"Adira, hey!"

Relief flooded Austin's face as soon as he saw her, confirming her suspicion that after disappearing for lunch and all of her classes after lunch, two of which they shared, and then ignoring his calls and texts all night, she had some damage control to do.

He jogged the remaining distance across the cafeteria to greet her, abandoning his spot in line with his basketball friends.

She met him with a smile. "Hey."

"Are you okay?"

Playing dumb was her best bet. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

He crossed his arms as he looked down at her, concern still knitting his brow. "You weren't there at lunch, and then you missed calc and law, and then you weren't cheering at the basketball game last night, and then you ignored my calls and texts all night and all morning."

"Oh, right, sorry about that." She'd rehearsed her lie a million times in her head. "Reagan was sick yesterday and last night, so I had to get him from daycare early and then I was with him all night. I didn't mean to worry you."

He considered her for a long moment. "You're sure you're alright?"

"Positive."

A little of the tension dropped out of his shoulders, and he smiled. "Ok. Then snap me back right now or else we're gonna lose our streak."

Her laugh was genuine for once as she pulled out her phone to oblige, then followed him to the back of the lunch line so he could get his food.

Their conversation fell back into one of their normal patterns as he filled his tray and they headed out to the courtyard to enjoy the sunshine. It lasted until he'd finished and she was packing away her remaining salad for later. But when she looked up from sliding her lunch bag back into her backpack, he was looking at her, and the concerned expression from before was back.

"You'd tell me if something was wrong, wouldn't you?"

A stab of a feeling she couldn't name ran through her at the genuine care and worry in his voice, and she couldn't look him in the face as she nodded hurriedly. "Of course. I told you, I'm fine."

He opened his mouth to respond, but she was saved by the bell, getting to her feet as it carried to them through the open courtyard door.

"Come on, we're gonna be late."

He exhaled heavily, but stood as well and pulled his backpack over his shoulders, jogging to keep up as she bolted for the door inside.

He'd been a distraction for a little, but it only took ten minutes of numbers on the board for her mind to wander back to the many different ways her life was falling apart.

Most important to her that day, was the dilemma of Willa and their volleyball match that night... not to mention that she'd been forced to tell them about the other girl's abuse.

It was possible that when they talked to Lindsey about that, they'd tell her about... the other part. So maybe there was no hope of keeping it from her and whether or not Willa made good on her threat would be irrelevant.

In other words, maybe it was hopeless anyway.

The thought of her coach finding out opened up a sick feeling in her stomach, but so did the thought of her disappointment if she threw the game.

She'd be able to tell.

And then, she would want an explanation.

Yes, hopeless just about summed it up.

"Ms. Rhodes?" She jolted upright and back into the present as her name left her teacher's lips. Her eyes searched the board for the question she was supposed to be answering, but everything already had a solution.

****.

Then, she saw a student aid leaving the room and the blue slip in Willrent's hand as she looked at her expectantly.

**** indeed.

She got to her feet hurriedly and crossed the room to where her teacher was standing, accepting the paper from her.

It was one of the passes teachers and counselors used to summon students they needed to talk to. Lindsey's name was written at the top, and the immediately box was checked.

**** her entire life.

She checked the clock. Half of the hour-long period remained. She should be able to make it back.

So, she left her backpack where it was, avoided Austin's curious, worried-yet-again gaze, and slipped out of the room, leaving the class to continue their lecture.

She wasn't the only student in the halls, and she had her blue slip to prove she was supposed to be there, but that didn't erase the feeling that she was on a walk of shame. All things considered, she probably was.

It was a choice between walking through the weight room or the locker room in order to get to the PE offices. Since it was the middle of the period, when everyone should be in their classes, she opted for the locker room.

Should, however, was the important word there.

She was greeted by the judgemental stares of three girls who'd obviously slipped out of class to vape.

One of them smirked when she saw the paper in Adira's hand. "Someone's in trouble."

"Someone," Adira snapped, "is about to go talk to a teacher, and someone else is currently getting high in the locker room."

She and her friends were suddenly too occupied with putting their jules away to respond.

Adira made it into the hallway outside the office before she hesitated, taking a deep breath. The last thing she needed to do was go into this agitated. Then, before she could sike herself out of it, she turned the knob in front of her and hesitantly stepped inside.

Lindsey was inspecting something Adira recognized as a table of one-rep maxes for one of her weights classes, alone in the relatively small office. She looked up as the door opened and offered her a smile.

"Hey, come in, sit down. Sorry to pull you from class."

Adira shrugged a little, obediently perching on the edge of the indicated chair. "It's fine."

"I don't wanna keep you from it," her coach continued. "So I'll get to it." She hesitated, then pressed forward. "Your counselor, Mr. Ellis, stopped by my office yesterday to tell me that you told him Willa has been hitting you in the face. He said one of your teachers noticed the bruising, and when they pushed for who did it, you named her. Is that true?"

Miserably, eyes fixed on the carpet, Adira nodded.

"Okay." Her coach exhaled heavily. "What happened?"

Adira bit the inside of her lip. "She's only done it twice. The first time was a few weeks ago, after our match against West End. She caught me alone in the hall, told me to stay out of her court, punched me, and threatened me not to tell anyone. Then after the match on Tuesday, she cornered me in the bathroom and did it again... when I told you I ran into the stall."

