Promises To Keep (Part 1) Chapter 2 begins

Chapter 2 Part 1: Honesty Works
Hey guys! It’s been a busy weekend for us, so we are very sorry if you’ve been waiting a while for this update. Here’s the first part of a new chapter, Honesty Works. In the last update we wrote that the next part was called Night’s Star, but changes were made, sorry about that! Hope you enjoy, and things start off differently in this part. Love you loadsssss!!!
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We all walked into detention, and you could see the same expression on all of our faces, fear. We didn’t even speak to each other because we were so scared of the big teacher walking in front of us. We finally entered the principal’s office. As soon as we entered, we could smell the air filled with formality, but we could also feel the dreaded hands of detention pulling and embracing us in. “Sit down”, the teacher said, we all slowly sat down in our chairs. Ashwin, Sayohn and Aadhi sat on one side of the long table, and Lakshi, Maya, and I sat on the other. We sat there quietly like good kids until the teacher shut the door and left. As soon as the door closed, “What the heck?!”, Lakshi said. “I thought we were doing the school a favour by catching the murderer, but it looks like we should’ve just let him kill us.” “Don’t say that”, Sayohn said to Lakshi. “We gotta explained what happened to the principal.”

“As if he would understand”, I mumbled. “You gotta keep your mind open”, Aadhi replied. I glared at him. “You were the one who got us here in the first place!”, I yelled. “Okay guys… we know it’s all Aadhi’s fault, but there’s nothing we can do now.”, Maya said. “You too Maya, you agree that it’s all my fault?”, Aadhi asked her. “YES.”, everyone said all at once. That’s when he put his head down in shame. “Served him right”, I thought. I looked at the frame he gave me earlier and I thought about what my parents would’ve said when they found out we were in detention, so I slipped it in my bag. That’s when I started thinking about Niru, and praying that he wasn’t having a panic attack. I really missed him though, and Lakshi and I have a lot of explaining to do. That’s when we heard the door knob turn. We all turned around to look at the door and the principal, Mr. Khan walked in. We all stood up. He walked to the front of the table and sat in his chair. “Sit”, he said. We all looked at each other, and then sat down.

“What were you guys thinking?”, Mr. Khan asked. “Were you trying to get yourselves killed? What would we have said to your parents?”, Lakshi and I glanced at each other. “Who left the gym first? First of all I knew Aadhi was gone and he didn’t tell a teacher when he was leaving.”, We looked at Aadhi as Mr. Khan said this, and Aadhi was looking at the floor. “But why did you guys leave in the middle of the night?”, Mr. Khan asked. Everyone looked at me because they knew that I was the reason they left the gym, however Aadhi was the reason I left the gym, so it’s not entirely my fault. I stood up. “Mr. Khan…”, I started to say. “It was my-”, that’s when Ashwin cut me off. “We all left to look for Aadhi”, Ashwin said, then he glanced at me. I gave him a thankful look and I sat down. Ashwin continued to talk.

“Then Abi got caught by the murderer, so I kicked him, he fell, and then Aadhi grabbed the gun that fell out of his hands.” That’s when Lakshi said calmly, “We basically did each other a favour. As a matter of fact, we basically saved the school, and your lives too”. The room got quiet after she said this. Then Mr. Khan took a deep breath. “You’re right. I am proud of you guys. If it wasn’t for you guys, there would’ve been at least one person dead. Thank you. Lakeview is so lucky to have a group of students like you.” We all looked at each other and smiled. “Now”, he said. “You guys saved our school, you should be awarded.” None of us were expecting this. “Wait… are you serious?!”, Sayohn asked in a jubilantly, shocked voice. “Yes, for sure”, he said, as if we should know that we deserved it.

“You guys didn’t hesitate to sacrifice your lives for others, having a recognition ceremony for you is the least we can do.” He responded. “Wow”, Maya said. “This feels like a dream”, she said. I nodded as she said this. “You guys should go home, your parents will be worried. We will host your ceremony for the grade 9’s and 10’s during the first two periods,and the grade 11 and grade 12’s for the last two periods. “We can organize….” we interrupted him. “Mr.Khan!”, Lakshi and I said at the same time. We both shared a smile because we knew we were the queens of organizing parties, and we loved doing them. “We will organize the ceremony”, I said. “WHAT?!”, Ashwin, Aadhi, Maya, and Sayohn yelled altogether. “K we need to stop doing that!“ Aadhi said. Are you sure?!”, Sayohn asked. “Trust us”, I said. He nodded but he seemed very doubtful. “Alright, go home and plan!”, Mr. Khan said. He got up and opened the door for us, and we walked out of the office. “Wow”, Aadhi said. “Who would’ve expected that?” “I don’t think anyone expected that”, Ashwin said. “Definitely not”, I agreed, and we all separated and went through different exits so we could get home.

