ET Chapter 27: The truth shall free or damn thy

What does one wear when forced to go back to school, meeting not only with their nasty social worker but an annoying, gullible principle on a freaking Sunday?

It was a question that bounced against Gabriella's mind as she searched through her closet and drawers.

Ordinarily, she'd just be in her PJs all day unless something came up that required her to put on clothes.

She supposed she could put together a wow-stunner of an outfit that was bound to give Tweety a heart attack and put Matsui and his guards on creep-lane. Like lacy-tight cami that left little to the imagination and one of the shortest black skirts she owned paired with six-inch black stilettos.

The thought put a smile on her face. The smile quickly soured, though, as she thought about the shit she would get from Javier.

Damn.

For the sake of her sanity and her head, she decided to play it safe. She settled with a bright pink and black striped long-sleeve hoodie shirt over a black tank top, a black mini skirt over pink leggings and black high-top sneakers.

Fixing her hair into a low ponytail, she studied her appearance. Her eyes were still red, despite the drops, so she slid on her shades. Modest but still edgy, still her. She nodded in approval.

Anita eyed the girl's apparel she stepped out of the room. Gabriella ignored her amused eyes and made herself a large cup of hot coffee and two pills of Tylenol Javier silently handed her without looking at her.

"You call that outfit business meeting attire?" Anita asked her.

Gabriella held up a finger, needing a minute. She swallowed the pills dry and washed it down with three gulps of the coffee. "My first choice actually was that nude, rhinestone-sparkle dress Rihanna was rocking, but the witch refuses to let me borrow me."

"You'd definitely stop traffic wearing."

"Then some." Gabriella smiled.

She felt her brother's eyes rolling, but she paid him no attention. The last thing she needed was to look into those eyes and see more disappointment in them.

The two rode to East High on Gabriella's bike in complete silence.

The entire building was deserted except for a few cars in the parking lot, most likely belonging to staff members. As much she hated coming in on a Sunday, she had to admit there was one benefit. No snoppy Wildcat trying to get in on the action.

The principal's office was just the same as it was the last time she was here, smallish and too perky with motivation posters plastered on the wall, featuring a cat hanging on a branch with the words Hang In There written underneath its feet. All the players were here. Officer one and two standing by the doors, cautious of her. Tweety seated right by Matsui's desk in small chair, body tight with tension, signature scowl darkening with Gabriella's arrival. Principal Matsui behind his desk, eyes focused on his entwined hands.

Gabriella saw this time there were several more players. Little Ms. Queen Bee and her workers sitting in a set of chairs brought into the office. All three of them were dressed in similar clothes, pink shirts and brown skirts, as if they coordinated their outfits.

Queenie looked surprised by the sight of Gabriella, but surprise quickly changed into anger. Whether it was because she was wearing one of their colors or not mattered very little to her.

"Look what the wind blew in." Heather whispered not so slyly to her friends, who giggled.

Gabriella smiled sweetly at the Queen Bee, envisioning that pretty blonde hair to be pulled out painfully root by root. Oh, how sweet that would be. "Look the pussycat spat out."

All three gaped at her, speechless, which only widened that sweet smile of hers. The smile, though, quickly vanished as Matsui cleared his throat, trying to grab her attention.

"Ms. Montez," Principal Matsui pointed the empty chair planted right in front of his desk. "Please have a seat."

She resisted the strong urge to roll her eyes as she took her seat.

"Is there a reason why you're wearing sunglasses, Ms. Montez?" Tweety chirped.

Because I'm blinded by your vast ugliness. She was tempted to say those words, but kept them in. Her brother's eyes were burning holes into her skull, watching her every move.

"Because," Gabriella answered, pasting a sweet smile on her face. It was so sweet, it was sickening. "My poor eyes couldn't stop crying when Lassie came through the pathway and finally came home." She placed her hand on her heart and sighed dramatically. "It never fails to cut me deep. Right here."

