I made it back to the dormitory without getting caught.

My hands shook as I unbuttoned my coat and hung it up on the peg. I kicked my boots off, pulled the ribbon from my hair which was now dripping wet, and climbed into bed, pulling the blankets up to my neck. Every crack of lightning made me jump. I listened out for the sound of the other girls returning to the room, but they seemed to be taking their time.

A tear ran down my cheek.

I had known fear before. All those times Dad had been taken to the hospital over the years had scared me beyond belief, but this was a different type of fear. Back then, I had been scared for him and his safety. This time I had been scared for myself. Scared of what they would have done if I hadn't put up much of a fight. If I had lost the struggle against Victoria. They may have said they meant it as a joke, but none of them saw the glint in Victoria's eye at the edge of the pool. She knew what she was doing.

The other girls returned to the dormitory not long after, none of them saying a word as they shed their outside clothes and climbed into bed. Soon the room was full of soft snoring and the occasional muttering as the bad weather continued. They may have been able to sleep, but I laid there with my eyes wide open until morning broke.

Outside, a light drizzle continued but I kicked my blankets off and grabbed my balled up running clothes. Regardless of what the weather may have been like, I needed to run off the events of the previous night and try to get my head straight. I changed in the bathroom, slipped my shoes on and disappeared to the hallway to meet Katie in the entranceway.

"Are you sure you want to go running in that?" Katie asked as I swung up the front door.

"I run in every whether," I shrugged."

"Hey, are you alright? You look really tired."

"Thunderstorms aren't my friends; I can never sleep in them."

"If you're sure."

"I am."

"Alright, I'll stay here. I don't really feel like getting soaked."

Katie stayed under the archway above the door as I jogged down the steps and used a nearby tree to stretch out before I started to job. With it being the weekend, Lacrosse practise wasn't being held and Jo had come down with a cold after getting caught in the thunderstorm the previous day. For me to get in my run, Katie had offered to keep an eye on me to avoid another telling off by Victoria or Mrs Maddox.

I appreciated her offering to help me, this run was needed more than any others.

The rain soaked through my clothing as I stretched, trying to release the pent-up energy that had built up since the incident the night before. Once I felt warm, or as warm as I could be with my clothing sticking to my skin, I started to run across the drive. I went back and forth and gradually sped up as I went. My mind was still reeling after the previous night's event and my anger only got worse the longer I ran.

My old school had been chaotic, outright feral on occasion, but never had someone threatened the life of another student. Victoria had a purpose for the events of the previous night, and she was determined to follow through with them regardless of the outcome. I didn't know how much the other girls knew of her intention, but I refused to be chased out of the school by someone who brushed their hair longer than they read a book.

I slipped on the grass as the rain grew heavier. My shorts stuck to my thighs and my hair dripped down in front of my face and down the back of my blouse. Katie looked at me in the entranceway and tucked her bottom lip under her teeth to keep from laughing. I pushed my hair off my face, jogging back across the grass and taking shelter under the arch just as another torrent of rain dropped from the sky.

"Don't touch me, you're soaked," Katie said. She backed away from me.

"Why? It's only a bit of rain"

"Don't you dare."

She backed against the wall and I took a single step towards her, shaking my hair out and sending water droplets all over Katie. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she held her arms up with her palms towards me. I stopped shaking my hair and grinned at her, feeling a little dizzy but nonetheless pleased with myself.

"I hate you." She dropped her hands to her side and glared at me. "You need to dry off and I need breakfast. In."

We walked through the door and back into my entranceway, water still dripping from my body onto the mat. Katie leant against the bannister and watched me as I took the stairs two at a time. I did not worry about being late for Miss Jones since she wasn't on morning duty on the weekends.

I pushed open the dormitory door and stepped inside. The other girls were still asleep as I crept down the rows of beds to my own, fishing out a yellow dress from my trunk and a towel. Dorothy muttered something in her sleep when I walked past her bed and into the bathroom. With the door closed behind me, I ran the towel over my hair until it dried slightly and worked to peel off my shorts and blouse.

