Another chapter cuz it's currently 1:09 am as I'm writing this and my tired level is completely nonexistent.

Maria felt herself being shaken awake. She opened her eyes reluctantly, looking at the alarm clock. 10:00. James never let her sleep this late. AND it was a school day. Why was he only just waking her up?

"Maria!"

She snapped out of her sleep trance. "Yeah? Why aren't we at school?"

"You'll see. Check your phone. It's been going off every two minutes since 7:30."

"Good god." Maria grabbed her phone right as it buzzed again. Her screen lit up with notifications. As she scrolled through them, she felt ready to cry. 'Wh*re,  sl*t, prostitute.' Just insult after insult was hurled at her. Hundreds of them. When she finally reached the last notification, she saw it was a link someone had sent her for an article called The Reynolds Pamphlet. That did not sound good.

She opened it and read it, and all of her questions were answered. Why people were so angry at her. Why they hadn't gone to school yet. Just so much made more sense.

She ignored the texts that she was still getting. "I'm sure that I'll loose my job babysitting for the Schuylers, James! That's how I make money! Babysitting them! And given what I did to Eliza, they're going to fire me, I'm sure of it!"

"Well, you can try to get a new job this afternoon. But we have to go to school. As much as I don't want to, we have to. C'mon, get up."

"I'm not going to school!"

"Yes, you are!"

"No, I'm not!"

"You wanna be a b*tch? Two can play at that game." He started rummaging through her desk, then her drawers. When he reached the one with her music in it, she almost panicked.

"Ok! Ok! I'm going to school!" Maria jumped to her feet.

"What are you hiding, Ria?" He rifled through the drawer and pulled out them box. Maria caught her breath. "What is this?" He opened the box and fury immediately exploded across his face. "I TOLD YOU TO THROW THESE OUT! I GUESS IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE, YOU HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF!" He walked over to the fireplace.

"No," Maria whispered. "No, no, no! No, James, please! Don't!" She flung herself at him, trying to get it back.

He smirked at her, and with a simple flick of his wrist and the release of his fingers, the box landed in the fire. Maria reached for it, but quickly yanked her hand away as her fingertips got burnt. She clutched her hand, tears running down her face. James slapped her and told her to get over it and get dressed, then he left the room.

She put on a pair of black skinny jeans and a red hoodie. She pulled her hair up in a ponytail, and she couldn't help but notice that she looked exactly like Peggy with her hair styled like that. She immediately pulled it back down. She had never been angrier that she looked like her. Peggy didn't deserve to bear a resemblance to someone like her.

They dropped Susan off at daycare. And then drove to school. They sat silently in the parking lot for a few minutes.

"Guess we got to go," James shrugged.

"Easy for you to say," Maria muttered. "Everyone's congratulating you for finding a way to use my 'cheating' on you as an advantage."

"What was that?" James asked harshly.

"Nothing," Maria whispered quickly.

"Good," James said.

The got out of the car and walked towards the school. There sinking feeling in Maria's gut, reminding her that no matter how terrible her day already was, it was about to get worse. What was it people said? 'Once you hit rock bottom, the only place to go is up'? Well, her rep had brought a pickaxe, and it was ready to dig.