American Girl: Can't I Just Be Chloe?

Two days passed before I was able to hear anything regarding those binders. It was late in the afternoon when they showed up so I didn’t have to worry about leaving for school or anything. I was grateful for that because literally everyone in the Jonas family—except for Denise, Paul, and Frankie—Betsy, and Teddy stopped by Joe’s place. There was no way that I wanted to disappear while they were here, particularly when there was a chance that I could find out whether my mom really did belong in the Senate. “Do you guys have the binders?” I asked them the moment they walked in. I had to find out what was going on; I had to know if the guys were able to get those binders in order to prove that Victoria Roberts committed fraud in order to ruin my life. If the guys didn’t have both binders, there was no telling as to what might happen. Well, actually, I did. And, there was absolutely no way in hell that I was about to let something like that happen; I couldn’t.

“We have one copy,” Nick said.

“And, the other?” I asked.

“Lucky for you, Frankie is over at Victoria’s house right now trying to get the second binder for us. I told him that I needed that binder for a project I’m working on,” Betsy explained as Nick dropped the binder they had on the table. “He has no clue what that really is. That’s probably a good thing because, if Frankie knew the truth about what was going on, he’d never give us the binder. Frankie would probably tell Victoria what we were doing and foil our plan if he knew what was going on. So, since he doesn’t exactly know the truth about that binder, he’s dropping it off with his parents, who intend on bringing it over here. Once that occurs, we’ll be able to go through the votes and make sure who won.”

“Good,” I said.

For the most part of the afternoon, Selena and I examined the binder and its contents. I had to find out what was going on. When we turned to the G and J pages, I saw proof that this was an inaccurate tabulation of the results. According to this book, Elizabeth Anne "Betsy" (Weimar) Geiger, John Theodore (Teddy) Geiger II, Denise Jonas, Joseph Adam Jonas, Kyra Lynne (Clark) Jonas, Nicholas Jerry Jonas, Paul Kevin Jonas I, Paul Kevin Jonas II, and Selena Marie (Gomez) Jonas all voted for Craig Roberts. I knew this was a lie; I knew that they all voted for Rosetta Fletcher. They all told me that they did. I believed them, not this book. I sighed. Okay, Frankie, get that second binder and give it to your parents. I desperately need it in order to prove that your girlfriend committed fraud.

“Chloe,” Selena asked, “did you notice that Victoria changed our votes? We wanted Rosetta Fletcher back in office, not Craig Roberts. That is all the proof you need to make everyone understand that Victoria altered the results of the election to ruin your life. The fact is that we had no clue who Craig Roberts was until the day after the election occurred and preferred to see your mom back in office, despite all your complaining about it.”

“Thanks, Selena. I appreciate that. Of course, I really don’t know whether anyone’s going to believe me. Everyone in California knows that I’m Rosetta Fletcher’s daughter, meaning that they won’t exactly believe me when I try to explain this. Plus, they may know of my friendship with all of you meaning that you guys can’t exactly tell them either. I just don’t know how we’re going to do all of this. We’re going to have lot of problems in attempting to fix all of this; I know we are. Unless we figure out how Victoria was able to switch the books, we may never be able to convince everyone in the world of the truth.”

“Oh yes you will,” I heard Paul say.

I spun around and saw Paul holding the second binder, the binder that Amanda saw in the study at Victoria’s house. Amanda was right, I thought. There are two binders meaning that these are the real results. I ran over and took the binder from him. “Thanks, Mr. Jonas. I appreciate this. Now maybe I can prove that Craig Roberts was never supposed to become the Senator of California. It was always supposed to be my mother,” I said.

Paul nodded. “Good luck.”

Once Paul left, Kyra came over. “We have both books now, don’t we?” she asked, sitting down. It was a bit awkward for her to do though, since she was about seven months pregnant. I nodded. “Well, Betsy and the guys are getting the poster ready so I’ll you guys. Teddy is watching all of the kids, so we won’t have to worry about any of them while we do this.”

“Good. Then we better get started then,” I said, opening the binder that Paul just brought us. Of course, before starting to page through it, I noticed a small mark made in the corner. It was faint, so I held it up to the light. There I saw proof that these were the real results. In faded gold ink was the Californian seal. The other binder, I remembered, did not have that seal. That meant that this was all the proof I needed in order to convince that Victoria committed fraud in order to ruin my life and make sure that I was kept away from Frankie. “Kyra, Selena, look at this. There’s a blatantly obvious tell as to which is real and which isn’t.” I opened the other binder to the same area and showed them the two corners. “I want the both of you to look at the two areas I’m showing you and tell me which one you think is real after examining the two areas in question. Victoria neglected to account for something and the government officials handling the books were too stupid to check this and realize that they had the wrong results in their possession for the past week.”

Kyra and Selena examined the books. “The seal!”

I nodded. “It’s all the proof we need. We need to show this to the government officials and make them aware of what Victoria did.” We then paged through the binder and found exactly what Amanda said. This binder had everyone in the Jonas and Geiger families voting for my mother, unlike the binder that Victoria produced that had them voting for her father. “Who’s coming to help me prove this?” I asked, picking up both books.

“I’ll go,” Selena said.

“Me too,” Kyra said. “I have a doctor’s appointment anyway to see how Ella is doing. So, we’ll go talk to the government officials before I go to my doctor’s appointment.”

“Joe should come too then,” I said, suddenly. There was absolutely no way that I was about to let Joe miss one of these doctor’s appointments. I remember hearing stories over the years from Selena and Betsy about when they took Amanda to all of her doctor’s appointments because Kevin was off with his brothers and Demi filming Camp Rock 2 in Canada. This ultimately caused Kevin to be unable to be with his wife during what should have been a happy time for them. I didn’t want to see something like that happen with Jyra because they were helping me. I then went to find Joe and tell him what was going on. I soon found them in the kitchen. “Joe, you, Selena, Kyra, and I have something to do.”

“What is it?” he asked.

“We found a way to prove that Victoria committed fraud in order to destroy my life. I’ll show you when we get there, but, right now, it is imperative that you come with us.”

“But, Kyra has a doctor’s appointment,” Joe objected.

“I know. That’s why you and Kyra are coming with us,” I explained. “Now, come on. Betsy, Kevin, and Nick can continue working on the Video Girl poster. Right now, we have something far more important to do. There’s a week left until Thanksgiving and this is something that must be taken care of before Kyle, Zoe, Dean, and Dana arrive in California.”

“Yeah, Joe, go,” Betsy said. “We have everything under control here. And, Quinn will be just fine while you’re gone. Teddy is watching over the boys, Madison, and Rebecca for us while we do this. So, it’s not like anything’s going to happen. Just go help them.”

“Okay, Lizard. I’ll go,” he said.

After Betsy convinced Joe to go, he and I went outside where Selena and Kyra were waiting for us. Joe climbed into the driver’s seat with Kyra just next to him. Selena and I slid into the backseat with the binders sitting on our laps. “I hope this works,” I said as Joe started the car. “If it doesn’t, there’s no way that my mom is going to be the same. I’ve been staying with you guys because my mother doesn’t take losing very well. I know she doesn’t.”

“Don’t worry,” Kyra said. “We’ll fix it.”