Evil is Always Unspectacular ~ 2021

~ elephant ~

~   Unbreak the broken
Unsay these spoken words
Find hope in the hopeless
Pull me out of the train wreck ~

Noah woke up with a start. Her head pounded, a throbbing pang bouncing around. The teacher couldn't remember much from the night before. She had been dragged to another party of her fathers but only drank one glass of champagne. Noah had to teach in the morning she knew better than to be hungover.

Cursing silently she shoves the sheets off her body, alarmed when the clinical white comforter was unfamiliar. Glancing at her surroundings she furrows her brow, a hotel room? What the fuck happened?

Standing up the familiar throb between her legs causes her to stumble slightly. It took her a second but the reality of the situation came at full force. Someone had taken advantage of her but she was unaware of who or how it had happened. She drank one glass of champagne, one. All she could remember was the party and being forced to dance with everyone. That's it. Maybe she drank more than she thought? Slept with a random person.

That had to be it. Noah was smart enough to watch her drink but she did dance a lot. Someone could have slipped something in but she also could have drank more than she thought. And besides she had work, who cared? She was drunk. Whatever happened, happened do to her actions.

Glancing at the clock on the wall Noah throws her head back in exasperation. It was 11am. Glancing around the hotel room she notes her torn dress. Grunting, Noah pulls out her phone.

'Jesus Noah where are you? No could get ahold of you and we were all worried. I-'

"Jen I need you to- I don't what happened I think I got a bit to drunk last night and hand a one night stand, my dress is ripped and I'm naked in a hotel room that is completely unfamiliar and I- can you send someone to bring me some clothes?"

Jenna's face grew worried, Noah wasn't one to drink. One night stands weren't anything new to the teacher but she wasn't one to get drunk. Noah didn't like to be out of control and alcohol took away the control that Noah so desperately loved.

'Ya babe, I'll send my roommate. We'll talk about this tonight?' Noah noted the questioning tone in her friends voice and shook her head.

Did she really want to know if this was her fault or not. Did it matter? "If you want."

Jenna lowered her voice, 'Babe I just know you're not one to get drunk, are you sure what happened was consensual?'

Noah lowers herself back onto the hotel bed, "I'm not sure I want to know."

'Noah-'

"Look Jen," Noah cut her off, "I don't remember what happened, I drank last night. We both know I sleep around sometimes, it's not a big deal."

Jenna sighed, 'Fine. But if you remember anything...'

"You'll be the first to know."

*

"Elephant, the blue elephant stomped heavily across the safari, elephant." Spelling tests were something Noah had disliked both as a child and as a teacher. She felt you couldn't test a child's knowledge based upon what they could spell. They were a waste of her time as a teacher and a waste of her students time.

"Number nineteen, vinyl, the vinyl played in rhythmic circles, vinyl." The sounds of pencils scratching across paper was a weird sound compared to the usually loud class. Noah also hated that. Children should talk, she learned that they learn better when they can learn from one another. That's why the did work on the board. Worksheets together. Reading groups. Math groups. They taught each other more than she taught them and Noah was proud of that. She could teach a lesson and as long as one kid understood it the class would be fine.

"Last one. Number twenty-" Noah stopped, the words 'number twenty' sounding vaguely familiar but completely distant at the same time. Ignoring the nagging feeling she felt, she looked down at her textbook and continued, "Usually, I usually eat pancakes for breakfast but today I ate eggs, usually."

After noting that her all her students had placed their pencils down she dismisses them for recess, and it being Wednesday meant they had teachers out there already. Taking a seat at her desk, Noah taps her finger against the wooden desk repeatedly. Her phone rings and she picks it up without looking at the caller ID.

'Jane.' great, just what she needed.

"Papa."

The congressman leaned back in his seat. He was pissed. She had just disappeared last night and Andrew was planning a proposal. There was no way she'd say no in front of so many people, at least that is what they hoped, 'Where did you go last night.' Vincent was going to find out the reason she was refusing to marry Andrew and get rid of it. It had to be a guy, he knew it.

Noah furrowed her eyebrows, "I'm not sure papa, how much did I have to drink?" she asks. If anyone was watching her alcohol intake last night it was going to be her father.

'A glass of champagne, I made sure you had no more.'

Noah bites her lip. A glass of champagne wouldn't make her black out. "I don't remember anything from last night papa I- I'm sorry I don't know where I went." Noah didn't want to worry her father, he had enough on his plate. Although she had a feeling that Mr. Calvino didn't give a shit if his daughter was raped or not as long as she still ended up marrying rich.

'What do you mean you don't remember, how did you end up at home?' Noah looked up and met the eyes of her worried friend.

"Look papa I got to go, I'm teaching." She didn't give the man a chance to respond and instead hung up. Placing her phone on her desk she raised an eyebrow at Jenna, "What's up?"

Jenna walked into the classroom, "Did you find out what happened last night?"

Noah shook her head, "No, but I don't really think it was anything good."

"Do you think you were raped?"

Noah's eyes fall to her desk. Did she think she was raped? Surely she would remember wouldn't she?

Shaking her head, she looks Jenna in the eyes, "No. I just probably ditched the party and ended up at a club. You know how my dad is."

Jenna nods, unconvinced, "Okay, but-"

"If I remember what happened, I'll tell you Jen,"

"Pinky promise?"

"You've been spending way to much time with the kindergarteners."