Once changed, I hung my running clothes over one of the towel racks in the bathroom to dry and returned to the main room. No one else stirred so I dropped the quietness before starting to route around my trunk for my comb and a pair of running shoes to wear with the dress. I pulled out a pair of worn, yellow pumps, running the comb through my hair and throwing it in my trunk.

"Mother, I don't want to eat the cabbage," Victoria moaned, rolling over in her blanket.

The shoe I was holding slipped out of my hand and dropped to the floor. My eyes widened and I looked around the room, but everyone had stayed asleep. Victoria never seemed like the type to sleep talk and I hadn't heard her do so since I arrived. This new discovery made me feel a lot happier after the previous night's events.

I slipped my shoes on and left the room, jogging down the steps and through the hallway to join Katie at the bottom of the stairs. She had taken to sitting on the stairs, drumming her fingers on her lap and rocking on the balls of her feet. One of the things I had learnt about her in the past week had been that food mattered to her more than anything and it was a bad idea to keep her waiting.

"What took you so long?" She looked at me. "You still look really tired."

"I told you, it was the thunderstorm. My bed is right by the window."

"Hm. Come on, I'm hungry."

She wrapped her fingers around my wrist and I quickly pulled my arm out of her grip. Moments from the previous night flashed through my head. Victoria's smile when she held me over that pool. The iron-clad grip on my upper arm and her nails pressing into my skin. Her grip had been like a vice, an inescapable hold that could have ended badly were I not able to escape it. They may not have been done with the same intention, but the fear gripped me in the exact same way.

Katie regarded me with a small tilt of her head but said nothing. Instead, she turned and headed in the direction of the dining hall with me following close behind. I placed my hand on my upper arm and felt the place where Victoria had gripped my arm, running my hand up and down it. She had left a bruise and small crescent-shaped indents which had been hidden by the sleeve of my dress. Perhaps I would have been better off telling Katie what she had done since she was head girl, but something stopped me from doing it.

I didn't want to be considered a snitch.

We walked into the dining hall and sat down amongst the few students who had pulled themselves out of bed as early as we had. Katie had been reluctant to do so, stating she needed her lie-in, but Jo had managed to talk her around once she started sneezing every few minutes. We chose an abandoned table in the corner of the room with Katie launching into a rack of toast whilst I poured a bowl of cereal.

A little while later, when we had both finished and were simply sitting together, Victoria and the rest of the girls from the dormitory entered. Victoria caught me and smiled, sending a chill down my spine and I directed my attention back to the table. Katie seemed to notice.

"The schools going to be really busy with the weather like that," she gestured her head to the rain that splattered the dining hall windows.

"No chance of getting any work done then?"

"Actually, I've got an idea."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Hey! Being head girl has its perks. I'll meet you in your dormitory in five minutes."

She left her plate on the table and almost fell over the bench trying to climb over it before scurrying away and leaving me alone. I shook my head, pushed myself up and left the table, walking past Victoria who offered a small wave accompanied by a wink and a slight smile. Her eyes followed me out into the entranceway and even though I had left her behind the double doors, I could still feel them on me. It felt as though she was watching me wherever I went.

A chill went down my back. I shook my head slightly and pushed any thoughts of Victoria to the back of it, focusing instead on gathering my project supplies and meeting Katie.

The dormitory was empty by the time I arrived as everyone was down at breakfast. My school uniform, which I had left balled up on my trunk the night before, had gone. I knew Miss Jones would have taken it to be washed but it still managed to unnerve me slightly, especially as Victoria had time to take it. She wouldn't have taken it, though; it wouldn't have meant anything to her.

I knelt beside my trunk and started to pull out my books, paper and the small tin Michael had given me to keep my pens and pencils in. My bottle of ink had travelled to the bottom of my trunk and I fished it out, slamming the top shut and stuffing everything into my school bag. I hauled it onto my shoulder and waited for Katie to make an appearance.

Katie darted into the dormitory a few seconds later. She slammed the door against the wall, ran to my bed and grabbed onto my bag, pulling me from the room. This time, since she had grabbed onto my bag strap rather than me. I didn't fight back. I allowed her to pull me down the stairs, up two more flights of stairs and along the corridor to the third floor. We reached a door where Katie pulled a key out of her pocket, finally releasing my bag strap when she pushed open the door.