"Oh!" Amanda aka minion two smiled. "I love that movie. Lassie is such a cutie bunny."

For a second Gabriella was sure her hangover was affecting her hearing. Turning around and seeing the seriousness in the blonde's eyes, she saw she was wrong.

"Sweetie," Gwen said to Amanda. "I think you mean dog?"

Amanda cocked a confused eyebrow. "Why does a dog have to do with Lassie?"

And Madame and Tweety wonder why I didn't just want to graduate already.

After those confusing words, the office was thick with heavy silence and growing tension. Hands twitching. Eyes bouncing from person to person. All except for the Montez sibling, Javier was silent, looking down at his sister as if she knew the reason for the silence. Gabriella didn't. Which made her annoyed.

Here she was on a Sunday morning, sitting in a room fill of people she could barely tolerate sober, when she should be sleeping off her hangover.

Finally, unable to stand the silence any longer, she said to the principal "Matsui. As much I love watching my valuable Sunday slip away with each second I sit here, being surround by you fine folk," She made sure the sarcasm rolling off her tongue was heard loud and clear. "I would very much like to get to the point of being surrounded like some medieval servant."

"Watch your tongue, young lady." Tweety warned.

Mr. Matsui didn't look offended. He looked almost intrigued. "Never one to delay, are you, Ms. Montez?" He leaned into his chair and studied her. "Your teachers from LaGuardia said that's a famous trait."

"Infamous flaw is more like it." Tweety mumbled-loudly-under her breath.

Bitch.

"Mr. Matsui," Heather said. "Usually I try to distance myself from bad influences like her," She pointed at Gabriella. "But I actually have to agree with Montez."

Minion one and two gasped. Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"I know. It's shocking," Heather said. "Sadly it's true. Is there a reason why you called us all down here?"

Principal reached into his top drawer and pulled out a tape-recorder. It was small and black. It looked like the type any kid could get from a knock-off spy store.

He pressed one button.

"So it's pretty weird about last week," a person's voice practically echoed in the silent room.

"Gabriella getting called into Matsui's office, then getting suspended like that."

Gwen's voice came up, sounding very loud and drunk. "I wouldn't say weird. I'd say payback."

"Why do you say that?"

"I mean we're the ones who did it."

I knew it Gabriella thought as eyes immediately flew over to the trio who were turning white.

"Wow. That's just-"

"I know," Gwen cut in, sounding quite proud of herself. "Fucking brilliant and totally well-deserved. Hope for that skank's sake, she'll learn you never mess with Heather or us without getting squished like a bug."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it's time someone put the little skank in her place."

"You planted the drugs in her locker?"

"Don't be silly. We never do the physical labor. We have losers to do that for us. Heather first started with the sectary's daughter, Penny Sweets. Or Heets. Or whatever the hell her last name is. Anyway, we made a deal with her. Well, actually, Heather made the deal. She helps us get Montez's locker combination, then Heather hooks up her with a free appointment to a doctor at a clinic a few towns over that have a very strict no-questions policy."

"What about the bag?"

"The bag?" It took close to a minute for the realization to sink in. "Oh! You mean the drugs? Those were a bit trickier."

Heather's face was tightening more and more with each word being said. Amanda's mouth dropped further and further. Splotches of red flushed Gwen's ghost-white complexion, growing warmer and warmer.

On audio, drunk Gwen was spilling the beans on how they hired the school's dealer and his brother the janitor to come up with a bag filled with enough drugs to get Gabriella on the hot seat. To everyone's shock-and Gabriella's disgust-she mentioned how Heather offered them Amanda as a present for their cooperation.

Gwen, at the time at least didn't' seem the least bit remorseful with that fact. Her words were, "It wasn't as if we pimped her out to him. Basically it's not like Amanda's a virgin or anything. She already did more than half the male population at school. A simply threesome is not going to kill."

