"Six days to go!" Cordelia said, sitting on the bed next to Misty. Unlike the rest of day, today Cordelia was the joyful one of the two girls. "Hey Misty, are you even listening to me?"

"Huh?" Misty said. She didn't want to do anything today, at least not with Cordelia. She hadn't slept all night, thinking about the other girl and her feelings towards her. Cordelia still had to heal her wounds before having a normal life again. "Yes, emm... What are we practicing today?"

"Today you'll be doing telekinesis."

"Moving things? But that's an easy one."

"Yeah, but you have to practice." the girl said, getting a pile of books and putting them on the bed. She had marked them with post-it notes of different colors. "Okay, move the green one." She said, and a moment after the book was flying through the room. They spent the whole morning making objects move, until it was time to have lunch. Grabbing her crutches and slowly making her way through the school's corridors, they went to the dining room and took a seat. Cordelia spent all the time trying to make Misty laugh, joking and fooling around, trying to forget the pain on her still-healing ankle. She looked at the other girl, who was remained on the food. What is wrong with her today? She's been acting weird since yesterday. What have I done to her to be mad at me?

"Miss Goode?" they heard Spalding's throaty voice. "If you would be kind enough to accompany me to the front door, there's someone who wants to talk with you." the butler continued. After saying goodbye to Misty and grabbing her crutches, she finally arrived to the door. It wasn't a surprise for Cordelia to see aunt Myrtle standing there, talking with Eleanora Robichaux, the headmistress. After the "Christmas accident", as the adults used to call it, she had felt how everyone looked at her differently, with pity instead of disdain, but no one had told her anything else about the topic, and aunt Myrtle had decided to give her alone time. What she didn't expect to see Hank standing behind the redhead woman, escorted by his father and two men dressed with black suits.

"What is he doing here?" Cordelia asked, suddenly panicking. After tumbling a little, she grabbed the crutches tightly and went besides the redheaded woman.

"We're here to discuss my son's presumed guilt." the old man replied.

"Presumed? Your son abused one of my students, Mister." Mrs. Robichaux said.

"Can we talk about this in private, please? Your office, maybe?"

"Yes. Follow me." the woman said, making her way to the stairs. "You too, Cordelia." she said, looking at the girl with a kind smile. The thirteenth descendant of the Robichaux family, named Eleanora like all of her predecessors, was a thin, old woman with black hair and blue eyes. She wasn't the most graceful woman in the school (that honor was professor Goode's) but she sure looked magnificent. Despite being more that sixty years old, her face wasn't full of wrinkles like aunt Myrtle's, and her smile was still perfect. After some minutes of walking through the school's halls, they finally arrived to the woman's enormous office. "Please take a seat." she said, entering the space and sitting behind the mahogany desk. Cordelia sat opposite to her, suddenly realizing how the woman looked like the Eleanora Robichaux XII, her mother and former headmistress of the school. "Now that everyone involved on the case is here," she said looking at Hank's father. "We need to discuss the punitive measures we'll be taking."

"The court has already started to study the case, Mrs. Robi-"

"I know that there's a case in the court, but I didn't mean that. As you know, law in this country is sexist towards women and continues blaming the victim instead of the raper, using excuses for this behavior like Boys will be boys or She was asking for it. But as we can see, this young man is not a boy anymore and this girl was not asking for it."

"Mrs. Robichaux what are you sugg-"

"You're. Not. Going. To. Interrupt. Me. Again." she said, make a small gesture with her hand. The man's mouth suddenly closed, like if someone had closed an invisible zip, muffling his voice. He finally gave up on talking. "As I was saying, on Christmas eve Cordelia arrived to the building crying. It was almost noon on the moment of her arrival. That morning she had been on a date with Hank, as her roommates explained to me, a date that took place on the gardens of Delphi Trust's College. Am I right, Mr. Foxx?" she questioned, looking at Hank.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Three people (Spalding, our butler; Delphine, our cook; and Queenie, one of the students) explained that she limped and had scratches on her face and arms at the moment of her arrival. When we brought her to the hospital we were told that she had a broken ankle and clear signals of sexual assault. Following the doctor's advice, she was brought back to the academy the next day, when she later auto-injured herself and had to be brought to the hospital for a second time.

While on the normal court it would take years to finally punish this young man with what I would consider a minimal sentence, in this school we only have waited a month, enough time for Cordelia to start healing her wounds both physically and psychologically. Do you feel okay with having this talk today, Mis Goode?"

"Yes." Cordelia whispered, looking at her lap. She ran a finger on the small bandages that still covered her wrists. "I'm ready."


Three hours later Cordelia was back in her bedroom, waiting for her roommates to come back from their classes. She was lying on the bed with her eyes closed when she heard the door open. She heard Danielle and Ginevra's voices, saying hello and telling sarcastically that she had missed a very exciting class on medicinal plants. It was then when Misty entered the room. She dropped her backpack next to her bed and ran to sit next to Cordelia.

"Are you okay, Dee?"

"Yes. I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay. Do you want me to do anything for you? I can go to the kitchen and make a tea or something."

"I could use a hug."

"A hug?"

"Yes."

"Okay." she said, lying next to the girl and taking her between her arms. She ignored the other two roommates looks, knowing that both girls were observing them. She couldn't care less. "Is this okay?" she asked with a soft voice.

"Yes. Thank you."