Lindsey nodded slowly, her face grave as she processed everything she'd just been told. "Alright. I can't say I'm completely surprised. I knew she'd invented some sort of rivalry between the two of you, but I didn't know it was this bad."

"It's really not," Adira tried, even if she knew it was probably no use. "I mean, I just won't let her get me alone anymore. I only told Mr. Ellis because he thought it might be my parents or something."

"Rhodes, teammates don't go around beating each other because they're jealous," her coach countered. "I wish it didn't take you protecting your parents for you to tell me about this."

"I just thought this would make it worse," the girl murmured, staring at the carpet miserably.

"Yeah, I know you did."

There was a short silence before Lindsey spoke again.

"But I'm not gonna let it get worse. I'll call in Willa and give her a talk and a two-game suspension. I know you're gonna say she'll just take it out on you, but I'm not going to let her. Hopefully, being benched for two games will help her cool off. And I'll even tell a little white lie that another anonymous teammate saw her hit you on Tuesday so she doesn't know you told. Yeah?"

Adira chewed her lip harder, til she could taste blood. "I don't think..." She started, but her coach held up a hand to stop her.

"Hey, I'm not just gonna let her get away with this. For your sake, the rest of the team's, and hers. Just trust me, alright?"

She said nothing for a long moment. She searched desperately for something else she could say, anything she could do, to protect herself from the secret she knew Willa was going to share, but there was nothing. She was trapped.

Her disgusting habit had caught up to her again, just like it had the day before, and just like then, there was no way out of this.

The strength dropped out of her shoulders, and she nodded defeatedly. "Alright."

Lindsey offered her a halfhearted smile. "Good. Now get back to class, and I'll see you tonight."

Adira just nodded again, and walked out of the office with her head down.

She made it back to calculus in time to get the homework assignment from that day and the day before. She was going to be up late that night.

The bell rang just as she'd finished scribbling the two assignments down, and she turned to hurriedly shoving her books into her backpack, hoping for once that Austin would head to law without her.

Of course, he didn't. He stood at his desk behind hers, patiently watching as she gathered her things, then fell into step beside her as she headed for the door.

"So what was that all about?"

Adira shrugged, staying as casual as she could. "Lindsey just needed to talk to me about the game tonight." She hesitated before adding. "Willa's on a two game suspension, so she just wanted to chat about how that would change things."

"Isn't Willa the one always calling you nasty things on court just cuz you're better than her?"

She managed a small smile at that. "I've never said it that way, but yes, she's the one who hates me."

Austin smirked. "Can't say I'm too torn up about her being suspended. You know what she did?"

Again, she shrugged. "Lindsey didn't say. With her, who knows?"

"Fair enough," he chuckled.

He stepped ahead as they reached their law classroom, pulling open the door and holding it for her. Adira murmured her thanks, but the minute she stepped inside, the memory of yesterday, of the worried look on Mr. Adler's face when Rolys asked him to babysit his class, hit her, and she suddenly felt like she was going to be sick.

What had Rolys told him?

"Welcome, delinquents," Adler greeted them as they made their way to their places in the u-shaped arrangement of desks. It was his nickname for his law students, referring to the official classifications for minors who had committed crimes, unruly child and unruly delinquent.

Adira nodded to him as they passed, but didn't really look at him as she did. When she made it to her seat, she pulled out a pencil and started to fiddle with it, keeping her eyes down.

The final bell rang, and Adler rose from his own desk, striding to the front of the room. "If you have your worksheets from last week, go ahead and hand those forward."

The request made her sick all over again.

The worksheet. The worksheet from class on Friday, the easiest homework she'd been assigned, so easy that she'd stuck in her binder and forgotten about it.

Sure, it was only worth ten points, but when it got marked as missing? Her parents were going to have a fit.

"****," she muttered without meaning to, frantically opening her binder to find it just like she'd left it, blank. "****, ****, ****, ****."

Austin looked over, saw the blank sheet in front of her, and frowned. "Did you forget about it?"

"Yes," she managed through the building sense of panic rising inside of her. "Yes, I forgot about it and my parents are gonna ******* kill me. ****. Oh my God, they're gonna kill me."

"It's only ten points," her friend offered, but his tone made it clear he knew why she was panicking. "Can't they chill for one minute?"

"You know, you would think so, but they really, really can't." She pressed her hands over her eyes until colors started to swirl beneath her lids. "I can't believe I did that."

"Hey..." She looked up sharply to see her teacher standing in front of her. "Adira, it's gonna be okay," he told her simply. "You can give it to me tomorrow."

All of the breath she'd been holding came out in a single, shaky sigh, and her head dropped to her hands. "Thank you."

He shook his head a little in his usual dry way, but there was a hint of concern in his voice. "It's certainly not anything you should get in trouble over."

He was right... it wasn't.

But if she kept counting on teachers to cover for her to her parents, eventually, someone wasn't going to do it.

And then, she was dead.

Not that, that didn't sound extremely appealing at the moment.

Okay I'm just gonna apologize now for the filler trash that was. Let's hope it gets better next time.