Whoever the detective was that decided to bring the truth to life managed to keep their identity a secret by digitizing their voice to be strictly and unrecognizably computer monotone.

"So you, Gwen Davis, Heather Homes, Amanda Fallen, with the help of the Bono brothers framed Gabriella Montez?"

"Duh. Amanda fucked the brothers behind the bleachers. Heather got the locker combination from Penny Sweets. Aaaron and Joel put together the goodie-bag. And before the final bell rang- as soon as we made sure the halls were completely clear-Heather opened the locker, and I placed the drug bag right on the shelf like so. Easy as one, two, three."

Several things happened after that. More than several.

Officer one choked on the gum he was chewing, needing some assistance from Officer two.

Tweety's mouth hung so low, it was close to the floor.

Amanda was sucking hard on a lollipop she pulled out, oblivious to the tension.

Heather whipped around and slapped Gwenie so hard across the face, Gabriella winced at the sound.

"You fucking little bitch!" Queenie shrilled.

"It wasn't my fault," Gwen argued, holding her freshly-bruised cheek. "I was drunk."

"You don't know when you keep that big mouth of yours shut, do you?"

"At least I know when to keep my legs together."

"Do you guys know what flavor this is?" Amanda licked her lollipop, taking her time with it. "At first lick, I thought strawberry. Then I realize it's not as sweet. Then I thought raspberry. Except I don't like raspberry, so there's no way this can be it because I really like this sucker." She licked it again, not noticing the daggers her friends were pointing at her. "Now it has somewhat of a tangy taste, so it could be a mixed flavor like-"

"Shut up, Amanda!" They both yelled.

"Enough!" Matsui ordered, standing up and slamming his hands down on his desk. The noise silenced the bickering. "Is there anything you three would like to say?"

Queen wasted no time playing the blame game, pointing a finger at her friend. "It's her fault."

Gwen's mouth dropped. She was stunned, stunned and hurt. Probably thought her bestie was a solid friend who would have her back. "Heather."

"She's the one to blame, sir. The whole stunt was her idea."

Gwen's shock quickly morphed to anger. "Now, wait just a minute here. You have as much to do with this. You were the one who thought we should stash a drug-bag in Montez's locker."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"I object!" Amanda exclaimed. She leaped out of her seat and waved her lollipop high like it was the American flag. "And demand to know the flavor of this sucker."

"Shut up, Amanda!"

This time Matsui didn't bother quieting them. He left that task to the security guards who blew loud and hard on their whistles.

Thanking them, Matsui turned over to Gabriella, asking her on her input of the whole ordeal.

A question that made more than a hundred answers, though a good majority of those answers included vulgar language and using her fists as words. However, not in the mood to face Javier's or her social worker's wrath, she decided to answer the question as calmly as she could. "I told you I was framed. I knew it. And it turned out I was right," She looked over Heather. "Someone did frame it. An insecure, whiny little girl with two her flying monkeys. I should have known it was you, Queenie. You're the only one who'd stoop that low to remove a rebel from your tiny kingdom. Is it because you can't handle that? Is it because you know that I'm better than you? Or because unlike you with your bottle-blonde hair and spray-tanned skin, I'm a hundred percent real?"

"One call, Montez," Heather warned. "That's all it's going to take for me to have my Daddy come in here with his boys and get your Spic, worthless ass toss back to the border."

Alright, fuck her head. The bitch was going to get a hell lot more than a slap.

She stood close to Heather, her clenched fist rose high, ready to do some facial surgery. "You got one big mouth, Queenie. And way too much teeth."

The officers blew on their whistles again to break up the fight. Because the two were caught in the crossfire, Gabriella's head as well as her hearing suffered greatly from the blow.

"Thank you, boys."

Heather forgot about Gabriella's presence and directed her attention to Matsui, trying to win back his good graces. "Principal Matsui, let's not be so hasty and jump into conclusions."