"This is the head girls office. I don't use it since almost everyone knows where I am and just talks to me when they get the chance. No one is allowed in here except for me and whoever happens to be in my company, so it'll be nice and quiet."

"Are you sure?"

"It never gets used and I'm sure Mrs Maddox won't mind; it is my room after all."

"Thank you."

"Eh, you can pay me back later."

She grinned and held open the door, gesturing me inside. I shuffled in and took a seat on the sofa on the right side of the room, staring at the large bookcase on the other side. Katie closed the door and jumped on the seat beside me, jumping up and down for a few seconds before she pulled out her work. After fishing around in my bag, I pulled out my work and swung my legs up, tucking them behind me.

The head girl room was far quieter than any other room in the school, even the library. The only sound came from the window outside and the light patter of rain on the window. I chewed on the end of my pencil and looked around the small room. A large desk sat in front of the window, a large wooden chair behind it and a much smaller one in front of it. The bookcase sat opposite us with a large painting of the school grounds beside it. In the centre of the room sat a large, cream-coloured rug.

I turned my attention back to the project and started to scribble down some of the information from the book on my lap. My notes from the previous night were almost illegible due to the speed at which I wrote them, but I knew what they meant without struggling too much. Dad always said I had the handwriting of a thinker, someone who had far too many thoughts running through their head to contain them all and put thought into what I had been writing.

After a little while, I felt a small tug on a strand of my hair and turned around to see Katie pulling on it and watching it spring back into place. She laughed to herself and I furrowed my eyebrows at her. I knew she had difficulty concentrating, but this was something she had never done before.

"Can I help you?" I asked, biting my lip slightly.

"Sorry. I got a little side-tracked," she said. "Is your hair usually this curly?"

"Only when it rains. It hates rainwater."

Her eyebrows furrowed together, and she tilted her head to the side. "Your hair was like this when I saw you this morning."

"Was it? I didn't notice."

"Yes, it was. Were you out in the rain last night?"

"I was in bed."

Her eyes darted to my upper arm and she moved my sleeve ever so slightly, exposing the darkening bruise and crescent-shaped indents in my skin. I watched as she lightly ran her finger over the marks before letting go and allowing my sleeve to fall back in place. She looked at me, a slight sadness in the eyes and dropped her hands to her lap.

"What happened?" she asked.

I looked at her, but I didn't say anything.

"Come on, Flick. You can trust me." She smiled at me slightly. I knew I couldn't lie, not after she had seen the bruises

"Victoria. She said I had to do some sort of initiation."

"For heaven's sake! The initiations were banned thirty years ago after some girl almost died, she knows that!" Katie exploded and dropped her stuff onto the floor. I flinched. She pressed her right fist into her left hand, pausing before the wall closest to the door and turned to face me. "What did she try and make you do?"

"She wanted me to jump into the swimming pool, something about having to face a fear. I didn't do it. I managed to get away from her."

"You have to tell Mrs Maddox."

"No way! I'm not being a snitch."

"She could have killed you, Flick!"

Katie crossed back to the sofa and sat beside me, her left leg resting beside her whilst her other one dangled freely. I dropped my attention back to my lap and the notes in front of me. She reached across and took my right hand, encasing it in her own and forcing me to look at her. Her light brown eyes looked at me with pity behind them, but there was anger there. A dislike of what Victoria had tried to do.

I hadn't even wanted to tell Katie. If I told Mrs Maddox, it would only make things worse, make her hate me more than she already did. I wasn't a snitch. A thousand thoughts ran through my head at once, each one screaming louder than the other. Some told me I was already a snitch for telling Katie, others said that I had to tell someone before she tried something else; something worse. I didn't know which one to believe and it was all too overwhelming.

"I know. I just don't want to be classed as a snitch. Besides, who is Mrs Maddox more likely to believe? Me, the new girl, or Victoria who had every single girl in our dormitory behind her the entire time?"

"Little Miss Havisham needs taking down a peg or two. Come on, I've got an idea."

She released my hand and stood up, waiting for me. Unsure of what to do, I dumped my project onto the sofa and stood up. Katie grabbed my hand in her own again and together we walked from the room with me having no idea what was in store.

~~~

First Published - June 15th, 2020