Alya was absent that day with a cold, meaning that Bridgette would have walk to school alone. She hummed a small tune to herself and walked at a comfortable pace since she was earlier than normal. When Bridgette entered the school, there was already a few students chilling about before class. There were probably more in their classrooms.

Bridgette made her way to the locker room and kicked her locker open. It had been getting stuck more and more often. She would have to tell Ms Bustier about it later. Bridgette reached for the top shelf for her textbooks, but she only felt a cold, hard metal surface instead.

"That's weird..." Bridgette muttered to herself.

She stood on her tiptoes and peeked over the edge of the shelf. Sure enough, there was nothing there except a neon pink sticky note. Bridgette picked it up and read the text on it.

'I told you that you'd regret it.' -Lila

Bridgette scrunched her eyebrows. Stealing someone else's textbooks was an old-school bully technique. But how did she get in her locker anyways?

Bridgette searched around the practically empty locker room for her textbooks. On top of lockers, under benches, in hidden corners, and every other possible hiding spot. She then checked in the sinks of the bathroom and in the stalls. In the stall at the very back, three textbooks were drowning in toilet water.

Bridgette cringed. "Ugh... how cruel..."

Since the whole thing wasn't submerged, she cautiously picked up the corners that hadn't gotten wet and rushed to the trash can with the soaking wet textbooks. She dropped them in and immediately washed her hands.

What was she going to use in class now? Alya was absent so she couldn't ask for help with that. Maybe she could ask if she could share with Nino or Felix.

Bridgette sighed. Lila really did pick the worst day to bully her.

The bell was about to ring now, so Bridgette made her way to the classroom sulkily and empty handed. She dragged her feet into class and slumped into her seat with a pout. Nino and Felix passed her and sat in their seats behind her. Nino crumbled up a small piece of paper and tossed it towards Bridgette, making it bounce of her head. Bridgette grumbled in reply.

"Hey. Hey, Bridgette!" Nino called/whispered. "Where's Alya?"

"She's got a cold," Bridgette said in an upset tone.

Felix leaned over and set a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you okay?" He asked, concerned.

"Great. I'm just great. Not like my textbooks decided to take a dive into the toilet..." She muttered sarcastically.

"Huh?"

"Nothing, nothing..." Bridgette sighed.

The bell rung and Ms Bustier walked into the room.

"Good morning, class," Ms Bustier said as she set her things down on her class.

A few students said good morning in reply.

"Alright everyone, we are going to continue where we left off yesterday. Please take out your text books and open up to-" She started, before cutting herself off.

All the students would put their textbooks on top of their desks every morning, but Bridgette didn't have her's out.

"Bridgette," Ms Bustier called. "Where are your textbooks?"

"I..." Bridgette said, quickly thinking up an excuse. "I left them at home."

Ms Bustier sighed. "Please bring them tomorrow." Bridgette nodded. "You can share with Felix for today."

Bridgette nodded again as Felix came down from his seat and sat in Alya's empty spot, opening up his textbook and putting it in the middle of them. Bridgette muttered a thanks and lazily watched as the class went on.

This was the first of many.

Don't. Kill me. Don't.

~Crystal

Word Count: 620

8/24/18