Fighting Society

are you sure kiddo?

"Welcome back Jess. I'm glad to see you again."

After the conundrum of the past few days, having taken a couple more days off school, Jessica had finally found herself returning after Beth and Viv had dropped her off in the morning, on their way to training. She'd be lying, if she said she wanted to be there, but once more, she knew she couldn't contest about it, offering a small nod of the head to her key adult. The plan was for her to spend the day at school, and walk back home where Leah would be after she announced she was being medically discharged today. She hadn't revisited Leah since she saw her in hospital 3 days ago, because even then, she panicked.

"I heard about Leah. Is she okay?"

"Yeah."

"It must've been tough for you, Jess."

"No."

"Are you sure? Beth mentioned you had a rough couple of days-"

"No."

"Oh. Well, maybe you could spend some time in my room for-"

"No."

"What was that sweetheart?"

"No."

"Jess, I really think it'd be beneficial for you to-"

"No."

"Right, okay. Well, I'll at least take you up to your first class, which is history. Are you sure Jess?"

"Yeah."

The maths teacher knew better than to argue with the young girl, especially seeing as she had clearly made up her mind on where she wanted to be, despite disagreeing with the decision herself. The two of them made their way to the humanities classrooms, Jess leading the way, as Miss Edwards could only watch her drag her feet along the corridor, her head drooped slightly lower than usual. Something was playing on her mind, but there was no point in forcing her to open up, it would just end worse than it was starting. Instead, they each trailed to the S1 classroom, coming to a halt as the door came into sight.

Jess simply turned on her heels, giving a half-hearted smile to Miss Edwards as she slowly made her way to the recluse seat at the back, carefully placing her bag beside her chair. Her head instantly turned to look out the window, no words of the history teacher entering her ears, unaware to the concerned look the maths teacher kept on her from the doorway. Instead, Jess found herself simply wrapped up in her own head. Everybody had been questioning her on the past few days; Beth, Viv, Leah, Miss Edwards, but she just didn't know what to say. Leah's injury, her nightmare, the constant changing, and no set routine, as well as the uncertainty about what would happen next. It all left Jessica so confused to her own feelings, that she didn't have an answer, instead letting it all boil up in her chest as she focused her attention once more, to outside the window.

~

Hours of the day passed, as Jess found herself repeating the same actions in every single class. Get in, all but crawl to her seat at the back, and escape into the world of looking out the window, before moving on to repeat her actions in the next class. It had simply offered her peace of mind, to just sit there.

It hadn't gone unnoticed, by anyone. Despite her usual reserved manner, Jess' isolated day had become worrisome to many, nobody more than Miss Edwards, who could only watch as the girl went about with an emotionless approach. Given the past events of the days, she had been expecting a lot more from her, the more silent manner a lot more concerning that a louder one. Yet, the girl simply staring out the window in her room at lunch time was more than enough for Miss Edwards to gather there would be no emotional outburst today; it seemed like there was no emotion at all, which nobody was prepared for.