The Worst Day(s) of My Life: Day 03

Her bare feet padded against the floor of her bedroom in a familiar manner. Of course it was familiar, she'd gotten out of bed this way every morning for years. But there was an eeriness to it this time, like the familiar experience was something strange and unnerving.

Once again, it was the Friday morning before prom. Her alarm was about to go off on its own before she silenced it.

So yesterday had never happened? And the day before, too? Sylvia wasn't sure if that was even an accurate way to measure the passage of time, but she got up and walked to her window just the same.

The bird's dropping splattered against the opposite side of the glass pane just as she closed it.

She walked through the house as though she were a ghost who had just seen another ghost. Her mother was chatting away at her laptop as dirty laundry was stacked by the washing machine, including her bathroom towels.

She was already in her school clothes for the day. This time, she had an undershirt beneath her regular one. It meant that she had two straps showing on her bare shoulder, but it also protected her from a few of the typical pitfalls.

She walked up to her mother, who saw her daughter approaching on screen and turned around just in time to get hugged. Sylvia greeted her mother and returned to the front hallway to get ready for school. A few of her mom's co-workers commented on the mother-daughter relationship, but then got straight back to work.

"So they're coercing her back to the office about now." Sylvia thought as she walked to the bus stop.

"And once she's there, she'll get invited to some after-work function. That's as long as she doesn't hit a car on her way there, which shouldn't happen if I don't miss the bus."

Today, she arrived for the bus nearly fifteen minutes before it got there. She spent the wait going through the previous two days in her head. Monica and Lucas would get to school before her - they'd sit in the hallway and talk about their guesses for prom queen and then her shirt would be torn on a locker hinge.

Once the bus arrived at school, she reminded herself not to sit with her back to the wall.

As usual, Monica and Lucas were there before she was. She practiced smiling a few times before they noticed her, creating the convincing face of a girl excited for the mysteries of the upcoming day.

"What's up Sylvia!" Monica waved an arm over her head. "You look really nice today!"

"Hello." Lucas said. "I like your shirt."

Sylvia waved back. Was this the greeting she'd been given the day before? The details were hard to make out for sure, but she knew Monica had commented on her outfit.

Monica today was dressed the same as before, a pair of tight shorts that squeezed her already-thin thighs and a tank-top that she wore underneath a small coat that was currently folded in her lap. She must've taken it off walking here from her car.

She was about to sit down, but saw a bent hinge sticking out of the locker near her friends. It was the tiny bit of metal she hadn't noticed the last two days. With Lucas in a corner and Monica sitting with her back to the hallway, there wasn't any other place to sit down comfortably - but maybe comfort wasn't the idea.

She sat near the corner, directly next to Lucas. As she leaned back to relax, her arm rubbed against his, the boy blushing at the sensation.

"G-good morning, Sylvia." He said, apparently forgetting he'd already greeted her.

"Good morning!" She replied, trying to keep her tone optimistic. "So how're we feeling about prom?"

"Fine, I suppose." Monica gave a thumbs-up.

"Really nervous." Lucas stammered.

Although Lucas was always nervous, for once Sylvia understood why. The crush he had on her was slowly becoming more and more obvious as she relived this day - recalling how he'd stood up to his own mother to defend her and gotten grounded as a result. The guy was a pushover until it came to defending her, then he suddenly grew a spine.

"Do you think you're gonna win prom queen?" Monica was eyeing her with a glint in her eye. "If you do, then Lucas can be prom king!"

"Of course not. Elizabeth has it in the bag." Sylvia recalled the girl's acceptance speech.

"No, uh, yeah." Lucas's face was blushing. "Her dad probably already paid for the monarchy. Or something."

Sylvia recalled his joke from the last two days, giggling at how much he butchered the delivery as she imagined how it must've played out in his head. Lucas smiled awkwardly over his joke somehow managing to get a pity laugh.

"Ah, jeez you two." Monica groaned. "Get a room, why don'tcha?" She scooted over to the side a bit, leaning against the wall behind her.

Monica was leaning against the loose hinge.

Sylvia recalled all the events leading up to this point - realizing what was going to happen.

"Hey, watch your shoulder." She called out, sitting upright as Lucas nearly fell to the ground behind her.

