American Girl: Can't I Just Be Chloe?

The evening before Thanksgiving, I sat around at Joe’s place along with Kyle, Zoe, Joe, and Kyra. As it turned out, Dean and Dana were staying at their aunt’s house, which gave Jyra the room to house Kyle and Zoe since Kevin didn’t want to see either of them while they were here. Still, Kevin did have to see them. They day they arrived, Kevin was there. He may have kept his distance from them while we were all at Joe’s, but he was still around them. And, he was going to have to deal with them tomorrow during the Video Girl display. The fact was that there was no way for him to avoid it; Kevin had to deal with all of this.

I was not in any mood for Kevin to do that. Not now. He was only willing to see his sister-in-law because she was helping him to raise his sons and daughter. Garrett, Madison, and Jason had grown up used to having their aunt around in their mother’s stead. Amanda’s death caused somewhat of a ripple effect, one that caused each of the Jonas triplets to feel affected by the fact that their mother’s sister was the only connection they had to her. As for Kevin, he, unfortunately, lost his true love when Amanda died. Now, because of that, Kevin wouldn’t go anywhere near any of Amanda’s relatives aside from Betsy for fear that he would be reminded of the woman that he loved and lost seven years ago.

“So, do you think that everything is going to go according to plan?” I asked them. Despite the fact that everything seemed to be okay at the moment, I did not fully believe that it was. I suspected that something was going to go terribly, terribly wrong. There was absolutely no way to be sure of this though. It seemed as if the only possible way for me to be able to foresee any obstacle that we might come up against was for me to be able to see the future, or know someone who could. Amanda! I thought. I need Betsy to contact Amanda and let me know of any obstacles that we might face tomorrow. Maybe then I can find a way to stop Victoria from ruining my life anymore than she already has. There was absolutely no way in hell that I was ever going to let that happen. I refused to let something like that happen.

Upon realizing what I had to do, I stood up suddenly, which caused everyone to turn to me. They seemed a bit alarmed with me getting up. “Chloe, what’s with you?” Kyle asked.

“Look, I need to go talk to Betsy. I need to know if Amanda knows anything about what’s going to happen tomorrow. With Amanda as a ghost, she seems to be the only person who can find out if we’re going to face any obstacles when trying to convince Frankie of the fact that Victoria is a Video Girl as well as convince Victoria to tell us that she committed fraud in order to ruin my life. Victoria knew that my mother was Rosetta Fletcher, despite no one in the Jonas family ever telling her. I’m utterly freaked out by that,” I said with a sigh. “From the moment I met her last month, I knew I hated her. Subconsciously, I must have known who she was, even if I consciously had no clue.”

Zoe eyed me. “You’re going over there to talk to her then?” she asked. “I don’t know if you should really do that, Chloe. The fact of the matter is that Amanda may not even know what going to happen tomorrow. Betsy told me what Amanda told her, remember? She was the one who introduced the idea of Franoe. Otherwise, none of us would have known about any of this. None of us: me, Kyle, the Jonas Brothers, Denise, Paul, Kyra, Selena, Dean, Dana, and Betsy, would have ever known what was going on if it weren’t for Amanda being a ghost and her being able to look into everyone’s future. I think that’s really all she knew though, just that there was a possibility of Franoe’s existence.”

Kyra nodded. “Yeah. Amanda did the same for me. After I met her seven and a half years ago and found out about the pregnancy while I was at one of her book signings, she kept my face in mind. So, when she died, Amanda looked into my future to find out what was going to happen to me. Betsy, according to Amanda, told me that I was Joe’s soul mate. Hell, Amanda even sent me a dream in order to prove that. I refused to even entertain such a possibility until months later when I attended Betsy’s seventeenth birthday party.”

“Yeah, I remember that,” I said with a sigh. “And that dream Amanda sent you six years ago is the exact reason that I need to ask Betsy about all of this. Not once have I ever received a dream from Amanda indicating the path my future is headed in. She knows damn well what’s been going on as of late and I want to know as well. The fact of the matter is that I need to know if the future in store for my best friend has me or Victoria in it with him. Amanda is the only one with the knowledge of that and everyone out here knows that.”

“But, would Panda really tell you?” Joe asked.

I shrugged. “No clue. That’s why I’m going over there to find out. Betsy is, after all, the only one who can tell me about all of this; she is the only one that can communicate with her older sister’s ghost. And, remember, Joe, I fell in love with Frankie and I need to know if Franoe is to exist or if all of our attempts tomorrow will be in vain.”

“I don’t think Lizard would know though,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because she wants it to be a surprise. Panda, I mean. She never did tell Kiwi what was going on. That had to be uncovered by herself. It wasn’t until months later that Panda revealed the truth to Lizard, who later relayed the information to Kiwi,” Joe explained to me. “So, I don’t really think that you should go talk to Lizard about this today. Just wait until tomorrow to find out if Frankie is anywhere in your future, okay, Chloe?”

“Fine,” I said.

“Good,” he said.

I was curious as to why Joe didn’t want me to bother Betsy with all of this. It confused the hell out of me. But, I didn’t pursue it; I merely let all of this go and sat back, listening to what the others were saying. As I did, I wondered what Frankie was doing at the moment and how he was going to take seeing me tomorrow. It probably was not going to go well.