Chapter XXV:

"Through Rose Tinted Glasses"

'You're looking considerably chipper taking you have a fractured foot.' Nurse McRae commented with half her nose wrinkled disapprovingly. 'You are aware that you're going to have it in a cast for about two weeks.'

Sitting propped up on the rock hard bed in the infirmary, Elliott only shrugged and smiled. 'Could be worse.'

The nurse snorted as she turned to search for the plaster to begin making the cast. 'For you, maybe. You know I have a hundred and one things I would much rather be doing than tending to reckless tearaways on Christmas day. It wouldn't kill you little cockroaches to have a little consideration once in a while.'

Elliott rolled her eyes. 'Well I'm sorry for breaking my foot and interrupting your day. How rude of me.'

Nurse McRae returned with a bandage and lifted Elliott's foot, then deliberately allowed it to drop back onto the bed. Elliott let out a cry of pain, jerking upright.

'Sorry,' the nurse said insincerely. 'How clumsy of me.'

Elliott scowled at the aged nurse and sat back again. She watched, disgruntled, as her foot was bandaged up. She remained silent and watched as the cast was applied. It was tight and uncomfortable, but it wasn't the first time she had had a cast on.

'You'll have to keep it dry.' Nurse McRae told her, going to the sink to wash her hands. 'And I have a pair of crutches you can use. Do not use them to beat the other kids or I'll take them from you and you can hobble around like a cripple.'

Elliott grimaced. 'Crutches? Are you kidding?'

'What do you want me to do, carry you around the campus? You can't walk on that unless you're after a clubfoot. Now stop being a brat and get out of my infirmary so I can at least pretend to enjoy the rest of the day.'

Elliott slid off the bed, balanced on one leg. 'Don't I have to wait for it to dry or something?'

Nurse McRae sighed heavily. 'Do you want me to stand here blowing on it for you?' She moved to the corner and grabbed the two battered wooden crutches that rested there. 'Now run along. Stop wasting my time.'

Elliott took one of the crutches and slipped in under her arm. 'Sorry for making you do your job.' She muttered, hopping towards the door.

'You cheeky little rat,' Nurse McRae spat. 'I'm going to tell Dr Crabblesnitch about your ungrateful attitude.'

Elliott rolled her eyes again and let herself out. The door slammed behind her and she faintly heard the nurse cursing her on the other side. She looked down at her plastered foot, then at the crutch and finally at the snow.

'Well,' she murmured. 'This is going to be a laugh.'

Steadying herself she began to make her way towards the Girl's Dorm. Look on the bright side, she told herself, At least I get out of Gym.

As Elliott sat in the lounge area of the Girl's Dorm and watched the girls returning from the Christmas lunch she decided it was probably a good thing that she hadn't made it inside the cafeteria. All of the girls were covered in various foodstuffs, mainly gravy and vegetables, although Christy Martin had a nice chunk of meat in her hair. They all bustled past, too busy moaning and whining about the apparent food fight to notice Elliott sitting with a cast on. She watched everyone go by until she saw Beatrice and went to stand up, temporarily forgetting about her broken foot. She lost her balance and thumped back down on the chair.

'Hey, Beatrice!' she called, waving one hand.

Beatrice glanced around, gravy splattered on one side of her glasses and a piece of carrot in her hair. She glanced away awkwardly. 'I need to clean up, Elliott.' She said.

'Just a minute, man,' Elliott pleaded. 'You'll never get to a sink with everyone in there.'

Beatrice glanced after the other girls, contemplating this. Realising that Elliott was probably right, she sighed and slumped her shoulders. 'Well, I don't really want to talk to you right now…'

Elliott tilted her head. 'Please, come on.'

Beatrice paused again, glancing away. When she looked back she noticed the cast on her foot and frowned slightly. 'What have you done?' She moved into the sitting area and perched on the edge of the couch.

'I kicked something hard and stupid.' Elliott replied. 'My own fault I think. Anyway, I just want to apologise. I didn't mean what I said this morning, I was just… oh man, I don't know. I guess being a jerk must be in my blood or something. But…' She paused to sigh. 'I like having you as a friend, Beatrice. You're the only halfway sane person in this dump and, well, you've been pretty much the only reason why I haven't completely lost the plot in the last couple of weeks.'

Beatrice was looking down at her hands, fidgeting. 'Well… it's my fault really,' she said, shrugging her shoulders. 'I mean, it's got nothing to do with me who you… get involved with...'

Elliott half smiled. 'You were doing what's best. I appreciate it. But you don't have to worry about it. Apart from having a gang of bloodthirsty Jock's on my tail, every thing is peachy.'

Beatrice winced. 'Actually… you might take back that apology just yet…'

'What do you mean?'

'I may have… kind of… put your name down to do the after school study classes for the little kids.' She lifted her head and spoke quickly before she could be interrupted. 'I was really angry with you and I've never been very good at revenge and the only thing I could think of was to get you to do extra work, because I know how much you hate work so I put your name down and… well, you'll basically be helping the little kids out with their work in the library for the next couple of weeks…'

Elliott stared at her for a moment. 'You're kidding.' She said flatly.

