Tawny limped to the locker room after gym class.

Her whole body ached from the barrage of dodgeballs.

Ms. Roberts gave the entire class a scolding, but the damage had already been done. Tawny's spirit was broken; she had let the Evil 3 see her at her most vulnerable, and they had won.

"Look, if you wanna sit this one out, I'd understand," Ms. Roberts said softly to Tawny.

Tawny nodded her head and, on the verge of tears, hastily retreated to the showers, where she spent almost 30 minutes standing under the water.

Could she really do this? The only time life at Ivoree Gates was remotely tolerable was when she was with Maddie. But she realized that her friend could not be around 24/7 to protect her.

"One day at a time," Tawny whispered to herself. She just needed something to motivate her to stay. Something she could look forward to that beat out the hell of the constant harassment of the rich kids.

At last, Tawny turned off the water and exited showers; she had been in there so long the other girls had already showered and left for the day.

"Good," thought Tawny. "At least I can get through the rest of the day without any more surprises."

She walked to her locker; the first thing she noticed was that the lock had been cut and was on the ground.

Oh no.

Tawny opened the locker but there was nothing inside. Where were her clothes?

Frantically, Tawny looked around the locker room. Perhaps she had just misplaced them in her anxiety about gym class?

But then she found her backpack in one of the garbage bins.

She reached the washroom section of the locker room and looked in the first stall.

Oh NO.

There, in the toilet, were all her clothes. Tawny pulled them out but immediately knew she couldn't wear them out of the locker room.

She looked through the locker room again, on the oft chance that perhaps someone had left some clothing behind she could use in the interim.

Sure enough, when she reached the exit, a large white shirt intended as a nightshirt was duct-taped to the door. On the nightshirt was a cute little cartoon pig, but the words THUNDER THIGHS was scrawled on it in red paint.

At least, she hoped to God it was just paint...

Left with no other options, Tawny removed the nightshirt and put it on, then removed a garbage bag from one of the unused bins and stuffed her soggy clothes into bag to put in her backpack.

She went back to the door to leave the locker room, but when she attempted to turn the knob, it wouldn't give.

OH NO.

She was locked inside.

Tawny started to hyperventilate. There was no way should could spend the night here, and have people find her stuck in the locker room wearing an embarrassing nightshirt.

As Tawny paced back and forth, she noticed a small window at the end of a line of lockers. It was open, but just barely.

Tawny pushed a nearby bench along the wall and pushed with all her might against the window until it opened up enough for her to push out her backpack and crawl out through the gap.

Once outside, Tawny stood up and slung her backpack over her shoulder. The sky looked grey and pregnant with rain.

With one dilemma solved, now she had to tackle with another one: how was she going to get back to the dormitories without anyone seeing her?

As Tawny walked along the side of the road, there was a low rumble of thunder. Suddenly the heavens opened up and a deluge of rain came down upon her head. Inwardly, she wished the storm would just wash her away and be done with her.

"Could this day get any worse?" she thought.

As if on cue, a car pulled up beside her. Tawny groaned. "Great, I'm about to get kidnapped as well."

"Miss Matthews?"

Tawny turned as was mortified to see her English teacher looking at her from the driver's seat. She stopped walking and started stammering. "Professor McCurdy? What are you doing here?"

"I'm on my way home," he replied. "What on Earth are you doing out here in the rain?"

"I....I..." she was tempted to tell him everything about the Evil 3, about the terrible, cruel treatment by them and the rest of the girls at Ivoree Gates.

But she was tired, and she just couldn't see how it would help her current situation. "I don't know," she admitted finally, shrugging her shoulders in a laugh.

McCurdy did not see the humour in the situation and eyed her with concern. "That won't do. Come on - I'll drive you home."

"Oh...no, that's alright," said Tawny. "I couldn't possibly-"

"You'll catch a death of cold if you stay out there," said McCurdy. "I won't take no for an answer. Hop in." He opened the passenger side car door.

Tawny hesitated. She knew how this looked. She thought of that old song by The Police that her mom used to play all the time - how did it go again?

Temptation, frustration

So bad it makes him cry

Wet bus stop, she's waiting

His car is warm and dry

But in the moment, she just didn't care. In one fluid moment she slid into the carseat and shut the door.

The seats were leather, and made a squeaking noise as she sat down.

"Sorry, I'm getting your car wet," said Tawny.

"Quite all right," said McCurdy. He did a very imperceptible double take.

She had to say something. "Professor McCurdy...I can't go back to the dorm like this."

McCurdy nodded slowly. "Right. I have an idea. We'll need to stop at my house first."

He pulled on the stick shift and the vehicle continued onward down the road.