Chapter X:

"Guilt Tripping"

Elliott ran through the doors of Bullworth Academy, almost knocking over a little blonde girl as she went. The little girl squealed something profane after her but she ignored it and continued towards the stairs. Her alarm hadn't gone off and she had only realised the time when the bell to signify first class rang in the Girl's Dorm. She had been surprised that Beatrice hadn't woken her up, usually she would be urging Elliott to go as quick as possible so they wouldn't get in trouble from Mrs Peabody.

Elliott stumbled up the first couple of stairs and dropped her sketchbook. With a curse she set about gathering them up. She knew Ms Philips wouldn't be bothered at her tardiness, but if the Prefects caught her…

'Class is cancelled.'

Elliott glanced up to see Mandy Wiles standing over her. She bent down and helped Elliott gather up the rest of her spilled notes. Elliott watched her warily but said nothing.

'Ms Philips had to go and take Mr Galloway home,' the cheerleader explained. 'Apparently he had one too many cups of tea this morning.'

The two of them stood up and Mandy handed Elliott her papers. The two of them stood eyeing each other warily for a moment.

'Right,' Elliott nodded finally. 'That's a good job really, I thought I was going to be late.'

Mandy glanced around and sighed. She didn't look like her usual self; her self-important pout was missing and she just looked downright miserable. 'Do you think we could go somewhere and… y'know… talk?'

Elliott narrowed her eyes suspiciously. 'You're not luring me somewhere to make a complete ass out of me, are you?'

Mandy rolled her eyes and took her arm. 'Quit being paranoid. Just come on before someone sees me being nice to you.'

Elliott allowed Mandy to lead her back down the stairs and down one of the corridors to the left. They entered the girl's toilets, both grimacing at the strong smell of bleach. Eunice was the only person in there, and glanced up sharply at their entrance.

'Beat it, Stay-Puff.' Mandy spat, and Eunice obediently left.

'So what's this about then?' Elliott asked, resting a hand on her hip. 'Because if you've brought me here to try and swirly me I'll snap you like a twig.'

Mandy sighed and rolled her eyes. 'I don't hate you.' She admitted.

Elliott blinked. 'What?'

'It's just… I'm the prettiest and the best. I need to make sure no one is going to replace me. I needed to make sure you weren't going to come swanning into this school and have everyone love you. I can't afford to be replaced, not by anyone.' Mandy shifted on her feet, proving that what she was saying was making her feel very uncomfortable. 'I know it's horrible but… well, the only way I can regain my crown is by fending off the competition before it even realises that it is competition. I hope you can understand that.'

Elliott felt a bit overwhelmed. 'Oh… well, yeah I do.'

Mandy sighed and leaned against the bathroom sinks. 'I know you had something to do with Ted and that nerd waking up in the equipment shed. Lucky for you Ted has no idea who's behind it so he just pounded on Pee Stain for a few hours to make himself feel better.'

Elliott felt a pang of guilt. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'Oh come on,' Mandy frowned. 'I'm not stupid. I respect you for having the balls to get back at me instead of just putting up with it like everyone else. And you've proven your point, I'll lay off. But I will have to insult you every now and then, just so no one thinks I've gone soft.'

Elliott nodded. 'Sounds okay.'

Mandy straightened up and brushed the front of her uniform with both hands. 'Okay then. This neutral ground between us is only for as long as you agree to keep it that way, okay? If you do anything else to try to humiliate me or Ted and it'll be war, understand?'

Elliott nodded, but her mind went back to the photographs in her desk. 'Okay. Deal.'

Mandy smiled. 'Good. Y'know, it is a shame we can't be friends. But everyone thinks I hate you so… well, sorry.'

'Don't worry about it. It's cool.'

'Right, well see you around then, Elle.' Mandy said as she headed for the door. 'And, oh I dunno, maybe if one day there's no one around we could have lunch together or something.'

Elliott watched her disappear out of the bathroom and frowned thoughtfully. So was that a surrender on both their parts? Sure sounded like it. Well if that was the case she didn't need those photographs at all. Just as well really, she hadn't been looking forward to humiliating that poor Algie kid. Sounded like he had it bad enough as it was. Feeling content, Elliott decided to head back to the dorms and see if Beatrice was about. Her newfound good mood made her completely forget about Christy's plans.

For once she was actually smiling when she walked into her dorm room. Beatrice was at her desk, working hard as usual. Elliott tossed her sketchbook on her bed and moved towards her.

'Hey, Bea. All my classes for today are cancelled so do you want to-'

'How could you?' Beatrice cried, shooting up out of her seat and whirling around to face her. 'How could you do such a… a terrible thing?'

Elliott stared at her with wide eyes, shocked by her outburst. 'I um… what?'

Beatrice was practically shaking with rage, but it was obvious by her awkward, jerky movements that she didn't get this worked up very often. 'You… I thought you were my friend!'

Elliott raised her hands. 'Whoa, now just hold on there a minute. What have I done?'

'See? You don't even know you've done anything wrong! I knew there was something strange about you! You're as much of a sociopath as him!'

Elliott wracked her brain for something she may have done to anger Beatrice, but she was coming up with nothing. 'Seriously, Bea, just tell-'

'And stop calling me Bea!' Beatrice screeched. 'My name is Beatrice!'

