American Girl: Can't I Just Be Chloe?

With me staying at Joe’s for the time being while I waited for my mother to calm down, there was no way for me to do as Victoria wanted me to. She wished for me to stay away from the Jonas family because she wanted them all to herself. I couldn’t do that now because of what Victoria had already done to my family. That meant going over to speak with Denise or Paul was not an option for me. There was a possibility of me running into Victoria and having to listen to her make up so many more lies about me. I didn’t really have much to do. Usually, I was just spending time with Kyra, but, at times, I would be spending time with Betsy. Both of the girls were busy helping me get through what happened with my mother and the fact that Craig Roberts had taken my mother’s spot in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Kevin and I were busy trying to get access to the voting results from the election. Unfortunately, it proved to be far more difficult than I had initially anticipated. There was no way that they were going to ever let me see the results of the vote, knowing who I am and who my mother happened to be. According to the officials, I was not allowed to see the results because they suspected that I would change them. When I tried to explain them that I was only attempting to make sure that the results tabulated were the same as reported, they wouldn’t listen. It seemed like I was just going to have to deal with the fact that Victoria was to become the new Senator’s daughter. I hated that since she was nothing more than a Video Girl. Plus, the funny thing was that Victoria was able to get her hands on it. How? Was everyone against my mother going back into the Senate? I hoped not because I wanted nothing more than to see my mother happy, even if it meant giving up my own happiness. Craig Roberts being ousted as Senator before he even went into office would be great and I definitely wanted to see that happen.

Unfortunately, couldn’t get access to it. So, I was forced to sit around with Betsy or Kyra, sulking over all of this. Today it was Betsy and I was watching Greg and the triplets while Betsy was talking to Amanda about Virankie and the Video Girl problem. I was glad to help, but I couldn’t help but wonder if Amanda was having any luck. Sure she was a ghost, but Frankie knew she was around. He knew that she was watching over all of us. Everyone in the Jonas family—except Denise and Paul—and I knows of Amanda’s ghost. Hell, I can only wonder what Victoria’s reaction would be to that news. She’d think they’re all freaks because they all believe in what Betsy can do. And, the publicity that came from that would be nothing good if Victoria learned what Betsy could do.

“Hey, Chloe, come here a minute!” Betsy called.

“What is it?” I asked.

“My sister found something that I think you need to hear,” Betsy explained. “She followed Victoria last night and heard something that both you and your mother would like to hear.”

“But, you can only tell me, right?” I asked.

Betsy nodded. “You’re the only one who can understand because you know of my ability. Right now, it doesn’t matter how you learned of my gift; all that matters is the fact that you know, meaning that I can tell you what happened. Just make sure that Garret, Madison, Jason, and Greg aren’t around. I don’t exactly want them to know about this.”

“I know what you mean,” I said. So, after shuttling Greg and the triplets off into the other room, I went to find out what was going on. “Okay, Betsy, what did Amanda find?”

After letting out a heavy sigh, Betsy began her story. Amanda knew what she had to do. After talking to her sister, watching over Frankie and Victoria had become her top priority. She couldn’t believe that Frankie would do this though. For years, Amanda had watched the youngest Jonas grow up and become a success like his brothers. Now, looking at what he had become, Amanda couldn’t believe that her youngest brother-in-law would choose a Video Girl as a girlfriend. No matter what, that should have never happened, particularly after Frankie grew up hearing his brothers singing that song. Plus, everyone had warned him of the truth, a truth that Frankie refused to believe no matter what happened.

When Betsy asked her to watch over Frankie and Victoria, Amanda agreed, knowing that it would help Chloe. She remembered seeing her when she was young. It was at a party held just before the boys’ fourth CD came out. Amanda never bothered to go speak to Chloe because she was more focused on her impending death, but, after dying, Amanda looked into Chloe’s future to see what her life would turn out like. She didn’t see much, but Amanda did see Frankie and Chloe together. In fact, she was the one who told Betsy of Franoe, who, in turn, told Zoe. They were trying to play matchmaker the way they did with Jyra, but it didn’t work out as well. So, now she had to watch over Virankie and find out all of Victoria’s Video Girl traits to prove to Frankie that Chloe was telling the truth. Then things would fall into place, slowly but surely they would.

For most of the time, Amanda found that Victoria was pulling all of the normal Video Girl things: Denise hated her, she was a liar, her father spoiled her endlessly, she was a whiner, and was never without her phone, calling Frankie when he wasn’t with her. Amanda guessed that it was to keep Chloe away from Frankie. Victoria was doing everything she could to tear the two friends apart. But, Amanda suspected that there was something more going on, something that Victoria was trying to do to in order to ruin Chloe’s life.

Knowing that Chloe and Betsy would want to know what was going on, Amanda followed Victoria to find out what she was up to. And, what Amanda found out surprised her.

Victoria walked into her house, dropping her bag on the floor. “Dad, I’m back!” she called, walking into the study and taking a seat at the desk. When her father didn’t answer, Victoria removed a large binder out from underneath the desk. “Good, Dad’s not home. Now I can look over this without him catching me. He doesn’t know that I did all of this to help him; I did all of this to ruin Chloe’s Fletcher’s life and make mine perfect.”

Amanda, upon hearing that, knew that nothing good could come of this. Victoria altered the results of the vote to make sure that her father would win. Peering over at the list, Amanda saw that Victoria was flipping between G and J, the pages Amanda had her family members on. According to what was in this binder, Betsy, Teddy, and everyone in the Jonas family—that could vote—had voted for Rosetta Fletcher. The binder that the government had in their possession probably did not have this result. It was probably altered.

