A/N: This story has themes of eating disorder and mental illness. If reading about these themes makes you uncomfortable, or perhaps they are triggering to you, please don't read this story.

Gale opens his locker swiftly. He couldn't recite the combination outloud, he's forgotten the numbers, but at some point within this typically mundane school year he ingrained the feel of the lock into his muscle memory. When he stares at the scattered contents inside he realizes that he never needed to open it in the first place. It's the start of a new semester, there isn't anything to take from it and it's too chilly in the school to shed his coat.

It's loud in the halls. People shout over one another to greet their friends, and Gale just wishes people would realize that it's been less than a week. It's funny how quickly some people can revert back to normalcy so easily, he can barely feel normal in his own skin.

"Hawthorne!" he hears from behind him. Thom is his best friend, but he could benefit from being a bit more subdued too. Everyone can, at 8:30 in the morning. "Gale, hey. Can I see your schedule?"

"Here," he nods, taking out the folded time table from his back pocket and handing it to him. "Anything together?"

"Yeah, History and English," Thom nods, giving the schedule back. "I have to go catch up with Delly before class starts. I'll see you later okay?"

Gale waves him off. He wonders briefly why he isn't as excited as everyone else for the new school semester to begin, maybe it's because he's more excited about getting out of this place.

Then, he sees a stranger turn into the hallway. She's clearly new, trying to read each of the little metal plates on the lockers to find her own. Gale hates the way his brain works, but his first thought is that she's beautiful. Her blonde hair and her pointed chin make her gorgeous in a willowy, soft sort of way, and when she walks down the aisle of metal doors, she bites her rosy lip in concentration. He never lets himself stare like this, but he wonders how something so bright could exist in this empty fucking place.

The longer she searches the more lost she begins to look, and Gale's ready to help her, already pacing towards her before some girls intervene. So he returns to his locker and pretends to check his phone while he observes her from his peripheral.

The minute she starts to speak he realizes that she's social. She immediately hits it off with with Glimmer and Clove, smiling loudly and showing them her locker assignment. Gale can't hear any of the conversation, but he thinks that she won't be too memorable of an addition to the student body to him. A lot of girls are pretty to look at, he can already tell that she'll be popular with the likes of Cato and Marvel.

The day passes by as expected. Generally in class, Gale's diligent when it's convenient and knows that he needs the grades to graduate. He's long accepted the fact that he needs to trudge through high school to get to the real world, but sometimes he still thinks about what he's doing here, all the things he could be doing if he was elsewhere.

He wants the summer to come quickly so that he can finish high school and get a full time job. His mom needs the help, he wishes he could do something meaningful to help his family rather than learn about the behaviour of a rational function.

A couple times in the day he sees the blonde haired girl within the school, always talking to new people and making new friends. Gale stops thinking anything of it, he usually doesn't think about most people at school anymore that don't concern him.

After classes though he's sitting in his beat up car, the one that he spent all of last summer trying to fix together and sees her cross the parking lot. She strides past him and enters a grey looking van. He wonders what kind of person drives that kind of car these days, but he's the one sitting in a 1998 Volvo; he supposes he has no argument.

Her name is still a mystery to him, he'll probably find out through somebody else within the course of the week. Everyone likes to talk around here. Usually Gale hates it, but today he can't wait. He can't help but be curious.

"Good afternoon, Madge," the nurse greets happily. Madge smiles back and sits patiently on the metal-framed cot. "How was your first day back at school?"

"It was good. Nice, actually. Everyone is really nice."

"That's wonderful to hear." The nurse takes the scale out from the closet and places it in the middle of the room while Madge thinks of more detailed items to tell her about.

"I mean, this isn't really my first day back, you know? I didn't go to this school before, so it's all very brand new to me."

"But you made friends?"

"I think so," she shrugs, trying to recall some of the people that approached her. They all seemed amicable enough, maybe some of them will stick around for her.

"That's great. Strip for me, dear?"

On command, Madge takes off her shirt and stands up to shed her jeans. She crosses her arms not because of modesty, but because of the cool air. When she feels her elbows they're still pointy and uncomfortably gaunt. She knows the nurse won't be happy.

"Stand on here for me, Madge?"

Madge mounts the scale. The nurse underneath her looks at the numbers and writes things down. She wonders what the point of her doing that is, can't she tell that no improvement's been made? When Madge turns her head to the full length mirror lining the sliding closet, she studies her body closely. Her limbs have no life, and her ribs still show through a little bit.

"Not bad this week, Madge. No real progress in the numbers, but I've noticed your energy levels climbing. As long as you remain above 110 pounds, we're happy with your results."

"Thank you."

"Of course, dear. It's been a long day for you. I'll leave you alone to get some rest. There's a letter from your parents on the bedside table, alright?"

Madge nods, stepping off of the pedestal and immediately dressing herself again. The nurse finishes whatever she's writing into the file and leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

The room is stale. It's too bright and too fluorescent. Madge misses home, she misses her parents and she misses her old life. The one that she ruined, the one that made her start purging.

She tears open the letter and skims through it - words of encouragement, a couple family updates and an old family photo. In the picture they're at an amusement park, five year old Madge is on her dad's shoulders and beaming while her mom hugs the torso of her husband. Madge doesn't know why they always send her childhood photos. If it's to make her cry or hate her present self, it's definitely working.

Her doctor and her psychiatrist both decided that it would be best to start reintegrating back into school. It was because her academics were definitely falling behind, having missed an entire semester of her senior year. But the second reason was that she barely interacted with kids her own age anymore. Or at least, no one that wasn't suffering through an illness like her. Everyone thought it was about time to venture outside of her comfort zone.

For being diagnosed with so many disorders and illnesses, Madge considers herself a rather high functioning patient. She doesn't think she came off as too particular at school today, she even got invited to a party on Friday to kick off the start of the year.

It would be fun, hopefully. Madge is hopeful about most things, as long as they don't personally concern her.

A/N: This is an idea that came vaguely from a movie of the same title. It's a little bit different and darker, and I'm going to update when I please rather than weekly. If you would want to read more, I encourage you to review or follow it! Especially with new ideas I love to hear what you have to say.