"Watch my what?" Monica sat upright as a tear resonated from behind the girl.

The tear had bisected her shirt from bottom to top, the fabric splitting and exposing the girl's spine. All that covered her back there was a section of bra that hadn't been cut - kept intact purely because of the width of the fabric.

"That sounded bad!" Monica tried to feel behind her, only making the tear worse. "Is it bad?"

"Stop moving!" Sylvia held up a hand to stop her. "It's pretty bad."

The petite girl turned around to try and look at her own back, her shoulders wiggling out of the fabric until the torn piece of cloth slid off her front, Monica barely catching it before it fell to the ground.

"Oh no!" She yelled, holding what remained of her shirt to her chest with both hands. "What am I supposed to do?"

Sylvia looked at the jacket that the girl had dropped onto the ground. The material was semi-transparent, enough that if she tried to wear it her bra would be visible to all.

Lucas sat upright, his gaze fixed to the side. "I think this is the culprit." He said, pointing to a bit of torn cloth hanging from the locker's hinge.

"Don't worry, Monica." Sylvia grabbed her bag and handed it to the other girl. "We can go to the locker room and grab a spare uniform from there."

"I don't have my gym uniform here, though!" She replied. "I took it home on Thursday 'cause I don't have gym on Fridays. Oh, this is what I get for actually washing it for once."

"It's fine. We can use mine." Sylvia tossed her bag around the girl's shoulder, the body of it covering the girl's front. "You can use this to cover yourself for now."

Lucas stood up first, still avoiding the sight of the half-naked girl in front of him. "I'm gonna go to class early and give you two some privacy." He said as he walked towards the door, bumping into the wall as he wasn't looking where he was headed.

The two girls left through a side exit - careful to avoid going near where students were more likely to be. Fortunately, with their attentions largely directed toward not being late, they didn't attract the attention of too many other students as they made it back to the main hallway, moving with the traffic and getting only a few stares. Sylvia was careful to ensure that she always stayed just behind her friend - guarding her from being stared at too intensely.

The gym was currently unused, the before-school practices winding down as the coaches returned to their offices, though a few students were straggling behind - no doubt members of various varsity teams who were too important to flunk for poor attendance.

They entered the locker rooms as the last few students were leaving, the sound of the showers dripping behind them, and Sylvia retrieved her clothes from her locker.

"Hey, check it out!" Monica said after pulling the gym shirt over her head. "It looks like I'm not wearing pants!"

She lifted her arms up a few times, her bare legs riding up just to the hem of the gym shirt. Sylvia laughed along, folding her gym pants back into her locker.

Monica waved her arms underneath the oversized shirt, clearly trying to get used to the loose feeling of the fabric as she tried her usual movements while walking to her next class.

The two reached a branch in the hallway and said their goodbyes, though Sylvia felt a bit concerned knowing what awaited her through the rest of the day. Was it wise to give away her gym shirt like that? She figured she could get out of class by faking a stomachache.

Her first class started unremarkably. The teacher, Mr. Geraldo, had assigned fewer pages that day than usual knowing that the class wouldn't be paying much attention - though with the number of times Sylvia had relived this class, she realized that she'd done an equivalent day's work twice over by the end of it.

The bell dismissed her to gym, where she immediately stopped as soon as she walked into the doors and began a fake slow cantor; Her arms clutched around her stomach.

Most of the students were still sitting around in a disorganized group as the stretches were yet to start up when Sylvia approached the coach.

"Coach Reagan, is it alright if I sit out of class today." She pretended to force a smile. "I'm feeling a bit... you know..."

The large woman at the front of the class of students looked down from her clipboard and saw who was talking, or at least, saw the girl's posture.

"Say no more." She smiled amicably. "You can have a seat on the bleachers or sit in the locker room. Whatever's better for you."

"It's a shame, though." The coach continued. "We were going to play basketball today. I would've made you team captain."

"Is that so?" Sylvia feigned ignorance as she approached the bleachers and took a seat on the bottom step.

The coach may have been hard-headed when it came to enforcing the rules sometimes, but she was, deep down, still a pretty understanding woman. As the other students split into groups, Sylvia considered the treatment she'd received from the coach the other day and pondered at how different she could be depending on the context.

