Mr. Simpson gazed around his classroom, dismayed. His 10th grade MI class had been so talkative that he had been forced to employ a sitting chart. Unfortunately, everyone still talked to their friends, but since they sat further apart, they now yelled. There was such a raucous in the MI lab that Mr. Simpson was beginning to doubt he could hear himself think. He cleared his throat in a vain attempt to get his class's attention.

It didn't work.

"If everyone doesn't start paying attention right now, you all will have lunchtime detention defragging the lab!" he called.

That worked.

"Thank you," he said, a little miffed that it had come to that. "Now, seeing as we've already lost-" he checked the clock on his computer- "seven minutes of our class time, I'd appreciate it if we didn't lose any more. So please, pay attention." He paused for effect, looking around the room seriously.

"You guys have had a weekend to do research on your taboo topics, so I'd like to know where everyone is at. This is the only check-in point in the assignment; it'll be due next Friday. You guys still have almost two weeks to work on it," he held his hands up to soothe the grumbling crowd, "So there's no reason to panic. So long as you've at least done one internet search of your topic by now, you're on the right track. Jimmy, if you wouldn't mind, telling the class what you've learned so far about rites of passage."

Ellie sighed as Jimmy began speaking. She hadn't had a chance to get down to the library that weekend, so she hadn't done any research on transvestitism. She tried to collect her thoughts, but for some reason she wasn't able to tune out her classmates. Terri's mini-speech about pro-ana web-sites was drilling into Ellie's head like…well…a drill. She wondered if there were any of those for cutters…

"Miss Nash?"

Ellie looked up at the teacher. "Yes?"

Simpson looked at her wide-eyed. "We are awaiting your speech on transvestitism with bated breath."

"Oh." Ellie said simply. "Right. Transvestites…or transgenders, as they're also called…uh," Ellie racked her brain for any information she had retained from watching The Birdcage with Marco. "They're people who are born as one gender but feel like they truly are a member of the opposite gender. Ergo, they like members of their original gender, but they're not gay." Ellie gave Mr. Simpson an apologetic look. "It's really complicated; I'll go more in depth during the presentation."

Mr. Simpson smiled, "That's fine, Ellie. Just be sure to distinguish the differences between transvestitism and transgenderism." He looked down at his notes before continuing. "Paige? Our self-injury update?"

Paige smiled fakely, making Ellie want to snarl. As luck would have had it, she was seated right next to the Blonde Beast, due to Simpson's sitting chart. Any lingering tenderness Paige might have shown for Ellie last Friday had vanished over the weekend, and the blonde had barely even acknowledged Ellie's presence all day. The redhead was sure no good would come of this speech.

"Of course, Mr. Simpson," Paige said in the sugary-sweet voice she saved only for teachers, standing up to face the class better. "Self-injury has been going on for as long as there have been people too weak to express their emotions in a more constructive way. Although cutting is the most common form, people who hurt themselves are very inventive, and often burn, scratch, or otherwise mark themselves. Some people even hit their arms against the corners of walls until their bones break. In more modern times, self-injury, especially cutting, has become more mainstream, and nowadays most of the people who hurt themselves are whiney teenagers who think they have crappy home lives and cut themselves with shiny razorblades or compasses for attention."

Paige sat down, obviously pleased with herself.

The class erupted into chatter, and Simpson, seeing that there were only three minutes left of class, gave up and sat down at his desk.

Paige turned to Ellie. "Well," she said, "What did you think?"

Ellie, who had been struck speechless by Paige's lecture, found her voice somewhere around her sternum. "I thought it was the most biased, uninformed, skewed, ignorant, not to mention incorrect, thing I had ever heard, you conniving little BITCH!"

Much to Ellie's dismay, she realized that the entire class had gone quiet in one of those natural lulls right when she had shouted that last word.

"Miss Nash, we do not tolerate that language here!" Mr. Simpson said sternly. "Lunchtime detention."

"But Mr. Simpson, she provoked me!" Ellie protested, feeling helpless.

"Fine. Miss Michaelchuk, you'll join Miss Nash in here at lunch and the two of you can defrag the computers."