided to play it casual for now, despite her nervous outward disposition. "Y-You mean, the old toy I used to sleep with, before I'd even been given Mr Cuddly? That old thing? I'm just carrying her around with me until I can donate it to goodwill later today. There's no point in you 'meeting' her, she's not that remarkable. But what I do want to know is who's been spreading all that malicious gossip about me. I've got three guesses, and all of them start with the letter 'L'..."
"Oh, don't say your 'special friend' isn't important to you on my account, Chloe! She might get insulted. I bet she's listening to every word we're saying right now. Don't ruin such an 'unbreakable' bond on my account…" Sabrina deftly parried the blonde's frantic denials with finesse, before once more going in for the kill. "As for how I found out about your new 'bestie'... well, does it really matter? Judging by your panicky reaction, I can tell it's all true anyway. Now come on, no more silly games. I only want to see this 'amazing' bug who stole my place for a second. Just a lil peek. What could be the harm…?"
The bespectacled girl continued to derive a somewhat sadistic pleasure in teasing the tense blonde, as if somehow attempting to redress the balance for the literal hundreds of times the boot had been on the other foot situation-wise. Even now, her outstretched hand wavered tantalisingly close to the edge of Chloe's bag, threatening to grab it and reveal the fuzzy and buzzy contents any second.
"N-No, Sabrina! It's a waste of time, I tell you! It's just a stupid dirty thing I liked when I was very young, but I've since way grown out of! Y-You don't want to touch her anyway… she hasn't even been washed!" Apologies for insulting you like this Zzubo, you know I'm only saying this to get her off the scent.
"If that really is true Chloe, why are you backing away so much? Why are you shaking like a leaf? In fact, you remind me of someone… oh wait, that would be me! In the 'good old days', when you would make my life a living hell on a regular basis! Not so nice when you're the victim instead of the bully, is it? Anyway… stop messing about! I… want… to… SEE!"
With that final shouted exclamation there, Sabrina did something she thought she'd never do.
Not in a million years. Chloe obviously agreed, considering how much the heiress was caught out just then.
With a lightning thrust forward a scorpion would've been proud of, the determined redhead took that precise moment to grab one of the handles of Chloe's bag…
The blonde, totally not expecting a violent ambush from such a timid individual, nevertheless managed to cling onto the other end as if her life depended on it. A bizarre tug-of-war soon commenced between the two former pals, punctuated by randomly shouted statements from both sides as the contest commenced.
"S-Sabrina! What has gotten into you?! This isn't like you at all! Did Lila put you up to this? Do I even have to tell you what a bad influence and a liar she…"
"Don't worry, Chloe! No-one could ever take your place, in terms of terrible role models! I can really pick 'em, can't I? Well, you know what I think? If you can't beat 'em, join…"
At this juncture, the limited constraints of Chloe's cheap second-hand holdall soon became increasingly apparent.
A little split started to emerge in the thin fabric…
The visible tear got bigger and bigger, until…
RRIIPP!
That did it. One final jerk from a frenzied Sabrina was all it took for the budget bag to be torn asunder, it's mearge contents scattered all over the room like sprinkles…
No makeup, euros or indeed anything of value was contained within…
Apart from Chloe's recently-returned phone, naturally. Also: a spare tampon. A girl's gotta stay 'refreshed', after all…
But something even more valuable than those two indispensables products now lay face-down on the hard, cold floor in full view of the pair of feuding girls…
Yes, it was Zzubo herself, looking none-the-worst for her ordeal. She was naturally in 'stasis' mode as Chloe and Sabrina stared down at her motionless form: one with undisguised horror, and the other with a morbid sense of fascination.
I'll let you guess which is which.
"Oh, so this is the weird bug I've heard so much about!" Sabrina didn't hesitate a second longer, as she snatched up the unmoving kwami with clear relish. "The one you spend so much time alone with these days. The one you confide with in everything. The one who you seem to think is a better friend than a living, breathing girl. I-I can't tell how happy I am for you both, or what it's done for my s-self c-confidence. That I could be upstaged so easily by a… b-by a-a…"
Sabrina's cracked glasses began steaming up, as Chloe's rapidly growing feelings of hysteria about her fuzzy foster parent's predicament were tempered somewhat by a growing realisation her suddenly emotional ex-friend's mood. "Oh, Sabrina. If that's what this is all about, we can…"
"...No! NO! You do not get to tell me what to think or feel ever again, do you hear me?!" After a few brief moments of wavering, Sabrina had quickly snapped out of her melancholic stupor, and was brandishing Zzubo aloft with renewed vigour. "You've put me through so much pain in my life, even if you were genuine in your attempts to make amends, how does that undo all the harm you've caused me already? If only Dad could see me now: picking on another kid by threatening to throw their favourite toy out of the window. One of the smartest girls in school, reduced… to this. Pathetic. And, mostly your fault."
