American Girl: Can't I Just Be Chloe?

It wasn’t too much later on November 5th when I heard a knock at the door. Both my parents were out to dinner though, so I went to open the door. To my utter surprise, I found that Betsy, Kyra, and Joe were there. My guess was that they had come over here because I left. “What’s going on?” I asked, letting them into the house. “Why are you guys here?”

Betsy eyed me as she walked in and took a seat. Kyra and Joe followed suit and took a seat on the couch opposite of Betsy. “You left so suddenly that we wanted to come over and see what was going on. What happened between you and Frankie that caused you to want to leave?” Betsy asked. “After you left, Frankie disappeared and the triplets complained about not having two of their favorite people at the party. Frankie refused to come back and we came over to see if we could get you to come back to the party for them.”

I sighed. “Frankie, as I’m sure you well know, was told not to bring Victoria to the party because of Madison’s abhorrence of her. Well, Nick and I soon learned that Frankie received a phone call from Victoria at the party, one that would call him away from the party. I left because that was too hard for me to watch. Frankie obviously left soon after.” I looked over at Joe, who rolled his eyes at what his youngest brother seemed to be doing. “And, if that wasn’t enough, I returned home to find out that Frankie contacted my mother and ultimately brought her back out to California so that I could spend time her. He doesn’t want me to be around him and thought that his only solution to what was going on was to bring my mother back out here. I know I’ve said this before, but he’s quoted Take a Breath. People change and promises are broken, remember? He doesn’t want to be my friend anymore and is doing everything he can in order to keep me away from him.”

“Probably because of Victoria,” Kyra said.

“Definitely,” Betsy agreed.

“It is,” I said. “I know it is. Though the note my mother received was signed by Frankie, I’m absolutely sure of the fact that it was Victoria who gave him the idea. Victoria has no clue whom my mother is. Frankie does though. He knows that my mother is Senator Fletcher and that I am her daughter, Chloe Fletcher. During the six years that my mother has been the Senator, I have complained countless times about how much I never got to see my mother anymore. Finally, Frankie decided that he was going to contact my mother and bring her out here so that he would never have to deal with me ever again.”

Joe groaned at what his brother was doing. “Well, that’s too bad for him because he is going to see you again. Frankie is not going to be able to avoid you for long because in exactly nineteen days—November 24th, Thanksgiving Day—we are going to prove to Frankie that Icky Vicky is the epitome of a Video Girl.” He looked over at Betsy. “Isn’t that right, Lizard?”

Betsy nodded. “Quite.” She turned to me to explain everything. “I talked to my aunt and she’s going to let Kyle and Zoe fly out here for Thanksgiving. I haven’t seen Kyle since Amanda and I went down to South Carolina with our parents; that occurred before the live chat that brought Kevin and my sister together. He was seven when I last saw my cousin. Kyle didn’t exactly come to the wedding either; he had a karate tournament that weekend”

“That explains why I never met him,” I said.

“Well, you will,” Betsy said. “According to the plan that Zoe came up with, you and Kyle will have to cook up a fake relationship that will make Frankie jealous. In order to combat Virankie, we’re creating Kyloe to make Frankie jealous. Ultimately, Kyle having that karate tournament the weekend of my wedding was a good thing because now Frankie will have no clue that he is really Zoe’s older brother; he never met him. If he had though, Frankie might be friends with him. The two are practically the same age anyway; Frankie is three weeks older than Kyle. He was born a day after my seventh birthday. But, anyway, Frankie is sure to get jealous of the fake Kyloe and realize the mistake he made in dating Victoria; he’ll realize just how much he truly does care about you and what a mistake it was in giving your friendship up. Plus, we’ve got the boys playing Video Girl.”

“Anything else?” I asked.

Kyra nodded. “My half-siblings are on their way out to California that weekend as well. Dean and Dana Martin will be flying out to see me after six years. Actually, I haven’t even spoken to Dean in six years; they’ve been in Massachusetts along with Gloria’s parents ever since the judge decreed that they should because she killed my mom and our dad. Dean was never that nice to me; Dana, at least, was. That’s why I’ve kept in contact with Dana after everything that’s happened between us; we left on somewhat good terms.”

“So, Thanksgiving is going to be somewhat of a family reunion for you two and your families?” I asked looking between Betsy and Kyra. “Dean and Dana and Kyle and Zoe will be flying out from Massachusetts and South Carolina respectively to spend time with you.”

“That’s right,” they said.

“Okay. So, it will be the Jonas family, the Geiger family, me, Icky Vicky, Dean, Dana, Kyle, and Zoe at this party, huh? Fine. As long as I don’t have to be anywhere near Virankie until Video Girl is played. I want to be there when Frankie realizes that I was right and breaks up with her. And, you should probably have a list of all the Video Girl things that Victoria does as proof. That is the only way that Frankie will believe any of us about the fact that Victoria is what we say she is. It must be done. I’d do it, but he knows my handwriting and will realize that I had something to do with what the boys did.” I sighed, knowing that I could have nothing to do with the plans, not until Kyle and Zoe got here.

“We will,” Joe said.

“Good. Now, are all of them staying at Joe’s?” I asked.

“Kyle and Zoe are because of Kevin. I don’t know about Dean and Dana though,” Betsy said. She turned to Kyra. “Do you know whether your half-siblings will be staying?”

She shrugged. “They might stay with us.”

“What about Anna?” Joe asked.

“Yeah, Aunt Anna could house them during their stay. I suppose that we’ll just have to figure that out. But, I’d say that, if Dean and Dana stay with us, Kyle and Zoe should stay with Nick. If my aunt can take Dean and Dana though, Kyle and Zoe would be able to stay with us. That’ll make it easier,” Kyra said. “We’ve only got so much room to spare anyway.”

Betsy looked over at Kyra and Joe. “I guess we should probably tell Nick and Kevin about all of this then. We need to finish making plans for our Thanksgiving plot,” she said.

So, upon saying goodbye to me, Betsy, and Jyra left, going back to the party so as to wish Kevin and the triplets a happy birthday. I would have gone over there, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so right now. It was just a little too hard for me to go over there. Once alone, I sighed and went back to my room, thinking about how all of this was going to work. Was Frankie really going to believe us after a month of trying to convince him that Victoria was nothing more than a Video Girl? Unfortunately, I couldn’t be sure of anything right now. All I could do was wait until November 24th to find out what was going to happen. And, on November 8th I was going to find out whether I could finally be a normal teenage girl. That was a possibility that I could only dream of seeing happen since Mom made far too much of an impact on California to be voted out of office. She wouldn’t be voted into office and I ultimately knew that; I knew that my mother was to remain a Senator.