Chapter 14 : Apologies in Public

 I’m not sure if we did the right thing through the whole night. However the next day, everything felt different.

     Felicia, Ivy, Rachel and Teresa stood in front of the class, forced to read their apology letters out loud. Their voices were strained, their words flat and hollow, but I didn’t care. The fact that they had to do it at all was enough.

     But I also saw the way some students glanced at me afterward. The way their expressions shifted—not just from surprise, but something else. Something uncertain.

     And then, slowly, it began.

     At lunch, a girl I barely knew—Lizzy, I think—asked if she could sit at our table. Then someone else asked me about the homework, as if I was just a normal classmate, not someone to be ignored. It wasn’t a grand victory. It wasn’t instant acceptance.

     But it was a start.

     And as Elodie and I sat together, talking and laughing like we hadn’t in ages, I realized something.

     I wasn’t alone anymore.