Chapter XXXVIII:

"Responsibilities And How To Avoid Them"

'This place is a zoo.' Nurse McRae muttered bitterly as she washed her hands in the deep, lime scale stained sink. 'You're all animals, every single one of you.'

Elliott sat on the edge of the bed, still soaked through, and stared down at the floor. Her head was throbbing and she was finding it hard to concentrate on what the nurse was saying, but that wasn't really anything new. Outside she could faintly hear the groaning footballers waiting to be tended to. She had only jumped to first inline because her head was bleeding. It was serious enough to warrant being rushed to the nurse, but not serious enough to bother the hospital about.

'That show out there was absolutely disgraceful. You're a bunch of horrible little psychopaths. Brawling in public like that. And I should have known that you would be involved in the whole affair you little harlot.'

Elliott just sighed. 'I wasn't fighting.' She sighed. 'I slipped.'

'Yes, yes. That's what they all say.' Nurse McRae moved behind her with an antiseptic wipe and a dressing. 'I bet you got it while beating up one of the children. I know your kind. Blame the world for your own shortcomings. Well it's nobodies fault that you're a failure but your own, you understand that, girl?'

Elliott lowered an eyebrow in bewilderment. Wow, this lady really was insane. 'You're not going to try and cast my head, are you?'

Nurse McRae snorted. 'Ungrateful bunch of ingrates.' She poked hard at the back of Elliott's head.

'Ow!'

'Well if you kept still-'

'I am still you crazy witch! Geez, remind me again when you decided that nursing was a good life choice for you?'

Nurse McRae stuck the dressing on without taking much care. 'You're lucky your whole brain didn't fall out. Maybe next time you'll be careful when you're out tormenting the younger students.'

Elliott slid off the bed and gently patted the dressing. 'I haven't been beating up little kids. Man, next time I hurt myself I'm just going to let myself bleed to death rather than come here again.'

'Good,' Nurse McRae spat. 'Less work for me. Now get out. I've got a full football team to look at.' She picked up the rubbish from the dressing and tossed it in the wastepaper basket. 'Animals, the lot of you.' She muttered.

Elliott scowled and left the infirmary, weaving between the group of groaning, bloodied and bruised footballers in the waiting area. She took a small bit of satisfaction seeing Ted Thompson semi-conscious with his head rested on Damon West's shoulder, but it didn't cheer her up.

She trudged outside. The rain had stopped now, although it had left behind deep puddles all over campus. Students were still hanging around, chattering excitedly about the events of the game. It was probably going to be big news for a long time. Elliott didn't care anymore. She didn't care about any of it. Let Jimmy rule the school and let Gary follow up with his stupid plans. He wasn't going to listen to her, so why should she care?

Why did she care? He wasn't anything special. Unless you classed megalomania as special.

Elliott pushed her hands in her pockets and then grimaced at how wet she was. She guessed she should get changed before she caught pneumonia or something. The last thing she wanted was another trip to Nurse McRae. She headed down the steps and towards the Girl's Dorm, ignoring the sound of Mandy whining loudly about their routine being ruined. As she had expected, the yard in front of the Girls' Dorm was deserted. As she approached the doors she patted the dressing on the back of her head just to find that it had fallen off already.

'Nurse my ass,' she muttered bitterly. 'I could have done a better job with no arms.'

'Better job at what?'

Elliott stopped at the bottom of the steps and sighed heavily. 'I just want to go to bed.' She said, flatly. 'So if you don't mind…'

Jimmy joined her side. 'You think you're tired? Try running around a football field after a dozen or so guys.'

'Yeah, I saw. Very impressive. Very macho of you.'

Jimmy studied her for a moment. 'What happened to your head?'

'I fell over.' She replied, heading up the stairs. 'I really don't feel like talking tonight.'

'Hey, it's all over now.' Jimmy told her with a shrug. 'Can't we put all of this behind us? Start fresh, yeah?'

She glanced at him over her shoulder, one hand on the handle, she frowned slightly. 'It's nowhere near over, Jimmy.'

He half laughed. 'Did you see what happened on that field? I'm untouchable.'

Elliott just looked at him sympathetically. 'Right. Keep telling yourself that.'

She went inside before he got a chance to say anything else to her. She stood on the other side of the door for a moment, screwing up her eyes against the pain in her head, and then slowly made her way up the stairs to her dorm. She knew that people with head injuries weren't supposed to wander off on their own and sleep, or at least that was what she had heard, but she was mentally exhausted. She couldn't stand another waking moment thinking about Gary or Jimmy or their inevitable clash.

She dropped down on her bed and closed her eyes. Whether she passed out or fell asleep, she wouldn't know, but she was totally out for the count within a minute.

'Elliott! Elliott!'

Elliott jerked awake with a snort and lifted her head, one eye refusing to open and the other rolling around blearily. She wiped at her mouth, finding cold drool there, and then sat up just as her bedroom door flew open.

'Elliott!' Beatrice cried, hurrying in.

Elliott rubbed her eyes. 'What's the matter?'

