Victoria Simons

Victoria Simons is a fourteen year old girl with a 5"6' frame, shoulder length black hair, and
glasses. She enjoys reading fiction novels of all kinds and works regular hours at a local
bookstore/coffeeshop. She's also a teacher's aid for a third grade World History class.
One Saturday morning Victoria woke up, showered, dressed, and walked to her friend Julie's
house.Upon her arrival Victoria said," Just let me use your bathroom real quick, then we can go to your room, maybe watch a movie." As Victoria made her way to the nearest bathroom, Julie went to her father's study to speak with him. "Was that Victoria I heard?," Julie's father, Gavin asked, hearing his daughter come in. "Yeah," Julie replied, "she just got here."
"Tell Victoria I admire the way she handled that situation with Chloe a couple weeks ago," Gavin said.
Furrowing her brow, Julie asked, "What do you mean?" Surprised Gavin said, "You mean she didn't tell you?
Victoria's dad told me Chloe had been spreading all sorts of nasty gossip about Victoria around school for
the last three months or so. Knowing that those who really knew her would never believe such trash, Victoria
never responded to Chloe. But, man, she's certainly had a hard time with it, seeing how kids yelled the
cruelest things at her in the school hallways and even vandalized her locker." Julie said, "I heard that Chloe and some other jerks had been saying things about her, but never knew anything more than that. What happened between Victoria and Chloe two weeks ago?"
"Well," her father replied, "it happened the afternoon I took you out of school for your dentist appointment.
Victoria and some of her other friends were walking back from PE class, when Chloe came up and said
something horrible to her. The girls with Victoria immediately went to her defense. Things heated up quickly and they looked ready to tear Chloe apart. Victoria stepped in and tried to convince them to ignore Chloe and walk away, saying that getting into a fight with her would just make her determined to talk more trash. Eventually, Victoria was able to lead her friends away, but Chloe was screaming and cursing at them as they went. Fortunately, a teacher who had spoken with Victoria a number of times about her problems with Chloe
overheard the whole thing. As soon as the other girls left, the teacher hauled Chloe to the principal's office. Since this wasn't the first time Chloe had been caught cursing or saying other that she shouldn't, she was suspended. Victoria's father told me Chloe's parents won't allow her back in school until she undergoes serious counseling."
"Poor Victoria," Julie said, with a sigh. "I can't imagine what she's been going through the past couple months.
If that had been me I would have strangled Chloe. But I'm proud of her for handling the situation as gracefully as she did. Victoria never once said anything mean about Chloe or talked about getting revenge. When one
of our friends asked Victoria how she was dealing with the situation not too long after the gossip started, she answered honestly. Victoria admitted that she often had awful thoughts about Chloe and wished she could hurt Chloe as much as she was hurting her. Whenever those thoughts came Victoria pushed to them to the back of her mind until later. Then when she had a quiet moment she wrote down all the bad thoughts and gave the situation to God, asking him to change her heart toward Chloe, see her the way Jesus did, and heal whatever pain was causing Chloe to hurt others. Nodding, Gavin said, "Like I said, I really admire Victoria for the way she handled this." At that moment, Victoria emerged from the bathroom and called to Julie. The girls got some food from the kitchen, settled down in Julie's room, and watched The Lion King.

Late that afternoon, Julie walked Victoria home. "Hey, Victoria," Julie asked, "why didn't you tell me about that incident between you and Chloe?" Victoria stiffened but didn't answer. Figuring she didn't want to discuss anything connected with that painful time in her life, Julie didn't repeat the question. Several minutes later, Victoria suddenly said, "I found Chloe later that day in the school parking lot. She was crying." Stunned
at this news, Julie waited to see if Victoria would divulge more information. After awhile, Victoria began to talk, "Even though I had been praying that God would somehow enable me to love Chloe despite everything she's said about me, angry thoughts about her kept invading my mind and I soon realized that my angry at her was coming out in other areas of my life. The day befor that incident with her I screamed at my sister for no reason. And on another day before that I sassed my mom when she asked me to do the dishes. By the time that incident with Chloe happened I was literally ready to break her in two, and almost thought about not intervening when the girls I was with looked ready to do it for me.
But then I realized they would get in trouble so I stepped up and convinced them to leave. As soon as school ended I hid in the bathroom where I railed at Chloe for what she was doing to me and at God for allowing her to do it. Finally I went out to the parking lot and that's when I saw Chloe. She was sitting on a bench crying. I was tempted to just walk away but I felt God urging me to go speak with her and, reluctantly, I did.
At first, Chloe was really mean and several times I almost left, but I just felt God telling me that I needed to stay. Eventually, Chloe started telling me about herself and her life. I won't go into details, but she's had it rough for a very long time. As I listened to her, I began feeling an overwhelming compassion for her that I had never experienced before, not even while I was begging God to create a love in my heart for Chloe.
We cried together. Chloe apologized for the rumors she had spread about me and, believe or not, I felt so much love for her by this point I had no problem forgiving her. We decided to put the past behind us and become friends. We traded cell phone numbers and we've been keeping touch ever since. Astounded, Julie said, "Victoria, that's wonderful. I can't believe you had the strength to face her like that after all she's done to you, and now you're friends. But best of all God answered your prayer. He gave you the ability to love Chloe."
"Yes," Victoria said, "He certainly did."