Esmeralda stared blankly into her locker, trying to remember what she had first period. Right. Science-with Phoebus. Esmeralda quietly groaned to herself as she pulled her science book out of her locker. She did not want to see Phoebus today. Or Jasmine. Her parents and Clopin confronted her about her bulimia after work on Saturday and told her Jasmine and Phoebus had been the ones to tell them. Esmeralda had expected Clopin to eventually tell her parents, but she was surprised to find out it had been her best friend and boyfriend who betrayed her.
"Good morning," Phoebus greeted as he approached Esmeralda's locker. He was acting like nothing had happened and that bothered Esmeralda.
Esmeralda slammed her locker shut. "I do not want to talk to you." She turned to walk in the other direction, but Jasmine was suddenly standing on the other side of her. "You either."
"How did it go?" Jasmine asked quietly.
Esmeralda narrowed her eyes at Jasmine. "What? So, now you care about me all of a sudden?"
"We did this because we care about you," Phoebus said.
Esmeralda turned to look at him. "Yeah right."
"Essie, it's true," Jasmine said.
Esmeralda shot Jasmine a dirty look. "No. Only my best friend can call me that."
Jasmine looked like she had just been slapped. Her eyes teared up a little and she looked down.
"What did your parents say?" Phoebus asked.
"I have 'till the end of the school year to 'straighten up'," Esmeralda said, making air quotes around the words "straighten up". "If I don't, they're going to send me to rehab up in San Francisco."
"You're going away?" Jasmine asked, meekly.
Esmeralda scowled at Jasmine. "That's what you wanted, isn't it? That's why you told my parents; so they'd send me away to get 'help'."
"No!" Jasmine said quickly. "We didn't know they were gonna send you away."
"Well, what did you think they were going to do?" Esmeralda demanded. "You all say you're trying to help me, but none of you are. You just keep pushing off on someone else saying they're the ones who are going to help me."
"That's not true," Phoebus said.
"Isn't it? You and Jasmine pushed me off on my parents and now they're sending me away to someone else. None of you want to actually do anything to help me, so why don't you just let it go and leave me alone!" Esmeralda slammed her fist against her locker, then stormed off.
Esmeralda went into the nearest girls' bathroom. She put her hands on the sink and looked into the mirror. She tried to figure out why everyone was ganging up on her. No answer came to her. She sank down to her knees and rested her forehead against the back of her hands. She gripped the edge of the sink tightly as she started to cry.
"Esmeralda?"
Esmeralda's head shot up and she looked over to see Phoebus standing in the doorway.
"What are you doing?" Esmeralda hissed. "You can't come in here."
Phoebus ignored her comment. "Are you alone?"
Esmeralda hadn't even bothered to see if anyone else had been in the bathroom before she started crying. She turned around and looked at the stalls, relieved to see that no one else was in there. She nodded and Phoebus walked in.
"Let me walk you to class," Phoebus said, holding out his hand.
Esmeralda pushed his hand away and stood up. "I'm not going to class."
"Esmeralda, you can't skip class," Phoebus said. "You're gonna get in trouble."
Esmeralda had already been walking towards the door, but she stopped and faced Phoebus. "Why don't you just go tell my parents if you're so worried about me?"
Esmeralda swung open the door, then headed right out of the school.
XXX
Meg clutched her tray as she walked through the cafeteria. She glanced over at Thomas' table, longing to sit with him like she used to. She kept walking towards Vanessa's usual table, but stopped when she saw Hercules and Helga sitting with her. Hercules spotted her and smiled at her. Meg rolled her eyes and went outside. She found an empty table and sat down. She ate her cheeseburger, then picked up one of her fries. As she was dipping it in the ketchup she realized she had a pretty clear shot of Thomas from where she was sitting. John and Pocahontas were engaged in some sort of heated discussion, but Thomas didn't seem to notice. He had his head lowered and was picking at the small scoop of mashed potatoes on his plate. He looked sad and that made a lump form in Meg's throat.
"If you're not careful, you're gonna drown that fry," Jim said, sitting down across from Meg.
Meg looked down and realized she was still dipping the fry in the ketchup. She sighed and dropped the fry back on her plate.
"Bad day?" Jim asked. "You were pretty put of it in Science, too."
"Bad couple of days," Meg said.
"You wanna talk about it?" Jim asked, popping a fry into his mouth.
"Not really."
Jim nodded. "Fair enough."
With Jim sitting across from her, Meg could no longer see Thomas. She was slightly grateful for that.
"Thomas and I broke up," Meg muttered. That was the first time she said it out loud.
Jim looked up at her like he had no idea what she was talking about. It occurred to Meg that Jim probably didn't even know she had been dating Thomas. How would he?
"We hadn't been dating long," Meg continued, not sure why she was even talking to Jim about this. They weren't really friends, just lab partners. "But there was a misunderstanding over break and he broke up with me."
"What happened?"
Meg was surprised that Jim actually seemed to care.
"Um, we had all gone out to this under twenty club and Hades spiked my drink, without me knowing it. The next day I woke up in bed with Hercules wearing nothing but my underwear." Meg bit her lip. "I have no idea what happened, but Hercules says we made out. Thomas said he heard me tell Hercules that I wanted to get back with him. Thomas is convinced I cheated on him and he broke up with me. Then John got involved and now I can't go anywhere near Thomas."
"So, what do you want?" Jim asked.
"Thomas."
"What if he doesn't want you?"
Meg shrugged. "Then I'm not gonna date again until I get out of this stupid school."
Jim chuckled. "Why is that?"
"'Cause guys just aren't worth the aggravation," Meg replied.
"But, Thomas is?"
Meg nodded. "I think so. But, if he hurts me and turns out to be like every other guy, then I'm done. I can only take so much, ya know."
"Didn't you hurt him?" Jim asked.
Meg rested her chin in her hand. "I don't know. He says I did, but I honestly don't know what happened."
"Well, Meg, it sounds like it's possible that you and Thomas are feeling the same way right now," Jim said. "He probably thought you were different than other girls, too. So, you need to prove that you are."
"I want to, but John won't let me even talk to him," Meg said.
"You're a tough girl, Meg. I'm pretty sure you can handle John." Jim smiled at her.
Meg couldn't help smiling back. "You may be right..."
Jim reached over and took Meg's ketcup-soaked fry, then popped it into his mouth. "Of course I'm right. Don't let anything get in your way, Meg. Show Thomas that you're different and you're not going to give up. You and I both know you're not like any other girl out there. Deep down Thomas must know that, too, or he doesn't know you at all."