For those of you reading The Lost Student, here is another "deleted scene" that happens at the same time as Chapter 13 of that story.
Story #46: Piper Just Wanted a Peaceful Shower
As disgusting and public as the showers are in The Wilderness School, Piper's always content when it's time to shower. Despite the showers being communal with only walls on the side to separate the "stalls" but no privacy door or even a flimsy curtain, it's alone time. Piper can see the girl across from her clearly (as much as she can through the shower steam), but everyone's too busy scrubbing the grime off their skin and hair to care about everyone else.
The water is scalding but Piper doesn't care. Only after moments like these can she feel as clean as possible. After a day outdoors in the woods or the desert, the sink, scentless and non-bubbly soap, and a crusty rag can only clean her so much before the bathroom looks like the wilderness.
It makes the dingy shower stall, Wilderness 10-in-1 conception, and questionable water pressure feel like a top-notch spa day.
Piper turns around, her back facing the other girls as she looks up at the shower head. Hot water burns her eyes as she scrubs a handful of Wilderness 10-in-1 in her. She isn't sure what the 10-in-1 is except that it's in a worn-out, label-less bottle with smudges of Wilderness 10-in-1 written in permanent marker. Apparently, it's definitely shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. The other seven purposes are unknown, but she's seen it being used as a whiteboard cleaner, shower cleaner (since it's coincidentally used in the shower), laundry detergent, pipe draining solution, and wiper fluid.
Regardless of its use, it gets all the jobs done. Why not just call it an all-purpose cleaner?
After being at the Wilderness School basically fending for herself, especially in instances where she's stuck with the girls of her cohort. She isn't sure what it is about her that made her the target of all the bullying. She wasn't expecting them to give her a list of reasons why they hate her, but some indication of why they all focus their pushing and name-calling on her would be nice.
She could say it was because she was friends with Jason and that he's shown a great interest in her that could be more than friends. All the girls had their eyes on him since he showed up at the Wilderness School. They all wanted to know how and why he gravitated towards her (and Leo) since they were the outcasts amongst outcasts.
But she was their collective target ever since she graced this school, long before Jason arrived.
They're all monsters. Even her. Maybe especially her.
Nobody wants a monster in their walls. That's why their showers can't even be private. The shower should be their safe place. Their no-man's land. Every girl here is naked and just wants to rinse off for the night. Nobody wants to be disturbed.
But it's also their most vulnerable time of day. Virtually alone with no coverings stuck with thoughts and the white noise of showers and bottles squirting, maybe the occasional humming from a nearby girl.
But showering never stopped the trouble from arising.
Someone grabs her shoulder.
Piper's eyes shoot open. Wilderness 10-in-1 and hot water sting her eyes as she turns around. Her vision blurs so she blinks rapidly. Her heart races as bodies surround her, moving fluidly in snapshots as her eyes burn.
She wants to run but doesn't know where to go. Piper aims to run straight ahead but hands grab her arms and she flies back and down. She groans when her back hits the ground, her head throbbing as water pours onto her face and in her mouth. Her vision is still musty and being nearly waterboarded and bombarded by hands doesn't help.
And she knows the shower floor is filthy. That Wilderness 10-in-1 wasn't all that efficient for any of its unintended purposes.
She has no control over her body. She can't move her arms and any attempt to kick is hitting air. Piper tries to scream but someone shoves a wet loofa in her mouth and holds it in place.
Her gag reflex is triggered. She doesn't even want to think about where that loofa has been. Even unused, the loofas are naturally yellowed and victims of the Wilderness 10-in-1.
Piper bites down on the loofa when someone holds their knee down on Piper's stomach. She can't even squirm but tenses her stomach to try and alleviate that pain. Other girls grab her hair in strands and Piper's head lifts at their command.
Her vision still isn't the best but something catches the light and Piper knows that someone's holding something sharp. Oh, they're going for her hair that she already chopped to give them something to make fun of if they would torment her anyways. Oh no.
Almost as if the Wilderness 10-in-1 was on her side, she blinks a few more times and her vision clears. Piper grins as she spits the loofa out right in the face of the girl with the scissors. She has no time to match faces with names because she doesn't care. There are more precedent issues to prioritize such as getting out of here with the little hair she has left.
When the loofa hits her face, Piper musters up all her strength and launches herself forwards. The girls pinning her down stumble back, some falling to the ground. Piper lands on her heels and slides on the slippery shower floor but she regains her balance to grab the scissors.
Piper blinked, someone screamed, and she's now seeing red. Red drips on the shower floor, mixing with the water and Wilderness 10-in-1. It coats the scissors and her hand and pools out of the girl in front of her's side.
Piper turns around and faces the other girls. They're all now standing back in her shower stall.
Piper didn't mean anything. She still had no complete control over her body.
She needs to take this to her advantage.
Piper turns around and quickly grabs a bottle of Wilderness 10-in-1 before starting to sprint to the exit. She pops the cap off and spills the bottle behind her so any girls who even tried to follow her would slip and slide into each other.
She grabs her towel and wraps it around her body. Once she's out of the shower hall, the cold air from the school hits her. Piper closes the door and runs back to her room at top speed.
Piper's lost everything: her family, her home, her life — so she didn't see an issue with taking something back.
-o-
Piper stayed in her room for the rest of the day. Once she got back after her shower, she got dressed and sat on her bed. She heard the girls passing by, murmuring about how feral she is. At least that's something new for them to talk about, not her hair anymore. Many of them had to go to the infirmary after the shower incident. She probably should've as well but she doesn't feel anything.
She's so going to jail now.
Her heart stops at the sound of knocking at her door. Should she pretend not to be here?
"You'd better be decent," Coach says, closing his eyes as he walks in and shuts the door behind him with his bat.
"I guess," Piper mumbles.
Coach opens his eyes and leans against Piper's nightstand, putting his bat down as he looks at her.
"You could've helped when they all ganged up on me," Piper tells him. "Or someone could've. Everyone's out to get me at this stupid school."
"You were fine," Coach responds.
Piper scoffs. "I was ganged up on ever since I got here. I was shanked nearly shanked in the shower with rusty scissors and probably gave someone a disease now. And even worse, I washed out my mouth with Wilderness 10-in-1. It's easier to imagine violence than enact it."
"No, it's not. It's super easy to act on it." Coach ignores the weird face she's given him. It's not the weirdest thing he's said. She's sat through him saying which canned vegetables have the best-tasting cans. Answer: corn. "Look, Cupcake, you need to learn how to handle yourself. If you didn't manage that small mishap, you will die out there. You were scared but still fought back. That's brave."
"They say that I don't deserve the friends I have here, but I have nobody else."
"It doesn't matter what they think. It matters that you believe them. Survival, McLean, that's why you're here."
Piper smiles sadly. "If only that were the real reason."