Chapter 3

Valerie was sick and she knew it. She tried desperately to find enough bottles and cans to buy a cheap bottle of cough syrup, but it was impossible. To do so would mean not eating dinner for three days and she was too hungry all the time as it was. Plus she had nowhere to store three days worth of bottles.

"Ew," Libby commented at lunch. Valerie was loitering near the garbage cans, no longer caring who saw her. She caught Libby's unopened packet of carrots before the fell in the can.

"Eating out of the garbage, Val? No wonder you smell like that," Libby commented.

Val didn't care. She tried to keep her clothes clean, rinsing her socks and underwear in the sink every night. But she only had one pair of jeans and two shirts that she switched every other day. And given how she had to sleep in her jeans too, they were starting to get kind of fragrant. Food was the most important thing in her life now.

Valerie tried to do her homework that night but couldn't focus. She coughed, bring up a wad of green gunk. Her head was throbbing. She just couldn't make herself care about the chemistry problems in front of her.

"Ms. Spellman will understand," she said to herself as put everything in her backpack. "She knows I haven't been feeling great."

Valerie fell asleep as soon as the custodian was gone. She felt like she could sleep forever. Her stomach was emptier than usual; she had only found enough cans for a candy bar. She had to be careful about scavenging food too; teachers were beginning to look at her with too much concern and not just Ms. Spellman.

"It'll all be better in the morning," Val thought as she drifted off. "It always is."

"I'm so worried about this girl in my chemistry class," Ms. Zelda Spellman told her sister Hilda that same evening. "She's so thin and she's sick too. Her grades keep dropping but she won't tell me why. One day when I touched her back she winced. Today I overheard students talking about her taking food out of the trash. Something is very wrong."

"Did you try the truth spell?" Hilda asked, conjuring some wine.

"I tried but it didn't work. That is another strange thing," Zelda said, her fair brows knit together in worry.

"C'mon, Zelly, lets take a look at where she is now. It's probably some silly teenage thing." Hilda guided her sister into the kitchen, where they mixed up the potion on Zelda's Lab Top.

As magenta fog poured up from the beaker, they began to chant:

"Eye of tiger, stars of bright

Show us where Valerie Birkhead

Is this night."

In the mist, a picture of the sound asleep Valerie appeared. Zelda gasped. "She's sleeping on the couch in the faculty lounge at school! I have to do something!"

Hilda grabbed her sister as she charged for the door. "It's late, Zelda. You said she was sick. Let her sleep and go get her in the morning."

Zelda agreed to do so.

At six o'clock the next morning, just as the sun began to rise, Zelda Spellman was at the high school faculty lounge. She looked at the too pale, too thin face of the child sleeping on the couch. Valerie curled up under a thin blanket, wearing a sweatshirt and jeans that she had worn every other day. Zelda resisted the temptation to look through her backpack. She looked like a porcelain doll.

Zelda gently placed a hand on Valerie's back. She winced in her sleep. Zelda shook her gently. "Valerie, honey, wake up. It's Ms. Spellman."

Valerie's eyes fluttered open. The first thing she saw was her chemistry teacher's worried face.

"Ms. Spellman!" she gasped, bolting up. "Don't tell anyone! Please!"

Zelda sat down beside the terrified girl. "Honey, are you all right? Why are you sleeping in here?"

Valerie bit her lip. She began to cry, coughing up phlegm as she sobbed.

Zelda pulled the sobbing girl to her. She tensed up in her arms when Zelda's hands touched her back. This time Zelda was not going to ignore it.

"Let me see," Zelda ordered, turning her.

Valerie was too tired and defeated to protest. She turned around and lifted up her shirt.

Zelda gasped at the sight. Valerie's back was a crisscross of scars. There were some healed, some obviously fairly fresh, just beginning to lose their scabs.

"My God, Valerie! Who did this to you?" she demanded.

Valerie began to cry again. Zelda helped her up, careful of her back.

"Come on, honey. I'm taking you to my house."

"Your house?" Valerie asked through her tears. She reached for her backpack. Ms. Spellman took it from her.

"Yes, my house. You need some good food and rest. And medicine for your cough."

Valerie was both relieved and scared. She was relieved to be getting help, but terrified of having to tell Ms. Spellman what was going on.

Ms. Spellman's sister met them at the door. "Breakfast is ready. Eat as much as you want."

Hilda and Zelda's eyes met as Valerie began to devour a plate of waffles and glass of orange juice.

What happened to this girl? Hilda's blue eyes asked.

Don't ask her right now, Zelda's green eyes answered. Let her eat. Look at her. She's starving.

"Slow down," Hilda said. "Nobody is going to take it away from you."

Valerie slowed down marginally.

"Here," Zelda held out a coffee mug to her. "This will help your cough." Hilda and Zelda exchanged meaningful glances.

Valerie sighed happily when she finished her mountain of waffles. "Thank you," she smiled.

"I'm staying home today," Zelda told her. "You need to get cleaned up, then we can talk."

Valerie sighed. She knew this was coming but she was absolutely dreading it.

"Here, you can wear these," Zelda said as she led her to the bathroom. She gave her a pair of clean sweatpants and T-shirt. "They'll probably be a bit big on you, but they're clean. Hop in the shower and take as long as you need."

The warm stream of water was straight out of heaven. After washing in the sink or under the stinging needles of water in the gym showers, a warm shower and hot breakfast were luxuries. Valerie washed her hair twice and scrubbed every inch of her body three times. It felt wonderful.

"Feel better?" Zelda asked as she came downstairs. "You look better."

Valerie hacked up some green phlegm. "Yes, much."

"Good," Ms. Spellman said as she led the skinny girl to the dining room table. "Here, I want to put something on your back."

Valerie felt like she should resist but then it crumbled. She was sick of hiding, sick of lying and sick of running. She wanted the only person in the world who seem to care to help her.

"Wow," Valerie exclaimed when she saw the Lab Top. "Can we do experiments on this?"

"Later," her teacher replied. "Sit down and lift up your shirt."

Valerie didn't wear a bra and it was easy to see why. Some of the cuts were infected, painful oozing sores. Valerie flinched as Zelda gently applied a damp rag to her back then relaxed. Whatever she put on actually felt good. It made her feel relaxed and her back not hurt.

"Zelly, have you seen-" Hilda began as she walked into the room. "What the hell happened to you?" she interrupted herself when she saw Val's back.

"Later, Hilda," her sister snapped at her. "Let me get it cleaned up, then we will talk to her."

When Zelda got her back cleaned up, they brought her into the living room and gave her another cup of tea. "We don't want to hurt you, honey," Zelda said as they sat on either said of Valerie. "We want to help you, but we can't if we don't know what happened. Please, are you ready to tell us?"

Valerie's dark eyes met Zelda's green ones. She nodded and began her story.