"S-Sabrina, please. I never meant to… if I ever made you feel… if I could just explain… wait, what do you mean 'throw out of the window?" Chloe was caught up in twin mindsets of genuine concern for Sabrina's fragile state of mind, and utter desperation of retrieving her beloved insectoid guardian. "Sabrina! You give Zzubo back to me this instant! I am not playing around here! Whatever might be going on between us, it has nothing to do with…"
"Oh, it's 'Zzubo' is it? Finally, our mystery bee has a name. How cute! Personally, I would've picked somethin like 'Stripey' or 'Pollen', but I suppose 'Zzubo' is at least original…" Sabrina pondered momentarily with wry amusement, before deftly moving towards the open window. "Also, surprise, surprise… it turns out you lied to me again. I wasn't entirely convinced by your performance before when you said this silly thing meant nothing to you, but having witnessed your response now and that fact you gave it such a stupid name proves that this dumb toy does mean a great deal to you! Almost as much as that bracelet that you plan to play smashy-smashy with tonight meant to me! So, seeing as though you're going to break something that's so important to me, it seems only fair that…"
"S-Sabrina! Y-You don't want to do this! I-If you only knew…" Chloe's eyes grew wider and wider in fear as Sabrina slowly but surely made her way to the edge of the room, and she knew she'd have to act soon in preventing a possible calamity. "...Well if you won't listen to reason, and my sorrys mean nothing to you, then I guess I'll have to… I didn't want things to end this way, but I'm afraid you've left me no choice. Give me back my kwami… NOW!"
Before Sabrina could ask the obvious question 'What the heck is a kwami?' Chloe was upon her like a shot, bellowing out a most unladylike war cry and unmanicured sharpened nails poised for the kill. A true tussle for the ages soon ensued, with the blonde's lightness of weight proving deceptively sufficient to pin down her redhead opponent's shorter frame, while one hand reached out with anguish, resolute in its desire to locate the insectoid target…
But it was no longer there. Sabrina's open palm was now completely empty.
Immediately upon making this shock discovery, Chloe clambered off her suddenly chastened sparring partner to frantically rush about… scouring the floor, checking under the bed, peering between the pillows, hoping against hope that…
"C-Chloe… I-I'm really sorry… I-I didn't mean to… L-Lila said that if I…"
Sabrina's protestations were for naught, as both girls realised simultaneously that unwittingly or not, the glasses-wearer had dropped Zzubo outside in the midst of their brief struggle. Chloe glanced over with apoplectic anger at Sabrina, and almost restarted the brawl there and then… but wisely decided that making sure her precious kwami was safe was a far bigger priority.
"Zzubo! Oh, Zzubo… Where are you? I can't see you anywhere…" Chloe cried out loud as she looked down from the second floor to a few bemused passers-by in the schoolyard below. "T-There's no sign of her anywhere! W-Where could she have gone? D-Don't tell me someone picked her up already…"
Just as Chloe was on the verge of dashing downstairs to shout the insectoid's name with wild abandonment and possibly make even more of a public spectacle of herself, she felt a soft, trembling hand on her shoulder as a clearly repentant Sabrina attempted to at least partially conciliate their differences.
"C-Chloe. I-I don't know what to say. If I only knew how much that stuffed toy, I mean 'ZZubo', meant to you… I never would've… Lila said if I teased you with it long enough, you might see what it was like to be me for all those years… and you'd understand better and we could be true friends again. B-But it wasn't supposed to go this far. If it means anything, let me tell you I truly regret…"
" 'Regret' isn't going to get me her back though, is it?! 'Regret' won't help me find the one thing, apart from you and Adrien, that's been good in my life for as long as I can remember! 'Regret' isn't going to find the fuzzy nuisance dropped onto my bed in a box one day that I've come to love, both as a parent and a friend, and who would've helped me to become a true hero. Now I'll never be able to atone for my past sins, or even worse, feel her antennas gently twitch as I hold her close, or hear that b-beautiful b-buzzing s-sound w-when s-she's h-happy…"
Chloe was about to open the floodgates for what felt like the millionth time that week, whilst Sabrina wondered whether her old friend had completely lost her marbles, or had seemingly discovered the greatest toy in existence. With the amount of excess wealth at her disposal, anything's possible… the redhead thought not unreasonably.
