I left my heart to the wild hunt.

He’s on the verge of walking away, a shocked expression firmly pasted across his features. The sheer amount of sound coming from such a small girl is shocking. Standing at nearly six foot, Bryan is pretty sure he dwarfs her. “Wow. With an attitude like that, I can see why the teachers let you get away with skipping.” What was a nonchalant, cool way to say teach me to be like you? “At least we’ll both be getting kicked out together if we go. Nice to be in good company for once around here. The rest of these kids are a bunch of assholes.”

“Oh, they don’t, but I do it anyway,” Tina replied, her voice finally settling to an acceptable decibel. The grin on her face, however, remained bright and amused. She beamed up at the stranger when he reached his final statement. It was rare that Tina smiled as people just met, even rarer that she agreed with them. “You’re damn fuckin’ right they are!” The sprite of a girl wasn’t the easiest person to get along with, even when she was fond of someone. “Y’know, you probably shouldn’t even waste your time trying to get expelled. Just leave. Run away. I’m sure no-one’ll notice!”

Travis’ brow furrowed as he watched her, waiting for her to answer only to be met by a slow growing look of horror spread over her face. Whatever she’d witnessed in that book that was almost as big as her must have been entirely terrifying. He eyed it suspiciously as she slammed it shut, moving further away form it himself.

“Man… Sounds like the sort of thing you gotta salt, burn and then bury at the bottom of the ocean but since I’m pretty sure the fines in this place are worth an arm and a leg, better not.” He glanced over to it again, leaning on the table before raising an eyebrow at her. “Best thing for this, forgetting it ever happened. I’m no shrink but you need sugar, warm milk and somethin’ real simple and non-threatening. Uh, you think they got ‘ The Very Hungry Caterpillar ’ in here…?”

Tina almost found a smile through the horror, but for pretense's sake she hid said smile and listened to this random dude's rambling on about book fines. She was about to reply, but her first word was replaced by a very loud gasp of offense at the mention of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Before she could even stop herself, and with complete disregard for every other person in the library, she cried "Rude!!" and slammed her hands down on the table.

Every eye in the library, librarian included, turned to see the commotion. They quickly realised that the commotion was Tina Bell, and went back to their work. At this point it was a daily occurrence. Tina's demeanor shifted briefly enough for her to mutter something about the warm milk, but it didn't last long and she was back to glaring in no time.

Rachel tried not to lean too heavily on the other blonde. She was feisty but she was still tiny. Rachel didn’t want to give the girl as much trouble as she was already. She knew that Tina got annoyed easily and she didn’t want to set her off especially while in her current state. 

The spinning that was happening in her head lessened once she was seated in the new room but it was still stronger than any other headache she’s ever had. “Well, I feel like h– not good,” She groaned as another wave of pain hit her, “Definitely not good.”

Tina hid her hands behind her back to cover the fact that she was nervously nervously fidgeting with her fingers. She was desperate to tell, it was itching away deep inside of her. In the brief, contorted look of pain Tina saw herself. At the very least she had to think of something comforting to say.

The hesitation could be heard in her breath and seen in the way her eyes repeatedly flickered to the doors and windows. "I-It won't last, you know..." Tina said eventually. She hoped her next statement was vague enough to keep her out of trouble. "It happened to me... a while ago. One day it'll stop. A-and you'll feel better."

I swear, if one more person tells me what not to eat or drink out of concern for my ‘health,’ I’m going to scream.

Don’t worry, I’ve never been concerned with your health. In fact, I like it better when you’re closer to death.

“I really should have taken notes. Or payed attention to the lecture. Maybe I should hire someone to pay attention in class for me. Hey you! Wanna take down my lecture notes from now on?”

A massively loud laugh erupts from Tina, and lasts for about an eternity. Eventually, she speaks when she has enough air in her lungs to do so. “Ooooh, that is fuckin’ hilarious! God bless you. I haven’t even taken my own notes since I started!”

