Spellbound

suddenly steven

A white towel supplied by the coach was tied around connie's waist, damp dark curls resting above her lowered shoulders as she slowly walked through the girls' showers. Steam wafted through the area, where idle chatter filled the area in the distance as members of the swim team were immersed in deep conversation with one another through the action of post-swim grooming.

Connie however suddenly had her eyes locked on long, damp, matted strips of brown/blonde hair that constantly trailed over the tiled floor. The trace of hair followed around the corner as connie silently yet slowly followed-but her ears later became strained to the sound of what seemed to be broken, horrified whimpers from afar.

She kept walking further-where she later stumbled upon sofia. Several towels wrapped around her trembling body as she tearfully hugged her knees.

Connie felt her heart immediately drop as she looked up to sofia's head- and the sight of it horrified her to the core. To the eye, her scalp was hideously damaged-it was a ravaged, scaly dome of scattered leftover tresses and festering blisters every which way.

Through her blurry vision, sofia looked up to the Indian girl that silently stood before her from the distance.

"It...it won't stop falling out-" she whispered tearfully. She pulled a limp hand through what was left of her hair, shoulders slumping as a lock was on the palm, "I...I don't understand it..."

Sofia later forced her scrunched up face to the palms of her hands.

"What the fuck did I ever do to deserve this?!" after she screeched out those words, her attention left connie as she was immediately reduced to a mass of quivering, heartbroken tears.

*You should know and understand what you've done.* a silent voice that's tone rang with vengeance sounded through connie's head-but as she tried to disregard the voice, she immediately stepped back from her sobbing bully, her glance unable to evade the sight of a few other girls rushing past her as they hurriedly attempted to address her.

"Sofia, what happened?!" a girl of her posse asked with horror.

"I *sob* I d-don't k-know!!!"

"I'll go get the nurse for you, just stay right here!"

"No, no ple-eease!"

The sound of sofia's horrified, broken cries were all quickly cancelled out by the absolutely earsplitting banshee-like screech that resounded from the other side of the girls' showers.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Marinette allowed herself through the double doors that led to french, and looking over to the nun's desk she took notice that class has not yet started. Looking to the area where her desk sat, she noticed that the others haven't arrived themselves. She took it to mean with connie that the Indian girl was still away at swimming practice-where she wasn't particularly too sure about the others.

Shrugging her bag over her shoulder she just silently chose to walk to her seat, but a sight caught her eye as she found a group of predominately female students crowded over one particular table.

Malicious giggles silently flitted over the small band of girls as one by one they each wrote on the table. They eventually withdrew from it, bursting into full laughter at what they've just done.

Marinette later stepped a bit closer where she felt certain that any of the girls wouldn't notice her to try to get a closer view of what they wrote-and was immediately astounded at what she saw.