Her bare feet padded against the floor of her bedroom in a familiar manner. Of course it was familiar, she'd gotten out of bed this way every morning for years. But there was an eeriness to it this time, like the familiar experience was something strange and unnerving.
Once again, it was the Friday morning before prom. Her alarm was about to go off on its own before she silenced it.
So yesterday had never happened? And the day before, too? Sylvia wasn't sure if that was even an accurate way to measure the passage of time, but she got up and walked to her window just the same.
The bird's dropping splattered against the opposite side of the glass pane just as she closed it.
She walked through the house as though she were a ghost who had just seen another ghost. Her mother was chatting away at her laptop as dirty laundry was stacked by the washing machine, including her bathroom towels.
She was already in her school clothes for the day. This time, she had an undershirt beneath her regular one. It meant that she had two straps showing on her bare shoulder, but it also protected her from a few of the typical pitfalls.
She walked up to her mother, who saw her daughter approaching on screen and turned around just in time to get hugged. Sylvia greeted her mother and returned to the front hallway to get ready for school. A few of her mom's co-workers commented on the mother-daughter relationship, but then got straight back to work.
"So they're coercing her back to the office about now." Sylvia thought as she walked to the bus stop.
"And once she's there, she'll get invited to some after-work function. That's as long as she doesn't hit a car on her way there, which shouldn't happen if I don't miss the bus."
Today, she arrived for the bus nearly fifteen minutes before it got there. She spent the wait going through the previous two days in her head. Monica and Lucas would get to school before her - they'd sit in the hallway and talk about their guesses for prom queen and then her shirt would be torn on a locker hinge.
Once the bus arrived at school, she reminded herself not to sit with her back to the wall.
As usual, Monica and Lucas were there before she was. She practiced smiling a few times before they noticed her, creating the convincing face of a girl excited for the mysteries of the upcoming day.
"What's up Sylvia!" Monica waved an arm over her head. "You look really nice today!"
"Hello." Lucas said. "I like your shirt."
Sylvia waved back. Was this the greeting she'd been given the day before? The details were hard to make out for sure, but she knew Monica had commented on her outfit.
Monica today was dressed the same as before, a pair of tight shorts that squeezed her already-thin thighs and a tank-top that she wore underneath a small coat that was currently folded in her lap. She must've taken it off walking here from her car.
She was about to sit down, but saw a bent hinge sticking out of the locker near her friends. It was the tiny bit of metal she hadn't noticed the last two days. With Lucas in a corner and Monica sitting with her back to the hallway, there wasn't any other place to sit down comfortably - but maybe comfort wasn't the idea.
She sat near the corner, directly next to Lucas. As she leaned back to relax, her arm rubbed against his, the boy blushing at the sensation.
"G-good morning, Sylvia." He said, apparently forgetting he'd already greeted her.
"Good morning!" She replied, trying to keep her tone optimistic. "So how're we feeling about prom?"
"Fine, I suppose." Monica gave a thumbs-up.
"Really nervous." Lucas stammered.
Although Lucas was always nervous, for once Sylvia understood why. The crush he had on her was slowly becoming more and more obvious as she relived this day - recalling how he'd stood up to his own mother to defend her and gotten grounded as a result. The guy was a pushover until it came to defending her, then he suddenly grew a spine.
"Do you think you're gonna win prom queen?" Monica was eyeing her with a glint in her eye. "If you do, then Lucas can be prom king!"
"Of course not. Elizabeth has it in the bag." Sylvia recalled the girl's acceptance speech.
"No, uh, yeah." Lucas's face was blushing. "Her dad probably already paid for the monarchy. Or something."
Sylvia recalled his joke from the last two days, giggling at how much he butchered the delivery as she imagined how it must've played out in his head. Lucas smiled awkwardly over his joke somehow managing to get a pity laugh.
"Ah, jeez you two." Monica groaned. "Get a room, why don'tcha?" She scooted over to the side a bit, leaning against the wall behind her.
Monica was leaning against the loose hinge.
Sylvia recalled all the events leading up to this point - realizing what was going to happen.
"Hey, watch your shoulder." She called out, sitting upright as Lucas nearly fell to the ground behind her.
"Watch my what?" Monica sat upright as a tear resonated from behind the girl.
The tear had bisected her shirt from bottom to top, the fabric splitting and exposing the girl's spine. All that covered her back there was a section of bra that hadn't been cut - kept intact purely because of the width of the fabric.
"That sounded bad!" Monica tried to feel behind her, only making the tear worse. "Is it bad?"
"Stop moving!" Sylvia held up a hand to stop her. "It's pretty bad."
The petite girl turned around to try and look at her own back, her shoulders wiggling out of the fabric until the torn piece of cloth slid off her front, Monica barely catching it before it fell to the ground.