Elliott was stunned to silence. She blinked a couple of times, trying to understand this sudden outburst. She searched for some comforting words but could only scrape up a bemused shrug.

'Algernon!' Beatrice cried.

Elliott shrugged again.

Beatrice rolled her eyes. 'Algie!'

'Oh!' Elliott nodded, then her voice dropped in realisation. 'Oh. Um… well that whole thing didn't really have anything to do with…'

'Yes, it did!' Beatrice cried. 'I told you not to get involved with that psycho but you did it anyway! And now my friend is suffering for it! Do you know how many times he got kicked in the… in his nether-regions by Ted Thompson this morning?'

Elliott scratched the back of her neck uncomfortably. 'Oh come on, it's not like that was exactly what I asked Gary to do! How was I meant to know?'

'You could have told him you didn't want his help!' Beatrice insisted. 'You could have told him to go away! But now Algie is having a worse time than ever and it's all your fault.'

Elliott frowned, not wanting to feel bad but unable to help it. It was her fault, as much as she didn't want it to be. 'It can't be much worse than the grief he normally gets…' she started.

'Stop trying to make yourself feel better.' Beatrice scowled. 'And for your information I've requested to be moved rooms so you can sit in here and be miserable and vindictive all on your own.'

Elliott glanced around and realised for the first time that all of Beatrice's things were missing. 'Bea I… I mean Beatrice, come on! Don't be hasty! It was just a mistake, I didn't know that was going to happen.'

Beatrice stormed towards the door, cheeks flushed. 'You can't even apologise. I wouldn't want to be friends with someone like you anyway, Elliott Nixon.' She stopped at the door and frowned at her. 'And don't worry, now that people know what kind of person you are they won't bother you any more.'

'Beatrice, please-'

But Beatrice left, slamming the door behind her.

Elliott didn't like feeling guilty, so she managed to be angry at Beatrice for shouting at her the way she did. It did feel better to blame someone else for everything for a while, but as night rolled in and the longer Elliott sat on her own in that dingy dorm room she realised that she had done a terrible thing. Beatrice had been the only person in the whole school who had spoken to her civilly and treated her like a friend, and she had thrown it all back in her face by dragging Algie into the whole situation. It probably could all be solved with a heartfelt apology, but Elliott wasn't an apologetic person, and she certainly wasn't heartfelt. So she remained on her bed, silent and sulky, and hoped Beatrice would return to make the first move. Beatrice didn't.

Sighing heavily, Elliott swung her legs off her bed and reached to the bottom drawer of her desk. She pulled it open, deciding that it would probably be a good idea to get rid of the photographs before more trouble sprung out from them. Mandy had backed off and really that was all she had wanted. The photographs might have been good to keep in case she forgot their agreement, but it was probably safer to just destroy them and forget about the whole thing…

Elliott frowned at the empty drawer. She could have sworn she put them in there, underneath the fake bottom….

Panic set in quickly and she dropped onto her knees in front of the desk, pulling out the drawers and tipping them out. Pencils and bits of paper scattered the floor, but there were no photographs. They were gone.

'Shit…' Elliott muttered, standing up and grabbing handfuls of her hair. 'Shit!'

Who else knew about the photographs? Gary probably, but there was no way he could have gotten up here without being spotted by the other girls. And why would he want them anyway? Beatrice didn't know about them… or perhaps she found them and that was why she was so angry? If Beatrice had them then that would be okay because there was no way she would let anyone see them. There was no one else, no one could possibly know…

Christy.

'Shit.' Elliott muttered for the third time.

Of course it was Christy! How could she have forgotten? And if Christy had them…

Elliott raced for the door, tripping over her feet but managing to catch herself. She burst out into the corridor and nearly slammed right into Pinky. Pinky let out a short squeal at her sudden arrival and raised her hands in surprise. Elliott grabbed her by the arms.

'Where's Christy?' she demanded.

'Let go of me you pauper!' Pinky snapped, pulling her arms from her. 'This is Aquaberry. Aqua-berry. If there's a single mark on it I'll-'

Elliott waved an impatient hand at her and continued down the corridor, sticking her head in every room to see if she could see Christy. No sign of her anywhere. In fact, there didn't seem to be many people around at all. She ran down the stairs and as she reached the bottom she could already hear someone laughing. Then following it was the unmistakable snobbish guffawing of the Preppies. Elliott felt her stomach knot, but she ran outside anyway.

It was only when she got outside and felt the cold concrete that she realised she wasn't wearing any shoes. She stepped down three steps, but all her motor functions had ceased at the sight before her. She stood there, jaw hanging open and arms limp by her sides.

Christy was handing out flyers to the huge crowd of students around her. There was a mixture of everyone; Bullies, Greasers, Preppies, Nerds… they all stood around in groups gawping at the fliers. Two little kids were standing at the bottom of the steps, pointing at something above Elliott and giggling hysterically. For a moment Elliott thought they were laughing at her, but then she allowed herself to turn and look at the building.

Hanging up on the front of the Girl's Dorm, spanning about half the building, was a giant picture of Ted Thompson and Algernon Papadopoulos spooning in their underwear. Beneath it in huge, black letters, it said Bullhorns Score!

Elliott stared up at it, feeling numb all over, and then murmured, 'Shit.'