Forgotten

Chapter 2

The rest of the day was torture. People threw her more dirty looks than usual in class, Adrien didn't look at her once, and Sabrina moved away from their desk to a new place up the back. Chloe really was alone, just as Marinette and Alya had promised. It was really, truly the worst. She felt like an outcast from society and she hated it, but now she was starting to realise how she made so many other people feel.

It was no wonder people were avoiding her now. She had treated everyone she met with hostility and yet expected them to treat her like a queen? This could be fixed. It wouldn't be easy, but she would fix everything she had done and apologise for all the hurtful words she had said. Even if it took until the end of time, she would make everything right again.

Her realisation had come quite late in the day, but for the last hour of school Chloe was powered by determination. With the beginnings of a plan forming in her mind, her confidence was quickly finding its way back to her. Soon enough, she was the Chloe Bourgeois of just a few days ago and she was heading down the path of turning over a new leaf and becoming a better person.

Whispers followed her as she left school, but Chloe couldn't bring herself to care. Tomorrow was another new day and she would make amends somehow. So far, only the beginnings of a plan were formed but the details weren't quite clear. Would she just apologise or was there something else that had to be done? Since Chloe had never apologised before, she didn't really know how to properly do it.

But she would learn, and she would make everything okay once more. It would be easy. There was nothing that could stop Chloe Bourgeois.

That afternoon, when Butler Jean picked her up from school Chloe thanked him for it, for the first time in her life. He looked shocked, but Chloe just acted like nothing happened and continued through the hotel up to her room. As she walked past her bed, she tossed her bag onto it and kept walking, hoping there was still paper somewhere in her room from when she and Adrien used to do craft projects as children. Everything was much simpler back then. So much had changed.

Determined, Chloe wrote 'apologies' in the centre of the page and thought. Nothing was coming to mind, but surely something as small as this wasn't going to defeat her. Most of the apologies Chloe could think of were from Sabrina, and now, looking back at them, they were pointless. For small things that she shouldn't have had to apologise for. Now that Chloe was actually sitting down and thinking about everything, it was starting to make sense why Sabrina didn't want to be around her anymore.

Chloe felt sick to her stomach. She really had been a horrible person to the only person that had stuck by her side all this time. Even Adrien had made new friends, and Felix essentially hated her now. Everyone she cared about had been pushed away by her own actions and she was alone. Completely.

Tears began to fall on the page, smudging Chloe's very limited writing. Quickly, Chloe rubbed at her eyes to stop the tears, but years of emotion that she had been pushing behind a façade were refusing to be suppressed.

After what was uncomfortably too long, the tears stopped, and Chloe managed to get her gasping breath back under control. Her face stung and her eyes felt like they were about to fall out, but the storm of emotions was much calmer, almost gone. She could think straight, but there wasn't much to think about.

She had to apologise, properly.

Pulling a new page, Chloe rewrote 'apology' in the middle before writing everything she wanted to apologise for around it. The page filled up quickly, much quicker than she would have hoped. After nearly half an hour, Chloe sat back and looked over the sheet. There was a lot to apologise for and saying sorry to everyone for everything she had done would take forever. Surely, she could find a way to apologise to lots of people for lots of things at once.

Then it hit her. A party. If she invited everyone she had hurt or had been mean to then she could apologise to all of them at once, and if people were enjoying themselves they would begin to associate Chloe was positive memories, right?

Outside, the sun was dropping quickly. The longer she waited, the more days the party would be pushed back. If the entire point of the party was to beg for forgiveness, even if she did hate the idea of begging, she should treat everyone like a person, the staff included. After the day she had, Chloe was determined to become a new and greatly improved Chloe Bourgeois.

Tomorrow. Everything could wait until tomorrow. She would make everything better, but she needed her beauty sleep in order to do that. Chloe Bourgeois was nothing if not consistent with her sleep and skin care routines.

Sunshine filtered through the windows of Chloe's room, pulling her from her sleep. Today was the day to begin apologising to everyone, and she was going to announce her party along with those apologies. Once she got home, she would be busy organising everything, but it would all be worth it in the end.

Chloe got ready for school faster than usual, allowing her hair to be a little messier than normal and swapped her usual makeup for something a little less noticeable. Wearing makeup was always something she had seen her mother do, and just like being mean to everyone around her, Chloe had copied her. Everything she did seemed to be for the sole purpose of impressing her mother, and now it felt like she had just lost her purpose in life. Maybe that was a little dramatic but pushing her mother's expectations out of her mind certainly left a lot of space for other thoughts.

On the way to school, Chloe researched ways to apologise to people on her phone. She memorised a few of them and remembered to thank Butler Jean for driving her before opening her own door and slipping outside. Today she was a new person, a nicer person, and she would prove that to the world. Starting with Sabrina.