"Oh no!" She yelled, holding what remained of her shirt to her chest with both hands. "What am I supposed to do?"
Sylvia looked at the jacket that the girl had dropped onto the ground. The material was semi-transparent, enough that if she tried to wear it her bra would be visible to all.
Lucas sat upright, his gaze fixed to the side. "I think this is the culprit." He said, pointing to a bit of torn cloth hanging from the locker's hinge.
"Don't worry, Monica." Sylvia grabbed her bag and handed it to the other girl. "We can go to the locker room and grab a spare uniform from there."
"I don't have my gym uniform here, though!" She replied. "I took it home on Thursday 'cause I don't have gym on Fridays. Oh, this is what I get for actually washing it for once."
"It's fine. We can use mine." Sylvia tossed her bag around the girl's shoulder, the body of it covering the girl's front. "You can use this to cover yourself for now."
Lucas stood up first, still avoiding the sight of the half-naked girl in front of him. "I'm gonna go to class early and give you two some privacy." He said as he walked towards the door, bumping into the wall as he wasn't looking where he was headed.
The two girls left through a side exit - careful to avoid going near where students were more likely to be. Fortunately, with their attentions largely directed toward not being late, they didn't attract the attention of too many other students as they made it back to the main hallway, moving with the traffic and getting only a few stares. Sylvia was careful to ensure that she always stayed just behind her friend - guarding her from being stared at too intensely.
The gym was currently unused, the before-school practices winding down as the coaches returned to their offices, though a few students were straggling behind - no doubt members of various varsity teams who were too important to flunk for poor attendance.
They entered the locker rooms as the last few students were leaving, the sound of the showers dripping behind them, and Sylvia retrieved her clothes from her locker.
"Hey, check it out!" Monica said after pulling the gym shirt over her head. "It looks like I'm not wearing pants!"
She lifted her arms up a few times, her bare legs riding up just to the hem of the gym shirt. Sylvia laughed along, folding her gym pants back into her locker.
Monica waved her arms underneath the oversized shirt, clearly trying to get used to the loose feeling of the fabric as she tried her usual movements while walking to her next class.
The two reached a branch in the hallway and said their goodbyes, though Sylvia felt a bit concerned knowing what awaited her through the rest of the day. Was it wise to give away her gym shirt like that? She figured she could get out of class by faking a stomachache.
Her first class started unremarkably. The teacher, Mr. Geraldo, had assigned fewer pages that day than usual knowing that the class wouldn't be paying much attention - though with the number of times Sylvia had relived this class, she realized that she'd done an equivalent day's work twice over by the end of it.
The bell dismissed her to gym, where she immediately stopped as soon as she walked into the doors and began a fake slow cantor; Her arms clutched around her stomach.
Most of the students were still sitting around in a disorganized group as the stretches were yet to start up when Sylvia approached the coach.
"Coach Reagan, is it alright if I sit out of class today." She pretended to force a smile. "I'm feeling a bit... you know..."
The large woman at the front of the class of students looked down from her clipboard and saw who was talking, or at least, saw the girl's posture.
"Say no more." She smiled amicably. "You can have a seat on the bleachers or sit in the locker room. Whatever's better for you."
"It's a shame, though." The coach continued. "We were going to play basketball today. I would've made you team captain."
"Is that so?" Sylvia feigned ignorance as she approached the bleachers and took a seat on the bottom step.
The coach may have been hard-headed when it came to enforcing the rules sometimes, but she was, deep down, still a pretty understanding woman. As the other students split into groups, Sylvia considered the treatment she'd received from the coach the other day and pondered at how different she could be depending on the context.
Maybe people weren't all one thing or another. She also thought about Ivy; Who'd one day been her nightmare and the next been an ally.
The basketball game was one-sided.
Elizabeth was at first assigned to shirts but negotiated for the skins role instead. Some tall guy, who could've been her boyfriend (all those guys looked the same to her) was the captain of the other team and he put all of his friends on the team with him.
Elizabeth 's team was losing, completely from a lack of trying. She barely surpassed a fast walk the entire time, mostly standing near the sides as her teammates lost and occasionally looking off at the walls. When she made eye-contact with Sylvia once, the girl on the benches tried to wave only for Elizabeth to quickly look away as though they'd never met.
Elizabeth recovered the ball after an undefended free-throw and began to half-hearted dribble down court. Her boyfriend was covering her, teasingly pretending to be way too into it as she laughed and backed into him, their nethers bumping into each other in what should have been a foul if the coach herself was still interested in officiating.
Sylvia rolled her eyes at the public display of affection as Elizabeth broke free (due to her boyfriend letting her by). The blonde girl went for a jump shot from the distance when the whole gym went silent.