"I wouldn't really call these circumstances hasty, Homes," Gabriella chimed in. "Especially since you three Pretty Liars were caught red-handed."

Without turning around, her teeth locked and clenched, Heather growled to Gabriella. "Shut up, Montez."

Heather went on to explain to Mr. Matsui that they couldn't pin the crime on them for one reason. One of the accused was intoxicated during the time of the interview.

"Is this true, Ms. Davis?" Matsui asked Gwen.

Gwen nodded at first quickly like she couldn't get the answer quick enough. Then the speed slowed to hesitation while she thought. "Well, kinda. Sorta. I get wasted from time to time."

"Whilst on school grounds?" His eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"No!" she blurted out. "Well-sometimes-but I'm working on it."

Note to self, Gabriella thought. Don't school and drink. She couldn't think of a more worse combination for drinking.

Heather tried using that bit of information as an advantage. "See. Poor Gwen is suffering through early-stages of wine addition. One bottle is all it takes to undo her. A condition which meant I add has been a struggled battle for generations and generations of Davises."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. Boo-fucking-hoo. Alcoholism and addition the two-headed dragon that generations of Montezes have gone against with only a few making it through the fire. No one would see her trying to that that family history into a soap opera.

"Therefore," She rolled her eyes again while more words came out from Heather's mouth. "You shouldn't and can't take account on what Gwen said since the suspect barely recalls the conversation, much less the night, herself. Done deal. Case closed."

Oh brother.

"If it were any other time, Ms. Homes, I might have actually agreed with you," Matsui said. Heather smiled proudly. "However this is not that time."

Her smile spilt into two. First she was still. Then she was stunned. Next she was pissed. "Why the fuck not?" she demanded.

Red quickly flooded Matsui's face, all the warmth heading straight for his cheeks.

You did it now, Queenie.

"For one, young lady," The principal's voice spoke a tensed minute later. "Both you and Ms. Davis not too long ago were pointing fingers at each other on who the mastermind of this stunt was."

Heather's rage was knocked clean into stunned silence.

"Secondly, the Bono brothers turned in their pieces of evidence."

At the snap of his fingers, the officers pulled out two evidence bags. Officer one's bag contained the drug bag that landed Gabriella in the hot seat. Officer two's bag consist of a pair of barely-there, dental-floss pink panties.

"Amanda," Gwen shrieked. "You gave them your underwear?"

Oh barf. Gabriella quickly looked away and sealed her lips tight. The last thing she needed was for the crowd to see the gallons of liquor she chugged down last night.

"Well…yea," the ditzy blonde answered. "I do that with all the guys. It's my personal brand."

"Your personal brand? For what?"

Amanda huffed and rolled her eyes in a very la-duh manner. "Duh, Gwen. As a personal welcome for having the pleasure of one-on-one time with my pussy."

Oh my dear sweet Jesus, I'm gonna hurl. Gabriella clenched her teeth tight.

Even the grown-ups were looking nauseous, including Tweety who was turning green.

"You're such a slut." Gwen said, shaking her head.

Amanda gasped, and then in the heat of her shock-turned-fury pushed Gwen off the couch, knocking her to the ground with a loud thump. "I may be dumb and like sex too much, but at least I'm my own person. You're such a loser and a follower, Gwen. You'd dye your hair blonde if Heather told you to."

Heather, having very little patience for her friends, silenced their bickering with a terrifying glare and an equally terrifying growl. To Mr. Matsui, she said "I'd hardly say a pair of Victoria Secret panties could tie us to the bag. After all, like Gwen had expressed, it's no secret that Amanda gets around. She has done almost every boy in the school. The brothers could have gotten those from a previous hookup that occurred days past."

The little Asian man entwined his hands together and nodded to himself. "Similar, though not quite as bold, thoughts came to mind when we retrieved the undergarments."

Heather smiled, pleased.

"However," The smile quickly fell apart at the word. "that was the reason the brothers also turned in the drug-bag. They insisted that we go down to the police station and have the bag dusted for prints,"

All three girls went white.

"Imagine my surprise when I saw not only the brothers' prints were smeared on the bag, but also your, Ms. Homes, along with Ms. Davis."

Gabriella's eyes flickered over the pale, stilled trio.

"It was just a prank!" Gwen nearly shouted out.

"Just harmless fun." Amanda added.

Matsui's face was red in a instant, flushed in anger. "I can assure you three that drugs are not a prank nor are they harmless fun. Especially using them to frame a fellow student."

"I object." Amanda cried out.

"Overruled."

Done deal. Cased closed.

The bono brothers were charged heavily with drug possession, being found with more than a dozen bags of weed and a drawer full of prescriptions. The elder one lost his job while the younger one, who had gotten into trouble one too many times, was expelled.

The Mean Girls were able to get away from the possession charges since none were directly found on them, but they sure didn't get out of it scot-free. For instance, there was a pricy-fine needed to be pay that none of their parents were happy about. Queenie's mom informed them in a email Matsui had read to them that the fine was going to cost the girls a two-months worth of designer clothes and spa trips, which they'd have to pay back doing chores and more at their house.

Not only will be working at home, possibly for the first time in their life, they were also going to be doing work at the school as well. Since their stunt cost the janitor his only employee, they would be helping him around the school for the next three months while serving in-house suspension with Ms. Darbus.

"On top of that, you'll be spending the next eight weekends giving back to the community. Saturdays, bright and early, you'll be tutoring underprivileged children at the youth center. Sundays, you'll be serving the homeless at the soup kitchen."

"Anything else?" Gwen managed to get out through her loud sobs.

"Yes. The three of you owe Ms. Montez an apologize."

Heather snorted dismissively. It quite frankly amazed Gabriella that despite the massive hole she was in and the loads of shit piled top of her, Queenie kept her cattiness. "Yea, like that's gonna happen."

"It wasn't a suggestion."

With a loud, choked cry, Amanda fallen to Gabriella's feet like a servant to her queen, pleading mercy. "I'm so so so sorry, Gabriella. The sex wasn't even that good. Noel came just as soon as he put in."

Gabriella couldn't help shuddering as disgusting images mentally-violated her brain.

Gwen pulled a bawling Amanda up on her feet and looked at Gabriella with tear-filled eyes. "I'm sorry, too. It was supposed to be fun."

Gabriella rolled her eyes, then looked at Heather who was glaring at her with everything she had.

"Ms. Homes." Matusi said.

She growled under breath, saying through tightly-closed teeth. "I'm so very sorry, Montez. Sorry that your reputation makes you such an easy target. Let's face facts. Even if we didn't plant those drugs there, the finger would automatically be pointed at you. It's no secret that people are betting how long you'll last here."

Gabriella shook her head at the Queen Bee, deciding she wasn't worth the effect. "You're a real bitch, Homes. A real class-A, first model bitch."

After the principal dismissed the girls with tears running down their faces and their egos down a notch, he directed all his attention back to Gabriella, struggling with himself on what he should say to her.

"I…" He sighed heavily. "I don't know what to say Ms. Montez. You were right. And I should have looked more into the case."

Tweety looked she wanted Matsui a great, big hug. "Don't be so hard on yourself, sir. You made a simple mistake. Anyone can see that."

Hard on himself? A simple mistake? Rage was building inside Gabriella, simmering at the pit of her stomach.

Tweety's sympathetic look didn't falter when she looked at Gabriella. She added it with a gentle smile, a rare sight. "I'm sure Ms. Montez understands that this was nothing more than an unfortunate but simple mistake."

The last thing they were here, Tweety fuming all about drug possessions and charges, everyone acted as if she had committed cold-blood murder. Now that the culprits were caught and the principal was ashamed of his stupidity, they were shrugging and acting like it was no big deal.

