Hallooo! I tried to remember high school... did I won?


Hans glares at her when she walks into the classroom. She ignores him to the best of her ability, quite unfortunately he stalks behind her over to her desk and the moment she swings her bag off her shoulder and places it down he shoves it into the floor. He smiles at her when he does so, or really he sneers.

"Oops," he shrugs when she turns her own glare on him. "Your gravitational pull made me trip."

She might just hate Hans more than that girl in the mirror. But she bites back tears and fury and smiles big and sweet for him. She says,

"Hans listen... you suck at flirting. Try flowers, you might actually get a date!"

"Hey listen Anna, you're a mountain of lard. Try surgery and you might get a boyfriend," his smile might just be sweeter than hers. God she hates him.

"But... you're technically a boy... technically. I've gotta admit, I'm unimpressed. Could you become gay so that the world doesn't have to deal with your offspring? People might actually like you then!" She giggles and claps her hands excitedly.

"And you're technically a walrus! Do you think if we stick you in glass exhibits people would like you?"

"So like, are you actually gonna come up with something original or...?" He seemed to just enjoy parroting the things she would say and while it was SO so interesting... it was exactly not interesting and seriously she was too smart to get stuck in some endless cycle of stupidity.

Never mind the effort it took her to interact with this twat without spitting on him.

"Awww, giving up so soon? What's wrong, ya gonna cry baby?"

"Uh, no... I'm just not five... by all means, keep going! Please, feed me your judgement I'm hungry!"

"Bet you're always hungry, Piggy!" He was starting to get louder. Smiling like he won, attracting more attention than they'd already drawn. Seriously though?

She sat down slowly at her desk, put her chin in her hand and titled her head back to regard him. Standing there with his nose so high in the air he'd drown if it were raining. And she smiled then, sprinkling it with sugar crystals and pixie dust.

"Then feed me, hotdog boy!" she half expects him to lunge at her these days. To leap at her and attempt to wrap his bony little fingers around her fat neck. And fail to do so of course. It's like the only advantage to being as fat as she is. She's harder to assault.

The nearest students started snickering and it made his face turn this delightful shade of something-almost-purple. He slammed his hands down on her desk and leaned in close.

"You obese little-"

"Mister WestergÄrd!" Her English teacher has the best timing. Like ever. "I'd think after yesterday you might consider choosing not to harass Miss Kolden. Should I assign a few more days to your detention to allow you some extra time to think a bit more about your actions?"

He withdrew from Anna's personal space reluctantly, gritting his teeth and glaring. He spits out,

"No ma'am that won't be necessary," but his eyes and the way they glitter and gleam at her from beneath his brows tells that this isn't over. He's not done not by a long shot and she should regret ever trying to defend herself against him. How dare she be the only person to stick up for herself.

As if, in this day and age, where bullying was a thing that people were aware of and didn't like, it were so wrong for someone else to help. She'd say chivalry was dead, but chivalry had nothing to do with this. That was about knights n shit she knew even less about. No, just common sense was dead. Common sense and kindness.

"Good. Please find your seat so we may start the lesson," Anita Radcliffe was a lovely woman, from London or at least some place vaguely British. She seemed to remember a story or two about like Ireland, but Mrs. Radcliffe wasn't Irish so... London was her lazy assumption.

She was patient and passionate so it was easy to get lost in her and in her lessons. Which, adding to the fact she put up with no tom-foolery between her students - which lessened slightly her irritating, exhausting interactions with Hans - made her a pretty great teacher. Her husband was the Piano teacher. Nice guy. She didn't really know him all that well, having no aptitude for music, but from what she'd heard he was an equally excellent teacher.

But Anna genuinely liked Mrs. Radcliffe and regretted getting into such childish bouts with Hans before each lesson. So much so that when the bell signaling the end of the period rang and the students started shuffling out of the room Anna gathered her things and moved towards her instructor's desk.

"Umm, Mrs. Radcliffe?" The woman glances up and brightens, which makes Anna feel worse, like she's going to disappoint her (or already has). She shuffles her feet and looks down at her beatup vans, missing how the smile drops into a concerned frown. "I owe you an apology..."

"Did you know I've got a few dogs?" Her teacher slipped her glasses off and folded them, and her hands, atop the desk. Anna blinks slowly, mouth falling open as she struggled to find words to respond to that... random admission.

"Uhh..." is the best she can come up with.

"It's interesting, how they react to sound. For instance... any toy brought into our home of the squeaking variety will be torn to shreds within a week. As if the noise makes them more aggressive, or the toy more dangerous and thusly something they simply MUST destroy."

"Uh yeah... that's a thing with dogs right?"