Maybe people weren't all one thing or another. She also thought about Ivy; Who'd one day been her nightmare and the next been an ally.

The basketball game was one-sided.

Elizabeth was at first assigned to shirts but negotiated for the skins role instead. Some tall guy, who could've been her boyfriend (all those guys looked the same to her) was the captain of the other team and he put all of his friends on the team with him.

Elizabeth 's team was losing, completely from a lack of trying. She barely surpassed a fast walk the entire time, mostly standing near the sides as her teammates lost and occasionally looking off at the walls. When she made eye-contact with Sylvia once, the girl on the benches tried to wave only for Elizabeth to quickly look away as though they'd never met.

Elizabeth recovered the ball after an undefended free-throw and began to half-hearted dribble down court. Her boyfriend was covering her, teasingly pretending to be way too into it as she laughed and backed into him, their nethers bumping into each other in what should have been a foul if the coach herself was still interested in officiating.

Sylvia rolled her eyes at the public display of affection as Elizabeth broke free (due to her boyfriend letting her by). The blonde girl went for a jump shot from the distance when the whole gym went silent.

She went up. Her pants did not.

The bare-assed girl flew into the air, dropping the ball to the ground as she realized that the elastic of her shorts were caught on her boyfriend's finger. When he pulled away from her, she lost her balance, landing on the ball itself and falling to the side.

She had only barely managed to keep her arms out to block the fall, but in the twisting her shorts had been torn even further.

Elizabeth was blushing as she tried to pull her shorts back up, only to realize that with the tear they wouldn't be covering much no matter their position. She covered her butt with both hands and put her back to the wall, sidling along as the laughter died away under the coach's whistle.

Sylvia stood up, using the confusion of the moment to cross the play area and met up with Elizabeth in the locker room.

"I saw what happened." Sylvia started.

"Of course you did." The bottomless girl in the pink underwear replied. "The entire class did. I'm gonna have to break up with him for a few weeks to teach him a lesson. Maybe dance with all his friends at prom so he feels sorry."

Sylvia laughed a bit as Elizabeth went through her locker to retrieve her school clothes.

"Hey, you can borrow my gym uniform if you want." Sylvia began to open her locker.

"Why?" Elizabeth asked. "It's not like I'm super interested in going back out."

Sylvia thought carefully about her next words. She'd managed to befriend Ivy just by approaching her under a different context, maybe she could do the same here.

"It's just that your team needs you." Sylvia took her pants out, "They were getting killed out there and you seemed like the only person who knew what she was doing."

Elizabeth stared at the offered garment for a moment, then sighed as she took them from Sylvia's hand.

"I know." She said, dressing. "But it's difficult to really get into something when you're the only one who cares.

"If you were out there, though." Elizabeth pulled the shorts up around her hips. "It'd be a different story. Shame about your stomach or whatever."

The remainder of the game passed without much incidence. Elizabeth playfully elbowed a few of the guys who'd given her trouble for losing her pants earlier but the play continued on with barely more enthusiasm than there was before - in spite of Elizabeth clearly trying to rally a few of her teammates to work harder.

The final scores were so far apart that the coach had stopped keeping track once the difference reached fifty points. Sylvia funneled into the locker room alongside all the other girls, sitting down on a bench near the entrance as she listened to the locker room gossip.

A few girls teased Elizabeth about her shorts as the other girl started to undress for the shower. When they asked her why she was taking one, she pointed out her sweaty shirt and chided them for not trying as much as she did - spinning it into proof that she was better than they were.

Most of the students were back in the gym when Elizabeth finished her shower. She stepped out wrapped in a towel to the sight of Sylvia, still sitting where she was before.

"What do you want?" Elizabeth asked.

"My shorts back." Sylvia replied.

"Can you at least let me dry my hair, first?"

Sylvia waved the girl aside and returned to staring at the wall, waiting. She would have pulled out her phone to look at the time but the coach was still hanging around and she didn't want to be lectured for having a phone in the locker room.

The bell had rung when a towel-clad Elizabeth stepped away from her mirror, her curls already returning.