“My plan is working. Everyone in the world thinks that my dad won this election. Little do they all know that it was actually Rosetta Fletcher who won. I switched the books to ruin Chloe’s life and tear her away from Frankie. Everything I’ve done has been in an attempt to destroy her: taking Frankie away from her, committing fraud to make sure that I got her mother out of office, and destroying everything that she holds most dear to her,” Victoria cackled. “And, the best part is that no one is ever going to catch me.”

Hearing this, Amanda knew what had to be done; she knew what Betsy, Chloe, and the boys had to do in order to prove what was going on and make sure that Chloe’s mother was able to retain her seat in the Senate. So, Amanda flew off and went to tell her sister what was going on and let Chloe know about it as well. A plan needed to be concocted to fix this and Amanda knew that, if her sister and the others did nothing to stop this, everything she saw when she looked into Chloe’s future would never come to pass.

When Betsy finished telling me her story about what Amanda uncovered while she was watching over Victoria, I let my jaw drop. I couldn’t believe this. “Victoria committed fraud in order to make my life miserable? I’m going to kill Frankie!” I shouted, angrily. “He was the one to bring Victoria into my life and he was the one to cause all of this to happen to me. I hate Frankie for doing this to me. I know he’s my best friend, but, right now, I need to stay away from him, at least until Thanksgiving. Then, after I see him to prove all of this to him, I’m going to disappear from his life. I just don’t know if I can be around him anymore after everything that he put me through. I’ll still keep in contact with you guys, but not Frankie. He needs to understand what he did to me.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Betsy asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. Now, what are we going to do about Victoria committing fraud to destroy my life?” I asked. “We can’t exactly tell anyone that your ghostly sister was able to communicate with you and tell you what she saw. We need proof. In order to get my mother back into office, you guys need those binders as proof of what Victoria did to me.”

“Already on it,” Betsy replied. “I sent Nick and Joe out to get the results. Kevin probably would have gone with his brothers, but, since he went with you the first time, there’s no way that they would hand the binder with the results in it over to us because they would suspect that you wanted to change the results. Too bad they’ve already been duped into believing that they have the right results. Amanda helped us realize that your mom actually won.”

“No wonder Victoria wasn’t worried about everyone in the Jonas family voting for my mom. She had already switched the results out for her fraudulent book by that time,” I realized.

“Yeah. Now, I’m wondering how were going to get that binder away from Victoria. If one of the boys goes, there’s no way Victoria will ever let them into the study to get the binder. According to what Amanda told me about what she saw, it’s too big for them to remove without her noticing,” Betsy said. “I just don’t know how we’re going to be able to get the binder out of there, Chloe. It seems to be quite impossible at the moment.”

“Try Frankie,” I sighed.

“Frankie? Why?” she asked.

“Because,” I explained to her, with tears glistening in my bright blue eyes, “Frankie seems to be the only one who can get to it. I’m sure that Victoria has let him in that study. So long as you don’t tell him what this is for, I’m pretty sure that Frankie would get that binder for you so that we could compare records and prove once and for all that my mother is the rightful Senator and that Video Girl committed fraud in order to ruin my life and tear me away from my best friend in order to make her life that much better.”

“I suppose,” Betsy said.

“Then you’ll ask him?” I asked.

Betsy nodded. “Of course, if he should refuse, I don’t know what’s going to happen. We have only ten days until Thanksgiving to fix all of this. Plus, my cousins are on their way into California in a week. So, I’m going to have to go to see them at some point before then.”

“Yeah, Kyra’s half-siblings are on their way in that same day,” I said, remembering a conversation I heard just yesterday between Joe and Kyra while I was entertaining Quinn.

“Things are only going to get more complicated,” Betsy mused as she continued creating the poster that held all of Victoria’s Video Girl traits. “At first this started out as a way to convince Frankie that he was dating a Video Girl, but it seems to have turned into so much more than that. When Victoria meddled in the election results, she committed a crime and caused us to try to prove what she did. By Thanksgiving, Victoria is probably going to go to jail for what she did; she meddled in government affair and that is a federal offense.”

“Yeah, and, according to your sister, she’s under the assumption that no one will realize what she’s done,” I reminded her. “Victoria thinks that she committed the perfect crime in getting her father into my mother’s Senate seat. I want her to pay for doing this to me.”

“I agree,” Betsy nodded, still making up the poster for Thanksgiving. “She must understand that she can not break the law in order to get her own way. And, the whole Video Girl thing? Frankie needs to understand that part of all of this. He needs to understand that he’s about to lose you forever became he chose her over you. I just don’t see why Frankie would throw away seven years of friendship with you for a girl he met at a video shoot.”

“He’s blind,” I replied.

“Yeah. Now, why don’t you get back to watching the kids for me?” Betsy asked. “Teddy is out for the next few days and I could really use your help in keeping an eye on them.”

“Of course.” As I went back to watch over Greg and the triplets, I couldn't help but wonder if all of our attempts would fail. Would Victoria stop us? I hoped not because I knew that I’d never get Frankie back if we were to fail. I sighed and went back to watching the kids. Things have to go back to normal, I thought. Things in my life just haven’t been right since I lost Frankie. It’s been a month since Victoria entered our lives and I’m not willing to see Victoria do anymore of this. All I wanted to do was see Victoria gotten rid of. Anyone else would be fine to date Frankie, just not Victoria Roberts.