"Give it back!!" Tawny hissed, blushing uncontrollably.

She reached in vain for the piece of paper, but Elaine held it just out of reach, looking smugly satisfied.

"How quaint, girls," Elaine mused. "The poor little mouse has the hots for her handsome, broad-shouldered, older educator....how positively sad...."

"Talk about delusional..." chimed Violet.

"It's almost as bad as when you were crushing on him, Elaine," added Elizabeth.

Huh?

Violet looked at Elizabeth, confused. Maddie suppressed a laugh (Tawny was still too mortified to react to the revelation).

Elaine turned slowly to look at her redheaded friend. "Excuse me? What was that?"

"It's just that...you used to have a crush on McCurdy, too, back in the day..." said Elizabeth in a tiny voice. "We all kinda did..."

"Don't lump me in with the rest of you, okay?" Elaine said threateningly, jabbing her finger into Elizabeth's chest. "You're already on thin ice. Or have you forgotten your little 'affliction'?"

Violet avoided eye contact with the two of them. Elizabeth looked down to the floor and said no more.

"That's what I thought. Stay in line, Beauregarde. Ah, ah, ah..." Elaine evaded a surprise effort from Maddie, who had attempted to snatch the paper while her guard was down. "Nice try."

"What do you want, Elaine?" asked Maddie, exasperated.

Elaine gave a smile as though she were the cat that swallowed the canary. "I want chaos. I want discord. I want to see the look on your beloved teacher's when he finds out in front of the entire class you think he's a sexy Scotsman."

Tawny looked at Elaine in horror. "You wouldn't."

Elaine. "Oh. I would. On one condition. You walk out of Ivoree Gates and never show your peasant face here again." She pointed down the hall to the double doors leading out of the building. "That's my ultimatum, Tawdry. Let's go, girls."

And with that, the girls walked by Tawny and Maddie (though Elizabeth noticeably trailed a few steps behind, her eyes still cast downward to the floor).

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---

"That was intense..." said Maddie later on. Both she and Tawny were doing homework in Westminster Hall, which became their new haunt after discovering the place with Dylan.

"I'm dead," said Tawny. "Elaine has killed me. She's going to read that poem in front of everyone in my class. I'll never be able to look Professor McCurdy in the eyes again...!"

"Hey, hey," said Maddie reassuringly. "It's going to be okay."

"Maybe I should just drop out," muttered Tawny. "Save myself the heartache."

"Don't say that," said Maddie seriously. "You can't let her think she's won."

"Well, hasn't she?!" she threw her pencil down on the desk. "I can't think straight. I'm going to use the washroom."

Before Maddie could object, Tawny stood up from her seat and left.

The bathrooms in the library were not the most glamourous in the world. In fact, they were downright cavernous. Located in the basement, the sterile floor tiles and grey-washed concrete walls made it feel more like a dungeon far removed from the Dark Academia esthetic of the rest of the library.

Still, because they were tucked away underground and unsightly, she knew they'd be deserted and would give her time to think.

Or so she thought.

As she was about to turn the corner, Tawny heard the sound of voices.

"What do you want?" said the first voice. It was male, and familiar.

"...I just wanted to talk to you," came the second voice. Tawny immediately identified the voice as coming from Elizabeth.

"It's over between us," said the male voice, who Tawny now identified as belonging to Grady, Dylan's best friend.

"How can you say that?" Elizabeth said, a hint of desperation in her voice. "After what happened? What am I supposed to do?"

"Get rid of it," was Grady's succinct reply. "I've moved on. So should you."

There was silence for several seconds, then Grady spoke again. "I gotta go. Dylan's expecting me."

Tawny braced herself to encounter Grady as he turned the corner; thankfully, he went in the opposite direction, his footsteps echoing against the tiles in the corridor as he departed.

When the footsteps dissipated, all Tawny could hear was the sound of crying.

Tawny took a deep breath and turned the corner, confronting Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was sitting on the ground, crying into her hands.

Tawny cleared her throat. "Hey...Elizabeth....are you okay?"

Elizabeth looked up; her impeccable hair was out of sorts and limp, and her usually pretty face was just a collection of running mascara, snot and tears.

"I'm pregnant," spat Elizabeth. "What the hell do you think?"

Elizabeth continued to cry into her hands. Tawny had expected this reaction and walked past her to access the washroom.

After several seconds, Tawny returned with a rolled-up wad of toilet paper, which she handed to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth looked up at Tawny, suspicious.

"What are you doing?" asked Elizabeth. "What is this?"

"It's called being compassionate," replied Tawny. "Take it."

Elizabeth took the toilet paper and blew into it messily.

"Look," began Tawny. "I'm not going to tell anyone about this. But I really think you need to talk to someone."

"Elaine and Violet already know," said Elizabeth.

"Besides them," said Tawny. "Someone you can trust. Anyway, I better head back."

Tawny walked by Elizabeth. Before turning the corner, Tawny glanced back one last time at Elizabeth.

The image would be etched in her mind forever: Elizabeth looking devastated, kneeling on the cold, tiled floor, staring at the toilet paper in her hands, now damp with her sadness.