Page 235 of As the Rain Falls
“You think you can just do whatever you want, right?” Laura taunts me. “Sleep with other people’s boyfriends? You think you run this school or something?”
“Let me go!” I shout, feeling her try to grab me again and rip my t-shirt. “Stop!”
Laura pulls me out of the bathroom stall, forcing me to walk out of the bathroom, back to the main hall. She throws me against the floor, and I almost trip but don’t fall. I look around, quick and desperate, searching for the supervisors. The hallway is empty and quiet, not a single soul in sight.
The other two girls watch us fight as she slaps me again, and I grab her hair, pulling it down. “Let me go!”
“Fucking bitch!” She uses both her hands to push me, and I stumble back towards the stairs. “You almost ripped my hair off!”
“You started this!” I cry, my hands shaking as I try to hug myself. “I did nothing to you!”
Her gaze shifts from me to the other girls. I see her hesitation on what to do, now that I’ve provoked her. It’s one thing for a girl in my position to do what I did, but it’s expected that I accept the repercussions for my actions. Beating my ass seems like a totally valid response to them, and maybe it is. Maybe I deserve it.
I can’t let her treat me like a dog, though. I just can’t.
It’s not easy to survive at Sainte Madeleine. This school knows how to break a person little by little, even more so an already weak one. And if I cry now, I’m letting them win. Everybody else will follow after them and find a reason to dump on me, whether I’m wrong or not. I’ll become a scapegoat and a laughingstock.
Laura smirks, her gaze set on me. “Hold her.”
The first girl winces and shakes her head. “Come on, let’s just stop. I think she gets the point now.”
“You think she won’t go after Tobias next? Hold her!” Laura insists. What she just said makes them pause, and I swear I can see the wheels turning.
I start shaking my head desperately, begging them not to.
“I don’t want Tobias!” I cry as they grab my arms, pulling me close. “I swear, I don’t want him!”
I start to fight back. I give it the best I can. I’m not the strongest or the fastest, but I try. The harder I fight to shake away from their grip, the harder they press.
Laura wipes her face, drying away her tears, before she opens her backpack and takes out her pen case.
“Maria is nice, but I am not.” She settles, with resolve. “I’ll show you what your place is.”
“I didn’t know they were still together,” I tell her, trying to pull myself to the floor, begging them to just let me go, but I’ve always been a rather small girl. There’s no winning. “I really didn’t think it through, Laura.”
“Clearly.” Her scissors start cutting my uniform right in the middle, from bottom to the top. “If you keep wiggling so much, I’m going to cut you, Cassandra.”
“Please, don’t do this!” I start to sob. “I have to ride home!”
“You should’ve thought about that before you went behind Maria’s back,” she insists, looking disgusted. “Or would you rather I cut off your hair? An eye for an eye, right?”
I stop fighting once I realize just how serious she is, my stomach twisting uncomfortably. Laura takes my silence as me agreeing and grabs a wild strand of my hair, which makes me scream.
“Cut the shirt!”
The blonde girl tries again, “We’re going to get suspended over this.”
“So what?” Laura cuts the shirt. I watch her do it, slow and deliberate. The frown on her face, the meanness in her mouth. “I’m sick of people like you, Cassandra. Rich bitches who think they can get away with everything. Well, you can’t.”
“I’m not…” I trail off, a whimper breaking out of me. My breaths are so short, so painful, I feel like I might pass out any second. “I’m not doing anything! I’m not!”
Once Laura is done, she steps back and motions to the girls, who finally let me go.
“This is it,” she says, pointing at me with disdain.
I slide to the ground, grabbing whatever is left of the fabric and putting it back together, trying to hide myself from their eyes.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