'There's a letter here for you!' Beatrice waved the light blue envelope above her head and crossed to her bed. She stopped halfway and frowned. 'Elliott, did you go to bed with wet clothes on?'

Elliott glanced down at herself. 'Um… I guess so…' She rubbed her head, and then winced as she accidentally knocked the sore part. She suddenly felt very irritated and scowled grumpily. 'A letter? So what? Couldn't it have waited? I'm concussed, you know.'

'It's from Tokyo.' Beatrice told her.

Elliott stared at her or a moment, before scrambling off the bed and snatching the letter from her hand. She ripped it open and pulled out the letter, scanning over the words.

'Well?' Beatrice asked, watching anxiously. 'What does it say?'

Elliott read over the words for a second time. 'She's leaving Tokyo.' She said in a small voice.

Beatrice smiled. 'Well that's great, isn't it?'

Elliott frowned. 'Not really.'

'Oh?'

'It says… It says she's moving onto Australia. Apparently she owes some money to some people…' She paused to read over a part of the letter again. Her voice had dropped a few pitches when she spoke again. 'She says she doesn't know when she'll be able to contact me. From now on my dad is my legal guardian. She's sent the appropriate papers to him and…' She balled up the letter and lay back on the bed. 'And she had to take back that money she gave to Crabblesnitch for when I leave this place. If she hadn't already paid my tuition in advance, I would have been able to leave now.'

Beatrice stood and stared at her. 'So… she's pretty much abandoned you?' She sighed and shook her head. 'Leaving her own daughter for a Tokyo Rose. It's romantic, but so wrong…'

Elliott sat up again and cradled her head in her hands. 'Can't a day go by without something totally crushing my spirit? Man, I must have done something horrible in a past life.'

Beatrice sat down beside her and rubbed her shoulder. 'It's not all so bad. Your dad doesn't live too far away, does he?'

'I don't want to live with him just the same as he doesn't want to live with me. This sucks so much. I never thought my mom would up sticks like this. Never. What a complete bitch.'

Beatrice shrugged her shoulders. 'It's amazing what some people can do.'

'Don't get me started on that.' Elliott muttered. She hung her head and allowed her arms to dangle between her legs. 'You remember around the time we first met and I said I was thinking about tossing myself off the bridge? Well maybe it's time you tell me what the tides are going to be like again.'

Beatrice frowned. 'Don't be ridiculous. Anyway, after the game last night everything is going to be much better. Everyone is getting along now. I mean, just this morning Algie dropped his notebook and he bent down to pick it up without anyone giving him a wedgie. That's like… that never happens.'

Elliott stood up and sighed in exasperation. 'I don't care about that stuff. I don't care about everyone else anymore. I just…' She stopped and rubbed her forehead. 'I can't take this place anymore. Seriously. I've had enough of it. I have to get out of here.'

Beatrice tilted her head and frowned in confusion as Elliott pulled open her wardrobe doors. 'What do you mean? You mean go into town for a while? I'll come with you if you like…'

'No.' Elliott replied. 'I'm leaving this dump. I can't deal with it anymore. I don't know where I'll go but I just can't take it. I can go down to Blue Skies and jump on one of those cargo trains or something.'

Beatrice stood up, frowning. 'Don't be insane, Elliott. That's ridiculous.'

'What, more insane than willingly spending another day here?' Elliott laughed humourlessly as she pulled out her suitcase. 'I sometimes wonder if I'm actually the only sane person here.'

'You can't just leave.' Beatrice insisted. 'Where will you go? How will you make money? You'll end up being one of those skanky back street strippers living in a really bad area and getting involved in all sorts of horrible illegal things. Is another three years of dealing with a few weirdoes worth throwing your whole life down the drain? Really?'

Elliott turned on her, angry because she knew she was right. 'I can't stay here, Beatrice. I'll go mad, I swear.'

'We're all mad!' Beatrice blurted. 'This place has that effect on you! If you can get through it without completely losing the plot then it makes you a better person! My mom always used to tell me that the high tides of life make you a better swimmer.'

Elliott frowned briefly. 'Yeah. And the losers drown.'

'Exactly.' Beatrice nodded. 'If you walk out of here you'll be a loser, Elliott, and I know you're not a loser. You're a nice, kind, albeit pretty self-pitying person but you're going to go on to do some great things with your life. You can't let this place ruin that.'

Elliott looked down at the open suitcase at her feet. 'Beatrice…'

'What is it?'

She looked towards the other girl, eyes wet. 'I think I'm in trouble.'

Beatrice frowned. 'What kind of trouble?'

'I think… I think I need a pregnancy test.'

A/N: Underage pregnancies always make good drama (and I should know, having experienced it first hand lol (I have a 4 year old, I'm not just being weird)) - although she might not be pregnant... could be that she was just one of the many victims of Edna's cat casserole... Okay, enough rambling; there's going to be about five or six more chapters, I definately don't want to go over 50 chapters, because that would be crazy. I reckon I'll get to 44. 44 is a good number. I don't even know why I'm leaving the author's note... I don't really have anything of interest to say at all, do I? Although I did see this really ugly cat today. It had snaggleteeth. Yeah... I'll go be weird elsewhere now... D: