"Nobody is going to miss me anyway," she pulled into their driveway, "they'll probably celebrate," she finally let go of her tears.

She walked in the large mcmansion, ran straight to her room, luckily nobody was home, so she had some semblance of peace.

"I don't see Violet in the lunchroom, I wanted to have some fun with her," Lydia told Eudora.

"Violets not here."

"She's not here, then where is she, Cormac," Eudora asked.

"I saw her leave school in a hurry on the way here."

"There goes our fun," Lydia huffed.

Charlie walked up to the table with Patty in tow.

"Looks like the table has gotten a bit crowded today," Charlie stated.

"You two will just need to sit at the singles table," Schroeder teased.

"I guess we can just sit with Lucy, no big deal."

"Oh, you mean the loosers-," Linus started.

Rerun kicked him, "I'll join you."

Rerun and Marcie followed Charlie and Patty. Lucy was dealing with Lydia and Eudora

"Why are you bothering Charlie and his friends," Lydia asked.

"I-I'm not."

"Don't lie, we've been watching you try and get Charlie in your clutches," Lydia snapped.

"No, I just want to be left alone."

"Yeah, right," Eudora grabbed her arm, "like we'll believe that."

"You're hurting my arm, let go," she tried to pull away.

"Or what? You'll beat us up, like Frieda," she sneered.

"We aren't going to back down, and after everything you've done, you'll probably get expelled. Swing if you want," Lydia poked her in the head.

"They're the ones forcing themselves on me. I didn't ask to be friends with them… I appreciate it, but I didn't reach out!"

"Ladies… please. Leave Lucy alone, you two are supposed to be better than this," Charlie walked up.

"Why defend this bitch," Lydia asked.

"Yeah… don't you know she's the devil? She's… she's Lucy-fer, Charlie."

"That's not nice," Rerun chimed in.

"If you don't like her, I get it, nobody knows like I do. A better solution would be to just pretend like she doesn't exist, bullying her isn't going to help anything. She wants to change, and I'm not going to stand by and watch her get cut down to nothing while she tries to atone for everything she's done."

"Fine Charlie, we'll see," Eudora let her go.

"My sister was beaten unconscious… isn't that enough," Rerun glared.

The two girls walked away, Charlie sat on one side, Patty sat on the other of Lucy.

"You guys don't need to do this for me."

"We want to, Lu, we care about you," Charlie replied.

"But I treated all of you like garbage for so long."

"And it doesn't matter, we're not going to let you deal with this alone. That's why I offered my ear if you wanted to talk," Marcie explained.

"I'm your brother… duh."

"I don't feel like I deserve it."

"I felt bad for cutting you off, myself, but I had to. It's all Violet's fault, and we should've stuck together… but the influence she had," Patty shook her head.

"You need support… clearly it's all too much to handle," Charlie held her hand, "you're not going to be alone."

The next class exchange was hard for Lucy, having to do it by herself, with students going in on her, she just wanted to get to class quickly, and no trouble, it was then she was the most lonely, with the looks, and words spoken to her, or in disregard.

"I think you should cut your sister a break," Sally pulled Linus to the side.

"Why?"

"She's hurting. And I'm getting worried, she asked me about you this morning… how you felt about her."

"Why?"

"Because she needs you too, not just Rerun."

"She seems fine."

"No she doesn't, home should be a safe space from all of this, and you bring it home. You are better than this, Linus."

"Why are you worried, lemme guess; because of Charlie? I remember how Charlie was, too."

"And you weren't there like I was. I dealt with more than you think. Of course I don't want to see Lucy in that condition… you shouldn't either," she kissed him and walked away.

Violet woke up hungry, her head hurt from crying, she went downstairs, looked for something to eat, tossed a frozen dinner in the microwave. Scrolling through social media, people were talking about her on Facebook, not a single person came to her defense, she was in no mood to make her voice known. Even worse, was the topic of Shermy and Peggy; something she really didn't want to see.

"I guess I won't be having anymore parties, makes me wonder why anybody even came, if they hated me this much," she asked the empty house.

Once her food was done, she scrolled through her Instagram surprised that they hadn't unfriended, or blocked her on anything. She figured it was far from their mind, in the grand scheme of it all. Looking through her own account, seeing the pictures of them together, results of pranks she's done, then she noticed something, how could she have never before; in some pics the girls looked miserable, even if they were smiling. Violet looked through all of her pics, all the way down to the last ones with Frieda, she couldn't take it anymore, stopping at a picture of her and Shermy, with one below, that was all four of the girls, dropping her phone and the fork, needing to step away from the island, a pain she's never felt before, she cried like she never had before, and it wouldn't stop.

"Why does this hurt so bad," she cried out.

Lucy hadn't had a good day, or a decent one, she felt like Violet's absence made things worse and she was miserable- just happy enough that it was the last period. She walked right past Peppermint Patty and Harold.

"Whew… she looks like she's going to lose it at any second," Harold stated.

"I didn't think a face could… make that… face," she replied.

"Charlie never looked that sad."

"Yeah, well… Charlie's issues wasn't really his fault, the same way hers are."

"I think Lucy is absolutely broken, and it's only the third week. People need to stop before it gets worse."

"A little teasing won't hurt her that bad."

"A little- look at her! Somebody I would assume who could stand toe to toe with the likes of you, Molly, and Delores, fell that hard and fast, no, this is bad, Trish. It took Charlie years to get that way."

"I'm not going to help."

"Then at least… don't make it worse, don't be a part of the problem."

"It's not like she's going to kill herself."

Harold just looked at her.

"What‽ You think she would? What‽ Don't just- no… she wouldn't! Over all of this? Naw!"

He just narrowed his eyes and slowly walked away.

"Patty… why do you care about Lucy so much?"

"Because… despite everything, she's a really good friend, like you were, we could tell each other anything."

"And then she would tell Vee," Frieda rolled her eyes.

"Not everything. Not the real important things."

"Like what?"

"Like how much the both of us really miss you being out friend."

"Is that it?"

"I'm not telling you her insecurities, like I wouldn't tell yours… or even Violets."

"Lucy," she sighed, "Patty, sometimes I think you're too good for this world… and Lucy."

After school let out, Lucy found Charlie and looking so defeated, held her arms open for a hug.

"Bad day, huh," he hugged her.

"I just wanna go home."

As they walked, they ran in to Heather and Franklin

"Oh, Charlie, I need to talk to you- can you give us some space, Lucy," Heather said.

"Sure… yeah," she walked outside.

Heather watched her leave before speaking, "I'm almost done with her saddle, should be finished some time tonight."

"She'll love that! Me and my dad even cleaned it up, only thing left is new tires for it."

"Lucy is going to fall in love with you, when she gets her scooter back!"

"I doubt that," he laughed.

"Dude, you are her biggest support, you might as well be her boyfriend already," Lamar stated.

"The way he's going; Patty and Lucy are going to fight over him," she laughed.

Lucy waited by Charlies car when Sally and Linus walked up, pretending to ignore them, thankful to be out and home soon.

"Hey, watch this, Truffles," Benny tossed a nearly full soda can at Lucy's head.

"Nice one," Cormac laughed.

"Right in the head," Truffles cheered

Lucy didn't even want to look at Sally and Linus, even if it didn't sound like they were any kind of amused.