ONE DAY, THREE AUTUMNS / FINAL STRAW / CH. 2

"What are you doing?"

"None of your fucking business, is it, Madison?" Max forced a nasty smile at the girl occupying half of her bed and went on throwing her clothes out of the wardrobe into the suitcase lying right under the open window.

She'd just come back from Blackstone's office, absolutely furious and in no mood to deal with her roommates right now. She didn't need to explain herself to anyone anymore—not to the headmistress, and especially not to this grandiose floozy.

A pair of black boots went flying through the air, missing Madison's head by inches. The girl rolled over, standing up. "Hey!"

Max barely looked at her as she kneeled down, trying to zip her trunk, but couldn't for the exceptional mess happening inside it. The sleeves and collars, all came into the way and prevented the suitcase from closing. Out of a pure frustration, the girl growled and kicked the leather.

"Fuck you," she yelled at the clothes hanging over the edges.

She reached for the violet shirt on top, formed it into a small ball and threw it out of the window without any hesitation.

"Who needs this crap anyway," she gritted as she threw another shirt right into the garden and kept on going until the suitcase became half-empty.

The entire room went silent, all eyes pointing at Max, but she didn't spare the girls a single look. She knew she was in their presence for the last time but the feeling of sadness was the least of her sentiments. She didn't cherish any sort of love for them. It was a friendship born out of a pure necessity and never grew into something genuine. If the alcohol or cigarettes weren't involved, there was nothing to talk about anyway.

"Are you leaving, Max?"

She didn't answer. The damned suitcase finally surrendered and she was able to pull the zipper all the way up. Her knees popped as she stood up, dragging the heavy item toward the door.

"What a loony!" She heard as she shoved her shoulder into the door. "Hope she's leaving for good."

"Yeah, actually I am. I'd rather kill myself then spend another day here with you," she yelled kicking the door angrily.

God, she hated Madison—the girl was such a nuisance! Max'd disliked her ever since day one when the bitch spilt her iced coffee all over her new blouse. They had a nasty argument, which ensured them the first trip to Blackstone's office.

The woman insisted they'd apologize to each other, but as both girls had quite a temper, they spent the entire night in the office, until Madison finally capitulated and very reluctantly said her part. Max accepted but took her another half an hour to say sorry as well. After all, she was just evening things out when she splashed her water onto Madison's head. She would just hate karma getting the poor girl for her clumsiness.

Nevertheless, they had to learn to get along eventually. It wasn't exactly tolerance of a true nature, but it worked. At least, Max thought so until today, when Blackstone called her out for being a drug addict.
It must have been Madison who snuck the pills into her bag. Who else?

"Move," Max barked at the student in front of her as she stormed through the corridor toward the staircase.

The small girl yelped and quickly jumped aside, allowing Max to walk past her.

"Damn thing," she growled as the trunk rolled over, slowing her down. "I'm done with you too!" She stopped at the top of stairs and kicked the item down, scaring the hell out of the first graders passing by. They jumped aside, looking at her with horror written all over their faces.

Max, on the other hand, kept her head high as she started walking down, as dramatically as she could, purposefully clicking her heels as loud as possible, trying to impress the little people with her attitude.

She lived for the attention.

"What in the name of... Azalea Brynn Maxwell! Get down here immediately!" Mrs March, their history teacher, appeared right next to the swaying suitcase, her voice shaking from a repressed anger. Her face was full of red spots, deeply contrasting with the silvery hair, growing wildly like a Taraxacum.

Not the one to waste a good opportunity to relieve herself from the anger by infuriating someone else, Max flashed a wide smile. "Calm down, professor, this is probably the last time we see each other, so forgive me for just wanting to give you one final goodbye. I'm sure, you'll miss my good manners."

The old professor didn't react in the slightest. Blackstone must have told her beforehand, she was expelled. The woman clearly wasn't wasting any time, spreading the good news around.

"Are you out of your mind? What if you'd hurt someone?!" Mrs March came into her personal space, once Max set her foot on the last stair. "Can you at least once think about the consequences before you do anything?!" She breathed, flooding the girl with a cigarette smell.

"Nothing happened." Max rolled her eyes, stepping away from the woman. "I've never seen the point in drilling into what if and wh..."

"Silence!" The professor cut her off.

"Geez..."

"Leave your stuff here and follow me!"

"I'm not going anywhere." Max rose her eyebrows and tossed her long, dark blonde hair over her shoulder. "I'm gonna wait here for the taxi." She folded her arms, setting her jaw.

"I'm not joking around, Maxwell! Madame Blackstone wishes to see you and I—"

"And I wish for a Rolls Royce."

"Watch your tongue, young lady! I am not, I repeat, I am not tolerating your rude behaviour any longer! I've had it up to here with you!"

"Goodness... chill" I didn't even say anythi—"

"Miss Maxwell," A cold voice of Blackstone came to her. "This is the last thing I want from you. Just need you to sign some papers. Don't make some cheap soap opera out of this." She rose her eyebrow and looked over to the few students still hanging around to catch the drama.

Max took a few seconds and then rolled her eyes again. "Fine." She moved, ready to go upstairs, but Blackstone stopped her.

"No, not in my office. We need to go elsewhere. You may leave your luggage here for now." The headmistress came down to them.