'I'm really sorry,' Beatrice told her. 'I just… my entire judgement was shrouded in this… this terrible veil of malicious anger and it was awful but I could control it and before I knew it your name was on the list and I couldn't find my eraser and then Miss Danvers took it and…'

Elliott rubbed her head. 'It's okay,' she said in a strained voice. 'It's… I probably deserve it. Don't worry about it.' She paused and then narrowed one eye. 'How long is a couple of weeks?'

Beatrice winced again. 'About a month?'

Elliott breathed in through her nostrils. 'Right. Well that's okay. How hard can it be to teach a couple of little kids?'

'I am so sorry, really I don't know what came over me-'

'Don't get your panties in a twist over it,' Elliott told her. 'Seriously, I'm glad. It means we're even.'

Beatrice slumped, relieved that she had told her. 'Well, I can help too. I'll make it so I'm doing most of the work.'

'Don't be an idiot.' Elliott said, grabbing her crutch and getting up. 'I'll do my fair share. Now go clean yourself up or something. Is that cauliflower in your hair?'

Beatrice stood up. 'Okay. Well, I'll come find you when I'm cleaned up. Although you won't be able to go far with your foot…'

'Just come find me.' Elliott smiled. 'I'll be out the front somewhere.'

Beatrice smiled, looking like a weight had just been lifted from her shoulders. 'Okay. Well… see you.'

Elliott nodded in return and went to the door, already hopping easily on the crutches. Outside she hesitated at the top of the steps, and carefully made her way down. Once at the bottom, she frowned pointedly at Gary, who had been waiting for her and smirking at her attempts to get down the steps.

'You could have helped.' She said, shifting the crutch under her arm to a more comfortable position. 'I bet you would have just laughed if I had fell.'

'So did you talk to her?' he asked, only smirking a little further at her annoyance.

Elliott nodded. 'Yeah, we're cool now. Although I was tempted to tell her to sling her hook after she told me she's signed me up for some after school help class for the little kids.'

'In the library?' Gary asked, his eyes brightening.

'Yeah. And it's going to last a month. A frigging month.'

Gary just nodded and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'That will probably work out better… that's brilliant actually.'

'I'm glad you're so happy that I have double the work.' Elliott muttered.

'Don't you see? If you're spending most of your time at the library you can get on an even better par with the Nerds. If we're serious about this then we need them on our side.'

'The Nerds? What can they do?'

'You'd be surprised. If we lose them to Jimmy then we've had it.' Gary paused to think for a moment. 'You're still up for it, aren't you? Infiltrating the Nerds, I mean.'

'Yeah.' Elliott nodded. 'Sure.'

'Good. Great. This is going to be brilliant.' He flashed her a broad grin. 'You just stick to your side of the plan, okay? Get them on good terms. Edgar is the one you have to win over, but you could probably do that by dropping your pencil in front of him or something.'

Elliott lowered one eyebrow. 'I'm not sticking my ass out to get some Nerds to like me.'

Gary just turned his head and chuckled. 'You know you love it.'

She just shook her head, laughing. 'Okay, so I'm winning the Nerds over. What will you be doing?'

'Don't you worry about that just yet.' He replied. 'I'll be busy. And because I've got a few things to sort out I might not see you around as much.'

Elliott had to work hard to prevent her disappointment showing. 'Oh?'

Gary shook his head and began to pace a little. 'I've got to do some planning, and talk to some people. Might take a while. And it seems you and I have been hot topic around here for a few days. We don't want so much attention, you understand? We'll keep our heads down for a week or so, until everyone's forgotten. They've got brains of dead fish around here so it shouldn't take long for them to forget.'

'What about the Jocks though?'

'I'll deal with them. Like I said, you just stick with your part. I'll deal with the rest of it.'

Elliott nodded. 'So… um… When do you think we'll be, y'know, seeing each other again?' She shifted uncomfortably. She had never been particularly talented at acting casual in these kinds of situations.

Gary just smiled. 'Pretty soon.'

'Okay.' She shrugged. 'Just, I might go mad spending all my time with Nerds, you know? Next time you see me I might be in a green sweater and playing frigging Grottos and Gremlins. They might convert me or something.'

'Just don't go fooling around with Algie.'

Elliott snorted. 'As if.' She hesitated, glancing up at him. After a moment of neither of them speaking, she found herself saying, 'I'm serious about this, you know. I'm not going to change my mind again.'

'I know.' He lingered a moment longer and then patted her waist. 'See ya.'

She watched him head away, feeling a little bit saddened at the prospect of not seeing him as much. But she knew it was necessary if they wanted this plan to work out. And hell, they were in a boarding school. She would probably still see him nearly every day.

Still, she was disheartened. She leaned against the wall by the steps and sighed, cursing herself for being too much of a wimp to kiss him like he had kissed her in the alley.