Author's note: West Valley Academy is fictional. All actors in this universe are 18 years of age or older. Neither the school, nor any of its inhabitants, exist in the real world and any similarities to actual places or persons is completely coincidental. In the real world, the activities taking place in these stories would result in lawsuits, arrests and worse. Do not try this at home.
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Susan Mitchell had been looking forward to Christmas week with both fear and excitement. Next week, hundreds of her classmates would be leaving the school, going back home or heading on exotic beach and ski vacations with their rich parents. While Headmaster Krutz might have complete control over communications into and out of the school, as he showed last week with Brittany, he couldn't stop students from talking once they left the school. All it would take is one student with a guilty conscience to tell their parents about what was happening at the school. But Susan also knew these students' parents were rich and influential and they would not want a scandal. Would they want the risk of exposure by launching an investigation? But maybe they would file a complaint and that would be enough to get one of the governors to order Krutz to stop. Maybe.
Susan also feared next week. She didn't know what was going to happen to her. Surely, she wouldn't be allowed to go home, and even if she did, she wasn't sure she wanted to see her mother. It was her, after all, that had led to Susan's predicament this fall. Susan would like to confront her, get her to explain why she had stolen all that money. Susan wanted to show her mother everything she had been through this year due to her. But she wasn't sure she was strong enough to do that.
One thing Susan was sure of was that she was thankful claustrophobia was never one of her issues given how tightly she had been bound in various ways this year. She also thought claustrophobia was another funny pun given it was Christmas time and especially funny considering the way she was currently bound. She also realized her mind was spending a lot of time on silly things like puns. But it wasn't as if she had much else to think about in her latest prison.