It's pretty clear I'm not interested in finishing this story, but I want to outline a brief summary of what happens from here on.

As readers probably guessed, Vanessa's offer to help Rapunzel with her grades was an opportunity to start dividing the trio. With the least resistant friend now giving Anna and Merida the cold shoulder, Vanessa could move on to breaking up the rest of them.

Merida's next. I always liked Merida's role in the story because she keeps it from being a simple Elsanna + "Vanessa abuses the trio" high school AU. Giving this strong-willed Scot her own troubles added dimension in a way that nerfed her potential threat to Vanessa. As the most resistant of the cast, she might have a chance at cutting off Vanessa's power if she didn't have her own BIG secret to carry. Vanessa finds about the student-teacher relationship by an unlucky slip and holds it over Merida's head, making Merida distance from Anna in a deep anxiety. Anna of course, still receives the brunt of the abuse, and is broken down even further by this sudden distance.

The teacher, as you may have guessed, is the Evil Queen from Snow White. Desiring to be the fairest of them all, she lives through controlling a normally headstrong and rebellious teenager. If Rapunzel were not in the story the teacher would have absolutely been Mother Gothel. Horrendously emotionally and psychologically abusive, with dreams of eternal youth. Being with a friggen' high school student would sate that fantasy.

Then, Elsa. Elsa never liked much to do with Vanessa in the first place, but at the right moment finds Vanessa cozied up to her. She would hurt Elsa by dropping the "pillow princess" line Anna mentioned in an earlier chapter. Humiliating the chaste Elsa while breaking her trust in Anna. To top it off, Anna only said it to gain Vanessa's approval and felt terrible immediately afterward-not that that part needs to be relayed.

So Elsa breaks off from Anna, leaving her alone with Vanessa. Anna becomes angry, suspecting that her smug and imposing remaining friend has something to do with the drama, but doesn't know how to confront her. Of course, all this demoralizing severely compromises the team's standing in the robotics competition. Vanessa would throw it in her face: "What, you care about the robotics competition? After all you put your friends through?"

However, this is not a story with a sad ending. Anna has online video chat with Kristoff, and after hearing all that happened, Kristoff very firmly tells Anna he always had a bad feeling about Vanessa and Anna was probably right in suspecting she was behind the drama. He apologizes to Anna for being passive about the way Vanessa was isolating her, and they plan for Anna to reach out to her other friends.

Rapunzel's first, but she rejects the attempts, so Anna moves on to Merida. Merida, highly awkwardly with lots of anxious tension, gets through a conversation where it is established that she still wants to be friends but isn't ready to talk about it. She is relieved to find Anna takes the compromise. To herself, she thinks that maybe she won't go through so much drama if she goes after boys.

Now Anna goes to Elsa. She's roadblocked by Elsa's friends receiving her at a cold distance, telling her how betrayed Elsa feels. Anna accepts this and is permitted to a private talk with Elsa in a dusty storage closet. Which would definitely be angsty and tense and fraught with anxious regret. Total Elsanna vibe. They'd argue some, and Elsa eventually goes on a rant about how conservative her parents are and how she felt so good having this whatever this was with Anna only for it to turn out like this. But in the end Anna apologizes and says she never said anything like that again, and in a need to defend herself, mutters that she did it to please Vanessa.

There's a hard silence, then Elsa relaxes. She says she's still hurt, but it makes sense now and she forgives Anna. Cue the careful and uncertain, but heartwarming Elsanna hug. After a moment of silence, Elsa says she never trusted Vanessa anyway. Anna is surprised but relieved, prompting Elsa to talk about things she noticed about that tricky classmate. Then they leave the empty storage room with its pull-string bulb and its ratty couch, and of course Elsa's friends weren't listening outside the door, they were just walking by, total coincidence.

Anna and Elsa continue walking and soon find Merida, who was trying to listen through a pipe. They band together and upon hearing Anna's tentative new beliefs about Vanessa, Merida's like "WHAT? You only NOW thought something was wrong?" and goes on a long rant about Vanessa, all of them happy at how outrageous and emphasized it is.

Anna and Merida get back to working on their robot, and Elsa on hers. "Can't tell you. No cheating." The reformed trio walks around school, Anna giving Elsa giddy looks, not trying to hide the occasional handhold. Merida gains perspective with a little hope that if Vanessa does bring out the scandal, the teacher would probably get in more trouble for manipulating a student. Eventually, Rapunzel shuffles out to them in a hunched depression, wanting to be back in the group. Thus the team is together again.

As the most active members of the story, Anna and Merida venture beyond city limits and discover the details of Vanessa's terrible family abuse, explaining-not excusing-her own abusive behavior. They feel dulled to Vanessa's manipulation after that, and brush off further confrontation with her to continue working on the robot.