When Chloe found Sabrina, she was with Alya and Marinette again. All three gave her looks ranging from disapproving to straight-up malice. Apparently, this would be harder than Chloe had thought. She would have to change people's opinions from hatred, rather than just the dislike she had thought they felt.

"I wanted to apologise. For everything." Chloe took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm sorry, Sabrina. Can you forgive me for all the horrible ways I've treated you and all the things I said?"

"One apology isn't going to fix everything, especially when you've made apologies before and still gone back to how you used to be. You're going to have to prove you're actually a better person, then I'll believe you." Sabrina stayed firm in her words, voice not wavering at all. There was no doubt that she had thought everything through and wasn't going to yield unless Chloe really was a different person.

"Even if you don't want to see me right now, I'd like to invite you to a party I'm holding in a few days. It's an apology party. Everyone is welcome to attend if they want to." She wanted to escape, she wanted to get out of here. "If you don't want to come, though, it's alright. No pressure. But I'll be able to give you an actual date tomorrow if you want."

"I'll think about it."

"You're more than welcome as well." Chloe made eye contact with Alya and Marinette, hoping to show them she actually meant the invitation was open. She really did want this to work out. For once she was being genuinely kind, rather than just saying words for gain like the last time she held a party.

Marinette and Alya didn't say anything, so Chloe nodded and turned on her heel to flee to the library. Only a few more days until everything was somewhat normal. Surely someone would see that she was changing. Hopefully, someone would talk to her. Being lonely was the worst.

Over the course of the day Chloe told nearly everyone about the party. It was only after everyone in the class knew that she realised she hadn't actually asked her father if she could hold the party. That was something she used to do, getting used to having everything handed to her without having to work for it. But no more. She was actually going to ask for permission to do something, like everyone else her age would.

Determination coursed through her veins. Only a few more days. She could do this. Any challenge that had stood in her way had been defeated one way or another. This was going to be no different. If it was the last thing she did, Chloe Bourgeois would become as 'normal' as she possibly could.

Chloe glanced at the clock on her phone and realised that her father would still be working. She couldn't interrupt him, especially over something as trivial as a party. Asking her father for permission to hold the party could wait and she could focus on trying to win the forgiveness of her classmates. Sabrina was thinking about coming to the party, Alya and Marinette appeared to be a lost cause. There were still lots of other people to apologise to and she had no idea where to start.

The bell rang and Chloe sighed. Another day of sitting alone was really beginning, as much as she had wanted to delay the inevitable. Deep breaths. Repeating the words 'I can do this' to herself like a mantra, Chloe walked up the stairs and into the classroom. People threw dirty looks at her, just like yesterday, but today they didn't hurt so much.

Hours passed as Chloe finished more classwork than she ever had since she and Sabrina became 'friends'. The more Chloe thought about their friendship, the more she realised that it wasn't right. That it wasn't healthy for either of them.

Finally, the day ended, and Chloe walked back to the car waiting for her. She didn't wave goodbye to anyone as there was no one who would want to wave back to her.

Audrey was sitting in the front seat of car when Chloe opened the door. She was wrapped up in a coat, complaining about the snow and ice on the road, about the weather, about the people, about the world in general. Chloe looked at her and couldn't believe how much she had wanted to be like her mother. No wonder people hated her.

"Hello, Cassandra."

"Chloe."

"Bless you." Audrey turned back to her phone, clearly finished with her parenting for this trip. Chloe settled into her seat, looking out the window. There was no point talking to her father because he was too busy simpering over her mother.

Out of nowhere, Andre turned to Chloe. "We're taking your mother home today and she's going to be staying with us for a while."

Chloe nodded her understanding before opening her phone. "Can I have a party in a few days?"

"A party? Who will be on the guestlist?" Suddenly paying attention, Audrey turned to Chloe. "No daughter of mine will hold a party with less than worthy guests."

"It's going to be an apology party, to try and make up for all the people I've been mean to."

"Why do you need to apologise for being a Bourgeois? It isn't your fault that everyone around you is subpar."

"Thinking like that is why people hate me. I have no friends anymore. No one even wants to talk to be, and I don't blame them." At Chloe's words, Audrey made a disapproving hum and opened her mouth to speak again, but she was interrupted.

An alarm was sounding outside, and the car slowed before moving into a park on the side of the road. It was unsafe to be out in the open during an akuma attack. Everyone knew that. All three of Bourgeois family and Butler Jean piled out of the car and headed to the closest building. Audrey grumbled about the inconvenience while Andre simpered over her, trying to make the short break seem better than it was.

The group had only just stepped through the doors when a rumble shook the world around them, and the entrance collapsed. Dust began to rain down and cracks sprinted across the roof. Lights flickered and the last thing Chloe saw was Butler Jean pushing her into a doorway before everything collapsed on top of them and the world went dark.