"Yeah right! You have no idea what I got in that suitcase, I'm not about to leave it somewhere unsupervised!"

"Yet, you didn't mind throwing it off the stairs," the old professor pointed out coldly.

"Mrs March will stay here and look after your belongings—be very careful what you let out of that mouth," she added whispering, her eyes flashing dangerously as she saw the girl parting her lips, ready to say something rude.

"I'm taking it with me." Max simplified the thought she had on her tongue. "Who could trust—"

"Max!"

"Outrageous!" Mrs March widened her eyes, turning on her heel, insulted to the bone.

"Good job, Max." Blackstone curled her lips downwards, looking after the professor, storming off. "This must be your personal record in disrespecting the poor woman so many times in a row."

"What do you want me to sign?" Max rose her eyebrow, ignoring the question. Deep down she knew she probably didn't have to be such an arse, but as quickly as the thought came, it also disappeared.

"Follow me." Blackstone went for the main door leading outside with the girl walking beside her.

It was just a few meters of dragging the suitcase across the lawn when Max felt a sudden urge to throw the freaking thing into the nearby fountain, but being as stubborn as she was, she kept struggling, just to prove the point.

"You're joking, right? I'm not going in there!" The girl proclaimed, when Blackstone stopped in front of the old shack, Max and her group of 'friends' tried to sneak into for years but never succeeded. "It reminds me of that horror I've seen this summer, I'm not—"

"Calm down, the printer in my office's not working and the only computer with the right documents is kept there."

"Likely story."

"Max." Blackstone gulped audibly, her voice weirdly trembling. "You were the one, telling me you want to get out. Change of plans?"

"No."

"Then stop being so immature and start acting according to your age!"

Max only frowned. Yes, she wanted to get out, but if Blackstone's unusual nervousness was anything to go by, she'd rather went back to school and wait for the printer to be fixed. "Can you get me the papers here?"

"I could, but I don't see a reason why I should be doing you any favours after what you've performed just a few minutes ago." The headmistress shrugged her shoulders, unlocking the door with quite a peculiar key.

"After you." The door opened, but the spot Max was standing at didn't allow her to see anything inside the shack. She took a deep breath and walked inside.
Her suspicion calmed down a bit once she saw an office with quite a modern technology, hanging from the walls. She went further, observing the complicated buttons and lights. Madison would die if she knew she got inside. "Fuck me, what is this place...? Hey!" Max' quickly turned to the entry, her blood turning cold.

Blackstone locked the door.

"Language, Max! It's just for the safety reasons."

"What safety reasons?!"

"How long have you known me?" Blackstone cracked a smile and came to the particularly weird-looking door on the other side of the room. "Come here, we'll do the bureaucracy and then you'll free to go."

"Fine, can you give me something to write with or am I supposed to sign it with my own blood?" Max joked, coming to her headmistress. She took the blue pen out of her hand and signed the papers without even reading them.

"All done." She threw the pen at the desk. Was she supposed to feel relieved, melancholic? Because the feeling didn't come. It was more like—

"Well," The headmistress looked at her with a sad smile and suddenly the girl felt so very uncomfortable.

"No tears, please," Max smirked, trying to lighten up the situation. "I need to hurry up."

"I'm sorry the things ended in—" Blackstone started, but got interrupted.

"Bye, professor."

"Take care, Max—no." She touched her shoulder. "Use this other door." She motioned toward the weird looking door opposite to the exit.

"Why?"

"It's closer... and quicker."

"Closer to what? Don't get me wrong, but you're acting really creepy. What's behind that door?"

"You're too paranoid! Nothing's there, just the exit, see?" Blackstone opened the door and Max leaned in from behind her to take a look. There was nothing, but another door.

"Okay then," Max didn't know what else to say. Was she supposed to thank the woman? Maybe.

"I better get going." She reached for her suitcase.

"I'll help you with that, just go and I—"

"I got it. You don't have to help me." Max frowned at the visibly more and more uncomfortable woman. Something was off. She should probably get out before she'd take out the knife and try to kill her.

She entered through the door, dragging the suitcase with her, pushing the handle on the second one down. It did not work.

"It's freaking locked."

"Max, remember, I am doing this for your own good!" She heard before the door slammed behind her and the striking fear penetrated her veins.

"What are you doing?! What the fuck are you doing?! Fuck, fuck, fuck, No!" The girl was kicking the door, but with no avail. She was trapped between the four walls.

Suddenly the ground under her feet swayed and she fell to her knees, unable to keep her balance. Tearing up a bit, she kept on turning, watching the plethora of lights, flickering uncontrollably all around her.

"Stop it, please!" She punched the wall, not even perceiving the pain.

She could hear a swishing sound and the small space started quickly filling with a grey smoke. She tried waving through the air, but it didn't do a thing.

"Get me out of here! Please, please, please, PLEASEEE, I DON'T WANNA DIE!" Max cried, her heart hammering against her ribcage with such a force it physically hurt. The air was thicker and thicker and it was no longer possible to breathe. "

She was choking.

Coughing, she curled next to her suitcase, desperately pressing her hands to her chest, realising this was it—but then, the second the thought crept into her mind, everything stopped. The ground stilled and the smoke got sucked back in.

And the door. The lock clicked.