What a bunch of bull.

Tweety came over to her and laid a hand on her shoulder, the smile so sweet it was sickening. "I'm sure you understand, don't you, Ms. Montez?"

She studied the woman with the sweet, pitying smile who had so much bitterness wrapped inside her. Bitterness so strong, so dark it reminded her of Maria.

She looked over at the two guards whose eyes immediately flew to her whenever she entered a room, believing she was a threat that needed to be watched carefully.

She saved her brother for last. Her brother who barely did anything at the last meeting other than scold her. Her brother who didn't bother to defend her. Her brother who believed she was nothing more than their bitch of a mother in the works.

Assholes, all of them.

She took in a deep breath that she let out slowly. She forced herself to remain calm as she met the principal's eyes.

"I accept your apologize, Mr. Matsui, though there's really no need for it. I understand. I understand perfectly."

Mr. Matsui smiled, relieved. Tweety patted her shoulder. Javier looked at her.

"I understand that people like you believe that they see. I understand that assumptions are the way of the game. I understand that adults are nothing but lying hypothrics, especially here."

Mr. Matsui shattered like glass. Tweety pulled her hand back. Javier looked on more.

"What's the matter?" Gabriella demanded. "Can't handle the truth. I know what you all think of me. A street-rat with a sad home-life coming to ruin your perfect sanctuary? You could have and should looked more into the case, considering how too obvious the setup was but you didn't. You just assumed it was the loud, sassy Latina. Assuming, which may I remind you, you people always tell us never to do. Saying we have to get the person better before we judge them. None of you even bothered getting to know me. One look at my record and everyone thinks I'm the evil devil."

"It's not as simple as you-" Gabriella cut the bird-like woman off with a cold, dark glare.

"Wrong, Tweety. It is. You just like believing what you see," To the principal she said. "Mr. Mat-shit, hopefully you'll take this little mistake as a learning lesson. Realizing you're not as mature as you think are."

The man stared at her, stunned, mouth dropped.

Deciding there was nothing more that needed to be said, Gabriella made her exit. She ignored her brother who was quickly catching up with her. Until he grabbed her arm and called her by the name that made her blood boil.

"Ella-"

"Do. Not. Fucking call me that." she nearly screamed. She pushed him back so hard he nearly stumbled.

"Let me explain-"

"There's nothing to fucking explain," Gabriella said. "You didn't protect me. You didn't defend me. You didn't question anything other than my supposed cloudy judgment. You broke my fucking heart, you goddamn fucker, and you don't care!"

He tried to touch her but she smacked his hands away. He looked crushed, whether because of her actions or her words she didn't know. "I care. Gabriella, I do care."

She shook her head. Her throat felt like tight hands were slowly squeezing it. Hot tears stung her eyes, setting them on fire. "Not enough. You didn't care enough to try to see me after you left. You didn't care enough to believe me. You compared me to Maria without a second thought and only apologized because Anita made you."

He looked so sad, so defeated. It both made her furious yet sad. "Gabriella…I do care. I do. I'm sorry I wasn't there. But I'm here now. I'm trying to make it right."

He thought playing parental-guardian because of a court-order would set things right? Would make up for the fist-sized hole he punched into her chest the second he left? He really thought it was that easy?

Gabriella had no words. It was as if her brother had reached into her throat and stole every word in her vocabulary.

Her sadness and headache weighted heavily on her, making her long for nothing else but her bed.

She shook her head at him again, warned him not to follow her, and headed to the bus stop, hoping he'd have the decency to bring her bike back.

He owed her that much.

Once again thanks for the reviews and the love. You rocks.

Also, for any of you who may be fellow Legend of Korra fans, I'm planning on doing a oneshot soon. Please read and let me know what you think.

Also, let's hope it won't take as long to update the next chapter. I promise you things something you all have been waiting for will happen.

Stay tuned ;)