Rachel and Tina had an odd relationship. Rachel could never really tell if the other girl liked her or not. Sometimes they acted as if they were friends and other times she felt like she was annoying the little blonde. However, she was so grateful that Tina was helping her. The pain she felt was agonizing, unlike any pain she had felt before. “Thank you,” Rachel breathed out as she held onto Tina for support.

Slowly but surely, Tina managed to support Rachel into a a nearby room, where she sat her down on a chair and fetched her a glass of water. She was prepared to ignore her bitterness given the poor girl’s state, though it wasn’t without effort.

Tina had been alone, completely, through her whole “breaking” ordeal. In pan and absolutely terrified, and no one noticed. Given those feelings, she didn’t want anyone to feel what she did at that time. The secret played on edge of the sprite’s tongue. Telling Rachel exactly what was happening to her would surely solve all her problems, show her the light at the edge of the long, scary tunnel. But she couldn’t. Not for fear and self preservation.

“I’d ask if you’re alright but... you look like hell.”

If there was one thing about studying law that Travis hadn’t been completely prepared for, it was the reading. Sure he’d known he’d have to work hard and study harder but it was the fourth or fifth time he’d had to find the revised version of this law and his vision was starting to blur. The tiny yet obviously important font definitely wasn’t helping.

Still, who was he to complain? The library had just about every book you could want, it was warm and there was a vending machine relatively close to where he’d chosen to hold up. Quiet though. Definitely too quiet but if it hadn’t been, he wouldn’t have turned at the whispered what the fuck. The scowl he’d already imagined but he couldn’t help the slight smirk that threatened to break out over his own face.

Leaving the letter of the law behind, Travis opted to slide over a few seats to see if he could see what horrors lurked in the hands of this tiny yet freakishly strong (judging by the weight of the book) girl.

“Discovering the secrets of the universe and not likin’ what you see, titch?”

Slowly, Tina turned to look at the boy who had spoken. A look of horror grew on her face, and there was no use trying to hide it. Before replying, Tina closed the heavy book, slamming its pages together and sliding across the table as far away from her as she could.

“I don’t know...” Tina whispered, staring wide eyed at Travis. “ I don’t understand it enough to know if I don’t like it...” Ask the girl even the simplest question about what she had just been trying to read and there was no chance of getting a legit, informed answer.

The sprite of a girl had been there for quite some time, and the progress she had made in her effort to actually get her written work done was demoralizingly minimal.She found herself reading the same line over and over and over again and it just didn’t make a lick of sense.

The look of confusion on her face grew and grew until eventually her face had transformed into a deep, horrified scowl. If one listened closely enough, they might have noticed a whispered “what the fuck?” escaping her lips.

“Tina?” She could’ve sworn she heard the little blonde say something but she couldn’t make out what it was. It felt like her brain was on overdrive, but couldn’t process anything at the same time. “Tina, my head- could you help me? Please?”

Tina stared at Rachel for what felt like an eternity, her plea for help triggering a dreadful sense of unease inside of her. She remembered how afraid she was, and how utterly alone she had been through the whole thing. A very distinct panic washed over Tina as she found herself holding her breath. What if they’re watching? Am I allowed to help?

Tina’s eyes darted across the campus in search of anything -a camera, a car, a watchman- that might suddenly put her in a tight spot should she give too much away. With a slow exhale, the little blonde took Rachel by the wrist. She was going to play it cool. Or so she hoped anyway. “I-I’ll get you some ice water. Hold on to me.”

Delilah frowned and bit back the urge to cluck like the mother hen that she was. “Tina? How long have you been awake for? You do know that not sleeping will fuck you up when you’re trying to write term papers.”

“I don’t have an exact answer for that question,” Tina replied but continued to grin. She probably had twenty more minutes in her before she completely crashed. “I just know that it’s been a while. But I’m fine, I’ll be fine! I have to finish my project!”