But just as Chloe was about to drown the whole school out, and Sabrina was either going to comfort her or call the local mental health facility…
A strange melodic buzzing noise could be heard emitting just above the two girls, which oddly enough sounded very similar to the one which the weeping blonde had just described so accurately.
"Chloe Bourgeois-Marigold! How often must I tell you this? I'm not going anywhere, until I see you as a fully-fledged hero who devotes her life to saving the world! Still, it's always nice to hear people say nice things about you, so please don't stop on my account. As for your friend gawking at me now while we speak though, I think we need to have a few words…"
What happened next was exactly as you'd come to expect with Chloe and Zzubo's reunions so far. Lots of hugging, snuggling, solemn promises of 'I'll never leave you alone again', etc…
This time around though, there was a witness. A completely lost-for-words one, at that.
"T-That… W-What is that… W-Who is… W-What's going on here?!"
Hearing Sabrina's uncontrollable stammering, Chloe abruptly stopped her embrace of Zzubo to turn sheepishly to her almost speechless companion. "Oh well, I suppose someone had to find out sooner or later. I'm just glad it was you Sab, I guess. Sabrina, Zzubo. Zzubo, Sabrina. Do you want to touch her? It takes a bit of getting used to, but these bristles are surprisingly soft. Unless you have them growing on your feet, of course…"
But in the shortest of moments Chloe had turned away to acknowledge Zzubo's arrival on the scene to Sabrina the inevitable had happened.
The redhead had fainted dead away. Unlike with Lila though, this had nothing to do with any 'Bee Song'.
Just a perfectly normal reaction to seeing a twelve-inch floating bee creature talking to you like it was the most natural thing in the world.
If Zzubo was at all self-conscious, she might almost be offended at the regularity with which this occurred.
….
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Yes, everyone. Time to let off the fireworks, declare a national holiday, and putting your hands in the air like you just don't care.
Why? I've decided to actually continue AND conclude this story, after nearly five years away.
My reasons are many, and manifold. Here I shall explain a few:
a)Because I want to. Shouldn't need to say much more than that, should I?
b)The actual show is SUCH a broken mess these days, introducing a completely unnecessary 'perfect' sister Zoe who's only personality trait is her nicey-nice blandness to take Chloe's place as Queen Bee whilst rewriting Chloe's character from a school bully with hidden depths to an out-and-and psychopath with no redeeming features. And all this, just to make Zoe look good in comparison.
I tell you… That Thomas Astruc is a bit of a twat, isn't he? Still, the IDEA behind the show is good, so let's see if we can't make the most of Chloe's wasted potential in the remainder of this fic, shall we? Whatever else happens, I am highly confident I can do better than the actual official writers… and I say that with 100% certainty.
c) I just don't like leaving things unfinished, you know? I've always enjoyed writing this story, but sadly a few unforeseen situations like 'adult responsibilities', 'depression', 'work' and 'family issues' reared their ugly head & have kept me busy for as long as I can remember. Not saying these have totally gone away, but they've cleared to a point where I feel I can FINALLY devote some free time to completing my magna opus. Namely, this. Huzzah!
d) There seems to be hardly anyone on this website now, and I want to see if me updating this brings them back into the light. And even if it doesn't, I'm gonna upload it on Archive where hopefully it'll get the attention I believe it's due. The upshot of it is: I'mn gonna finish this story… by hook or by crook, come hell or high water, by the hair on your chinny-chin-chin… you get the point. 😛
Regardless, to all my old readers: hope this chapter has rekindled your interest in this long-neglected fic, and I hope you stick about for the no-doubt 'thrilling' finale. I also hope you didn't have to reread all 70 chapters with over 180k words like I just had to, just to be in a position to prepare myself. Thank you all, and for now… ciao!