soft. [maeve wiley]

nine.

when i got to assembly the next day, i looked around for maeve because that's what i always did. i guess having a crush on someone just does that to you. when i spotted her sitting next to jackson in the back though, a little piece of my heart broke.

the way she described it yesterday, i thought they had ended things after she fled from jackson's parents.

seemed as though jackson had forgiven her.

with a sigh, i instead looked for eric and otis, finding them relatively quickly. eric beamed as soon as i approached them. i leant forward to kiss his cheek, which was a thing we had randomly started at some point and it was just kind of routine now.

when i kissed otis' cheek, he blushed and chuckled a little uneasily.

i furrowed my brows. that's never happened before. what was his deal?

eric noticed our interaction too and gave me a confused look.

i just shrugged and sat down next to him.

soon, mr. groff came onto the stage, speaking into the microphone. "firstly, a very serious warning about pornographic images shared on mobile devices."

i turned around to look at olivia, who was looking at ruby with an apologetic face.

"this kind of behavior is not only despicable, but it has very serious consequences that may result in legal action. now, we do not know who sent the photograph in question. however we are continuing to look into it."

"i heard it's ruby's vagina." some guy shouted from the back, making the other students laugh.

"thank you." mr. groff dismissed with a sigh.

"ruby's got big beef curtains." a different girl said.

what was wrong with all those people? did they not have any decency at all? why would they just shame someone like that publicly?

mr. groff tried to move on to a different topic, when olivia stood up, taking up all the attention.

"it's my vagina." she said loudly.

mr. groff rolled his eyes. "sit down."

"no. that is my vagina in the photo."

"sit down." he repeated.

fuck this school and this stupid principal.

i stood up. "no. it's my vagina." i said, crossing my arms over my chest.

olivia gave me an appreciative smile.

"it's my vagina." maeve suddenly stood up too, smiling at me.

"thank you, maeve. settle down, please." mr. groff tried again.

now it was aimee's turn to stand up. "you're all wrong. it's my vagina."

mr. groff was starting to get frustrated. "it cannot be all your vaginas."

another girl stood up. "i also have a vagina." she said proudly, making me chuckle.

"well, congratulations. please sit down."

soon the whole assembly just consisted of "it's my vagina." coming from every corner and mr. groff seemed to have been defeated. he was just waiting for it to end now.

lastly, it was ruby's turn. she grabbed olivia's hand, looking directly at mr. groff, she said: "it's my vagina."

maybe this school actually wasn't as bad as i thought.

i mean, it was bad enough that there was even a vagina picture going around, but in the end everything worked out nicely.

✰—