Finally, the competition arrives. Anna has a prepping online meet with Kristoff, then wheels the project carefully into bus storage for the ride to the packed indoor stadium. Vanessa also attends the trip, as she was part of the team. They all manage as everything is getting set up.

Okay, I had to think to remember if Elsa and her friends were in the competition lol. Their bot would have been designed to grip and climb across various surfaces. All the teams show off their stuff and hold contests, and somewhere in the middle of the cheering crowd, Anna realizes something is wrong. She goes into a secluded room. The bot is in Vanessa's hands, ready to have one little mechanism changed about it to no longer work, humiliating the trio at the big playoff. Anna demands it back, which Vanessa shoves to her since it's not like they're going to win anyway. Finally snapping, Anna wants to know why Vanessa's been so horrible to them all this time.

Of course, it's because Vanessa likes inflicting pain and acrimony. What she really replies with is an explosive rage, contemptuously insulting the whole group on how stupid and pathetic they are. Including a slip on Merida's relations with a teacher. She would especially hone in on Anna; how gullible she is, how klutzy and always running her mouth, and how desperate she is for approval. It would be a red-hot moment in the room full of malevolence, and then they both go outside to show their robot to the crowd.

They wheel the little thing out via the remote, and then Anna pushes a button. Merida motions for the crowd to quiet while Rapunzel explains through the mic that this is a robot that takes recordings. The audience hushes, and Anna presses Play again, releasing Vanessa's abusive tirade. Everyone attending from their school turns to her.

Vanessa is ushered out of the competition. Merida takes the mic and nervously says something into it, making the audience chuckle. They get some other contestants to help record something else, then Merida excuses herself as the next team gets ready to show. She sits by herself in a small, dark closet, reflecting intensely on everything, and as she looks up, she thinks she sees a flick of green light bounce off a piece of glass. Then she comes back out to the stadium only to watch her little robot get demolished in a three-way competition. The team gathers around it, remembering how it brought them together in this time.

Everyone loses in the end to this hotshot college team. Big Hero 6. Rapunzel throws out her arms. "That's not even an original name!"

In the final chapter, things wrap up. Anna feels mean about outing Vanessa like that, but overall isn't upset with her choice. Merida stops by her teacher's door with some of her old defiance coming back, and resolves to tell her parents about what was going on, that day. Rapunzel is showing cracks of her old chipper self, and mentions to Anna that for a while she's been hanging out with this guy from another school named Eugene.

There's a brief scene where Anna tells some details of Vanessa's abuse to their classmate Moana. Moana would listen, then shrug and turn away. "I could have told you that."

There's also a scene of Merida coming home and staring at the floor with her fists clenched, shaking in front of her concerned mother before saying, "I got into a whole lot of trouble and I wish I had told you." Wrapping up her part of the story. And of course, Elsanna. There'd probably be a prom/dance scene at the end too because hey, high school AU, it fits. Also, I still don't know what the title is supposed to mean.

This story was a good thing to work on in the time that I was writing it. I was going through a lot and working so intensely on an abuse story, taking place in a Disney high school AU, put a focus to my troubles. Although I would change some things going back. First off: the bowling alley. Fully half of that chapter could have been cut and I still bemoan the excess. I also regret the racist position I put Tiana in, and my complete lack of understanding of how kids work. LISTEN I'VE NEVER SEEN PRINCESS AND THE FROG IT WAS A CAMEO YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME

(and I still don't really understand kids, so)

Second, Kristoff's study abroad work would not have been building houses for kids in Africa. Come on, Q, you knew how stereotyped and inaccurate that was. Put more thought into it next time.

I also would have made Kristoff more active in resisting Vanessa and telling Anna she's trouble. Make it really a bad thing that he wouldn't be around the rest of the school year. Finally, I still facepalm that Belle's father, the kooky inventor, won a contest for creating a self-cleaning litter box. He could do better. I could do better. I have (minimal) experience with robotics teams.

Oh, and the part where Anna recalls feeling up a girl's shirt at a church retreat. Don't get me wrong, I loved writing that cringy scene, but this was not the right story. lmao.

I thank my readers for following this fic and for accepting its abrupt hiatus. I hope some of you found comfort in exploring its darker themes. I especially want to shout out to two of you: talkstopaintings and S. Oh my god, your comments are incredible. Every now and then I remember the hours you spent telling me how much you loved Raising Reputation and I get that good feeling inside. Comments like yours pretty much make an author's whole week. It is because of you two that I decided to summarize the rest of the fic.

talkstopaintings, thank you SO MUCH for all your passionate and nerdy feedback. A chapter-by-chapter analysis, complete with personal feelings, is a dream authors rarely get. And S, you had such great and analytical feedback too. I get the vibe you were going through your own troubles in the time you were reading. I hope things have gotten better since then. Big hug for you.

But for real, thank you two for all those comments. You are the real MVPs. You are the real MVPs.