iMessage on/off switch is gray and uneditable

Hi there!

I'm new to the forum, but I'm kind of desperate and I don't know where else to go for help!

Please keep in mind that my iPhone is a 5c. Don't know what difference it'll make, but...^^"

So today, I had the bright idea of changing my password. A little while later, I went to use my iPhone and--what do you know--I forgot the password. I tried again and again and again and eventually used up all of my tries until it said "iphone disabled, connect to iTunes." I was away from home, and when I got back I wiped the phone and restored it via iCloud.

End of story, right?

Nope.

I don't know what happened, but here's my iMessage in settings:

I cant actually turn iMessage on to activate it!!

So the weird thing is, I can text one person just fine, but another says that I have to activate iMessage first. The person I can text is green (my text bubble is, and the send icon) and the one I can't is blue.

Please help! I don't know what to do!!

thank you in advance!! ❤️