"You're the first toy that squeaks back when he bites." She clarifies. Ah. Ok. Now that makes sense. Kinda... "Yes I'm aware you defend yourself, and yes you two speak to each other in sometimes equally degrading ways... but that gives him no excuse for the violence he attempts. You are a young lady, and he should respect that. You should respect that..."

There's more there than just a reprimand for her actions this morning or any morning to come (and every morning before now). There's a concern that hints at a knowledge. A knowledge of Anna and her life and all the intimate inner workings of it. It makes her heart stop and her skin prickel and ice melt down her spine. But she resists the urge to panic or act on her internal upset.

She smiles apologetically and finds herself laughing like she's sheepish instead of sick to her stomach and half terrified.

"Yah I'm working on that whole being a lady thing," still too fat, uncoordinated and ugly, but hey, working on it. "But I'm getting there." Kinda. Not really. Fatty.

"I should hope so," Mrs. Radcliffe grinned back. "Now off to class with you! And Anna..." She stops in the doorway and turns back to regard the woman settling anther unsettlingly concerned gaze on her. "You know you can talk to me right?"

She hesitates to nod. She stares for a second to digest the information she's really not certain she can trust. And slowly she does find the energy to jerk her head up and down in a confirmation. Her smile feels strained and weak. But Mrs. Radcliffe says nothing else so she throws her hand up in a wave and backs out of the classroom.


It happens at lunch.

She skip hers and takes it in the library, browses through any section that catches her eye, so she misses the action. She didn't check out any book, still making her way through The Jungle... it gives her all more reason to avoid food. Claims of disgust. She can only eat salad, and only made from locally grown produce. Obviously.

But it happens in the cafeteria, and it's all anyone can talk about in the classroom after lunch.

A fight. Between someone on the basket ball team and some sophomore. And Anna would never claim to be the smartest ever, but she's not so dull as to miss the fact that Hans is now missing from calculus. He sits in front of her, two seats in front of her.

But his chair is empty and when people start sneaking glances at her and whispering she's got an awful feeling she knows the identity of the other fighter. She suspects it at least, and when the school day ends and she gets in the car with her brother and sees the bruises on his knuckles she knows for certain.

"What'd you do." It's a quiet demand she bites out just before he starts up the car. He freezes for half a second.

"Whadya mean?" He smiles at her and cranks the car up.

"What did you DO Ellis!? How much trouble are you in WHY after I told you it was handled WHY would you take it upon yourself to cause trouble?!"

"Because I'm not going to let him get away with running his damn mouth about MY little sister!" He beat one fist against the wheel, finally allowing his smile to twist into an enraged snarl. "You know when I was walking up to him he was talking about you? I wasn't going to hit him. I was just gonna warn him." His head swings around to the road and he pulls out of his parking spot, grits his teeth and squeezes the wheel until his hands are trembling.

"But then I heard him talking about you and I saw red. He's lucky I didn't strangle him, the little BASTARD!"

"Ellis...?" She'd NEVER seen him like this, face so red so angry. But speaking like that. She wanted to hug him. She wanted to duck and hide from his rage. It was choking her, filling the car. She wanted to...

I want to...

"Sorry," he takes a breath, rubbing a hand through his hair. It's unfair she's distracted by it. But who wouldn't? He blew the breath out on a sigh. "Sorry, I just. I'm not an idiot you know?" One of the smartest, not just in his grade, but like the whole school. What was he even- "I see... I I know what's happening I just don't know what to say, I guess? I..." His voice cracks when he looks at her, eyes wet, and tells her, "I love you."

And it takes her breath away. Doesn't he tell her all the time? This isn't new this isn't exciting. But still her mouth flops open and she searches for words but they fail her entirely. He jerks back to the road when a car horn blares behind them. Neither of them speak for the remainder of the ride.

Until they get home and catch sight of their father standing at the top of the driveway. Ellis curses. Anna stares at him. He refuses to look back at her though, whether out of shame or distraction she doesn't know. He parks on the curb like usual, turns off the car and leans his head back against the headrest.

"You should go to your room and put on some LOUD music," he tells her but his eyes are closed. "This isn't going to be pretty." Already their father is stomping towards the car, furious positively rabid. Like, almost foaming at the mouth. She scrambled to get out of the car, running for the front door.

Her father didn't even acknowledge her, on the warpath straight for her brother. She hears his hands slam against her brother's car. She reaches the front door, and before she can completely close it after she slips inside she hears her father booming like thunder,

"GET YOUR ASS OUT OF THE CAR!"


I always had great interactions with my English teachers. So... Anna gets that gift. But nothing else... ok maybe other things but not now.

Anyway that was Anita from 101 Dalmatians because I love her! So you guys stay lovely, have a wonderful week!