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Niru’s car pulled up on to the school’s road. He got out of his car and ran to us as soon as he saw us. Lakshi and I jumped into his arms at the same time, and he was tremendously happy to see us. We then got into the car, closed the doors, put on our seatbelts, and that’s when he said, “ARE YOU GIRLS CRAZY?!”, obviously he heard about everything. That sleepover was supposed to be for one night, ended up being two nights because a murderer got into the school, and you guys stood in front of him?! Are you insane?!”, he asked. “If any of you girls….”, he started to say, but then he got quiet. He turned and looked out the window. I put my hand on his shoulder. “Niru”, I said to him. “Please forgive us, and please don’t get mad at us. We… we’re going to be awarded at school. All six of us… tomorrow, we saved the school!”, Lakshi said, trying to cheer him up. Niru’s face brightened. “What? Really?! I’m so proud of you girls… well kinda proud….who were the other four? Can I come?”, he exploded with questions. We told him about our friends and about our ceremony, and he seemed even more excited than we were.
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When we got home our grandma was very happy to see us, and Krish almost started crying. We hugged both of them and told them about the ceremony and like always Krish asked, “Can I come?” “You’ll be in school”, I said. He frowned but then I promised to play his new board game with him after dinner, so he was happy. Then Lakshi and I went to our room so we could plan for the ceremony.

We walked to our room and as soon as I got there, I grabbed the box on top of my closet. I took out the ‘Promises’ book and opened it. Then I checked off the box that listed: Make a good group of friends. Lakshi saw me check it off, and that’s when she asked, “How do you know they’re a good group of friends? What if they turn their backs on us?”, she asked. “I have a good feeling this time”, I replied. She looked at me, then she said, “Okay hurry up, we gotta plan for the ceremony!” I closed the book and put it back in the box, then put the box back on top of my closet. We started making the decorations, planning the events, and asked Niru, grandma, and Krish to help us. “Why did we ask Krish to help us?”, Lakshi asked for the tenth time. “Because he enjoys baking”, I said, and so we spent the whole night getting everything ready.

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The next morning my sister and I woke up early so we could have enough time to get everything ready. I checked my e-mail and that’s when I saw a message from Maya. I opened the message and Maya sent me a picture of her dress. I showed it to Lakshi and she said, “We have to wear dresses?! WHY?!”, I looked at her, I had no answer. “I thought we were supposed to just go in normal school clothes”, I said. “Ya”, she said, but clearly that wasn’t the case. We looked in our closets, but then we remembered Niru helped us pack all our summer clothes away, so our dresses weren’t there. “Great”, I said. “That’s when grandma entered our room because she heard some noise. “What’s wrong girls?”, she asked. “We’re supposed to wear a dress… but everything’s in the basement”, Lakshi said. “Oh…. wait a minute”, grandma said, and she left the room. My sister and I looked at each other confused, but then we decided to continue packing the decorations.

That’s when grandma entered our room. She laid two of the most gorgeous dresses down on the bed. “Oh my god grandma, those are beautiful!”, I said to her astonishingly. “Where did you get them from?” Then grandma said, “I didn’t get them. Your mother got them for you a long time ago. When you girls were two years old, she ordered them at the store, but they delivered it in the wrong size, and she only noticed when she got home. Then when she looked inside the box, she was very angry and disappointed to see that they were in the wrong size, but she didn’t bother returning it. She thought they would look beautiful on you girls when you got older.”, I could feel my eyes watering, and Lakshi’s were too. I would’ve been crying at this point, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to make grandma feel bad too. She hugged us and said, “put them on, I want to see how they look on you!”, so we nodded at her and she left the room and Lakshi went to the bathroom. The two dresses were two different colours, but had the same designs.

There was a mint one, and the other was baby pink. I picked up the mint one. It was beautiful. It was a long dress and the skirt part was very flowy. The top parted was encrusted with silver jewels, it sparkled in the light. The sleeves had lace on them and the neck cut-out was flawless. There was a small bow in the middle of the waist line, and a jewel right in the middle of the bow. I put it on. Lakshi and grandma walked in as soon as I told them I was done. “Oh my god”, Lakshi started to say. “You look…. incredible.”, grandma said, with the most delighted expression on her face.
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Next Part: Night’s Star (Chapter 2, Part 2)