"Your shorts are in the bag with my other clothes." She said, brushing out the last few tangles.

"What bag?" Sylvia asked.

"Are you blind? It's right-" She froze.

"What the hell did you do?" Elizabeth grabbed Sylvia's shoulders. "My bag! Where is it?"

"I don't know, I was sitting here the whole time!"

Elizabeth frantically began to search under benches and in places where it wouldn't make sense to look.

"Did you see anybody take it?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, I had my back to the locker room the entire time." Sylvia replied. "I was looking out the door."

It occurred to her that there was an extended period of time where the room was empty save for the two of them. She hadn't been checking on the girl's bag - it could have been taken at any moment between the times.

And then they found a small scrap of paper - something that looked like trash at first but it was beneath the bench where Elizabeth's clothes had been.

"To Whom it May Concern-

I am very sorry, but I need to borrow these clothes! Mine were damaged on the bus to school today and I've been hiding in here since before school."

"You!" Elizabeth tore up the note. "What kind of trick is this?"

"I have no idea!" Sylvia defended herself.

"You two quiet down out there!" Reagan's voice called from the back of the room. "I'm about to start locking up. Make sure you leave that towel behind - we've had too many thefts this year."

The two girls sat in the locker room for a while in silence. Elizabeth was brainstorming ideas while Sylvia felt too guilty to leave the girl behind without a spare outfit.

"Alright, here's an idea." Sylvia suggested. "I can give you my undershirt and we can try to get to the Lost and Found."

"What? Streak through the school?"

"The passing period is almost over, the hallways should be mostly empty. If we stick to the side hallways nearby we should only be near the main hallways for a short time."

"There's no way!"

"Okay, then what? You just wanna stand here naked until you're kicked out?"

Elizabeth clutched the towel to her chest and looked around. There wasn't much time left until the next classes began and she was beginning to realize the situation.

"There's got to be another way. I can't be seen like this!" She put her foot down.

"Alright, give me a sec." Sylvia signed, then thought for a moment. "Okay. There's a place you can hide out around the back of the school. If we can go around the building, then you can stay there while I go to the Lost and Found."

Elizabeth looked at Sylvia, then her own body, then nodded.

"Okay. Give me your shirt."

Sylvia leaned forward and tucked her arms into her shirt, then shuffled around a bit before pulling the plain garment out from beneath.

"That's sort of impressive." Elizabeth said, lowering her towel to her waist and taking it.

"Alright, are you dressed?" Sylvia asked. "Leave the towel."

"Um, no way." Elizabeth clutched the garment closer to her waist. "Give me your underwear."

"Listen, I'm already taking a risk taking you around the school. I'm not taking off my underwear or getting in trouble for stealing a towel, got it?"

"You're being so unreasonable!" Elizabeth shouted, but was cut off by a door closing elsewhere.

Sylvia's voice fell to a whisper. "That's the coach, now are you leaving the towel or are you gonna let her march you to the front office?"

She winced, trying to come up with another solution. But with the imminent threat of getting in trouble on one side and only a risk on the other, Elizabeth threw off her towel and the two ran into the gym.

A few students were standing in the corner chatting among themselves when the bottomless girl entered the room. Sylvia grabbed Elizabeth's hand and pulled her back, putting the girl closer to the wall so she could block the view.

They were near to the door when the mumbled speech from the opposite corner grew louder and she heard an exclamation from behind them. The sound of a whistle drove Elizabeth's feet to move faster, padding along the floor of the gym as they made their way into the exit.

"Sylvia... I can't do this." Elizabeth muttered as the hallway opened up to the wider artery of student activity.

The last of the crowds were dying down but that wasn't enough to leave the hallways completely empty.

"Come on," Sylvia tugged the girl's arm, prodding her forwards. "Just keep your head down and follow me."

As they neared the end of the hallway, Sylvia felt more and more shaking from the hand of the girl behind her. She was practically dragging Elizabeth as they made it to the corner, the blonde girl's legs bent inward as she struggled to remain upright.

"Are you ready?" Sylvia asked, knowing the answer already.

"No..." Elizabeth looked out at the hallway, her eyes growing wide as a passing person paused briefly, just after she was able to duck flat against the wall to use Sylvia as cover.