Ice Bear said nothing, leaving for the kitchen when he saw Chloe starting to cry. He came back with a cup of Chamomile tea, hoping it would calm her nerves. He walked past the couch and placed the drink on the table Chloe was sitting on. Without even checking to observe it, Chloe grabbed for the warm cup and brushed her hair back as she brought her head back into normal position.

"*sniffle* Thank you" she replied in a in a very quiet and devastating manner. She took a sip of it as Ice Bear walked away to give her all the space she needed, as well as give the bears some time to talk if they needed to while she was engaged with herself and the calming drink.

Panda whispered towards Grizz on his right "Grizz, I don't know what to do here. We shouldn't make her feel like she has to continue, but we can't just tell her to stop".

Grizz replied "I know, but I feel lost as well. Maybe we should get her to call her parents and have them bring her home."

Ice Bear budged in to give his suggestion. "Ice Bear hopes tea will make her sleepy".

[From off camera, still facing the Bears,] Chloe said, overhearing the three "Guys. *sniffles* It's ok, really. It's just that… you guys are the first ones who have ever wondered what it was like for me growing up." Her tone sounded more depressing than upset, like that was even somehow possible to the Bears.

"What about your parents?" said Grizz, holding the arm not on his destroyed pile of sandwich out towards her. "Haven't you ever told them about this kind of stuff?"

Chloe stared straight at them and exclaimed "I never told my parents, no. Before I tell you why though, can I…finish with high school?" The Bears were a little uncomfortable by this, fearing it would only devastate her completely, but they did not want to hurt Chloe's feelings even more than she was in already. Saying no would only make her feel unappreciated.

Grizz spoke out on behalf of his brothers with some uncertainty in his voice "Umm, sure, if it will help." Chloe actually smiled back at Grizz through all her despair and sadness, stating it will, as she drank one more sip of the tea Ice Bear had made. Looks like the drink was really working after all.

She placed the cup down and moved on, still looking out at the bears on the couch. "I told my parents this time about the news and, once more, they were very happy for me. My dad actually took me and my mom out to dinner that night to celebrate my achievement. Between me, the news, and the food, my parents were laughing and praising me, saying what a great kid I was and how 'they always knew I was destined for greatness, but never knew it would happen to me at such a young age'". She finished this with her hands air quoting what her parents told her all those years ago.

"I ended up accepting the offer and, when I was 7, started out my freshman year in high school, that's first by the way, so 9th". She said this smiling a little more, looking almost normal and having moved past from the near breakdown a little while ago. "Now, I was at high school a while longer than the other schools, but that was mostly because I stayed and took more advanced classes earlier on. We had a total of seven classes per year, and since high school lasts for 4, how many is that?" she asked the bears.

Grizz answered first, questioning her question. "uh, 42?"

"11?" was Pan-Pan's answer.

Then Ice Bear had gotten right. "28," he said.

Chloe answered excitedly at Ice, smiling even more "Correct. I could have just taken basic classes, but some of these basics could be replaced with college versions: Pre-calc. with AP calc, History with AP Hist., and so on. Some classes could not do this, like algebra and economics, at my school at least. Truth is though…" She stopped to catch herself, instantly losing the smile she reclaimed. "I only… did it because my parents thought I should. I mean, they did tell me that 'they believed I could do it' and 'I did not have to if I didn't desire it', but I thought it was just there way of saying they wanted me to".

In that instance, Grizz suddenly felt horrible, correlating what her parents got her to do with his own actions earlier. He turned his head away from Chloe to drown himself in shame, but looking out at the window, he noticed the sun was going down. He couldn't believe that night was coming so fast. It seemed too soon. He thought to himself how long has this been going on for?

She then got to the part about the bullies. "What the councilor in middle school said about high school was a lie though. Maturity was most certainly not present there. I not only took so much crap, but, literally, got so much beaten into me." This just made Grizz, whose head instantly jerked back in Chloe's direction, and Panda's jaws drop in disbelief. Ice didn't drop his, but his eyes were wide open and full of dubiousness. Chloe took another sip of the tea before continuing, preparing for the worst.

"The first week I was there," she started off in a sketchy, upsetting voice, "I not only got picked on for my size and age around a bunch of teens, but my stuff was stolen from me on a day-to-day basis as the guys took my things and tossed them to each other over my head to taunt me even more. When they were done, they threw it either on top of a place I couldn't reach or, if I was lucky, in a trash can, where I had to jump in and grab everything."

The Bears closed their jaws and returned to normal eye size after Grizz replied "That's HOR-rible", emphasizing.

"It get's worst." She said back to him, sniffling a little, but not tearing or crying. "None of the other girls wanted to be my friends when I was there. They said that I wasn't cool enough to be around them and that I should go 'back to playing with dollies' or 'have tea with my imaginary friends', which I never had one by the way"! She started to sound angry on the second part, gooking the bears out.

"It wasn't only bad enough that I had no friends or respect, even for my intelligence, but there was a time when I actually got into a fight."

Panda had to respond in disbelief of what she said, dragging out the word as he almost breathed it out. "Nooo!"

Chloe turned specifically to Panda and replied "Oh yeah. It happened in my sophomore year. I was walking to class when Britney, one of the meanest girls in school, crashed into me down the hall on my way to P.E. She had a coffee in her hand from lunch and, apparently, my collision with her dumped the entire hot mess on her skin and white dress. She ran to the water fountain nearby to cool the coffee off. Even though I ran to her and apologized, she was furious." Chloe was now transitioning from some sadness to anger with every passing word, getting up from her seated position to stand up in front of the Bears and paced back and forth as she spoke.

"She started complaining to me about how this dress of hers was brand-new and I had ruined it. I told her she could just bleach it out, but I don't think she was even listening to me at the time, what with the pain she felt." Then came the scariness in her voice. "She walked to me slowly, but angrily. I was only 4 ft. 2 at the time and she, being 15, had to be at least 5 ft. 4. She came closer, arms out, hands in a fist formation, and sucker punched me right in my face!"

Her shouting startled everyone, with Panda reaching over towards Ice for the pillow he was leaning against. He couldn't reach it, but Ice, not breaking his stare at Chloe, handed it to Panda, who then tucked himself into a ball and the pillow tight around his arms and chest.

Chloe ended her short, saying "I ended up getting a black eye and, when the nurse asked what happen, I told her I tripped in the hall and slammed my face on my locker. No one told her the truth and all those who witnessed it didn't speak up. I chose not to say anything because I feared Britney might hurt me again, or get her boyfriend at the time to do it for her."

Grizz had to ask her again. "What about your parents? What did they say?"

Chloe looked down on herself in shame and stated "I told them the same thing, not wanting them to be disappointed in me and having to take me out of the school." The Bears were all confused and could not understand why Chloe would say such a thing, but they just did not understand; it was personal.

Chloe continued on, sitting herself sown and her voice sounding sadder by the second; de ja vu came to them all. "I was in high school for 3 years, but I could have graduated from there in 2. The reason I stayed the extra year was because I had completed all the basic classes and AP substitutes that were necessary to get a diploma, but I chose to stay and do more college classes, knowing I would be going to college after high school and…" She stopped again to look down at the table and released a big exhaling of wind from herself. She said softly, yet profound and sad "then become an adult".

Grizz decided to ask "Wait a minute, is that one of the reasons why you don't want to be in college? Because you don't like getting older?"

Chloe looked herself up back to the trio and protested "No, not exactly. It's because I think it was not best for me".