48 hours in the infirmary wasn't nearly long enough for Susan Mitchell. The school's nurse, Miss Andrews, was irate when the young woman was brought in Friday afternoon. Susan had a glazed look in her eyes and looked like she had been through hell, which was true. The girl's breasts, in particular, looked like they had been put through a wringer. Small bruises had formed where they had been poked, prodded and squeezed by her classmates. Her body had red welts crisscrossing her stomach, back and buttocks.
The nurse applied ice packs to Susan's abused breasts to lessen the swelling and applied ointment to the whip marks. She helped Susan into a bath and allowed her to soak her aching body. Pain reliever with sleeping medicine helped Susan have some of the best sleep she had experienced in months.
But Sunday afternoon, the nurse received a phone call. Susan heard the nurse raise her voice at whomever she was talking to, but couldn't hear the conversation. But moments later, the nurse came in and told Susan to return to her dorm room cell. The girl didn't want to go but knew she had no choice. In a few short hours, she would back in the headmaster's office facing another week of humiliation, pain and torture. Susan returned to her room, entered her tiny jail cell and shut the door shut behind her. It locked with a loud clank and Susan dropped to the floor.
Brittany Daniels had been waiting nearby for Susan to return. Brittany knew her best friend was angry at her but wasn't sure why. She was determined to find out. She entered Susan's small dorm room and found her friend curled up in the corner of her cage.
"Susie, it's Brit. Can we talk?"
Susan rolled over so she was facing the wall and said nothing. Brittany asked again and finally Susan replied, "I don't want to talk to you."
"C'mon, Susie, I know you are pissed at me and I want to know what I did wrong."
Susan didn't respond for a few minutes, then finally climbed to her feet and walked over to face Brittany through the metal bars of her cell. "You want to know what you did wrong?" she said, her voice rising. "I thought you were my friend. I thought you would do something to help me over winter break."
Brittany took a step back with a puzzled look on her face. "You know that I am your friend. You know I've been trying to help."
"Look at me," Susan yelled. "Look at me! Has your cunt and asshole been stretched to three times their size? Have you had electricity running through every part of your body?" Susan placed her hands under her bruised breasts and lifted them up. Despite the nurse's care, red stripes still criss-crossed her orbs and faint black and blue bruises speckled her fair skin. "Look at my tits. I am sure your breasts are all perfect and tanned from sunning on a yacht over Christmas break."
Tears filled Brittany's eyes to match the tears in Susan's. She looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry, Susie. I really am," she said. So Susan knew about the yacht and the week Brittany and the other cheerleaders had spent on it, drinking and dining and tanning in the warm sun. Brittany turned around and looked at the video camera in the corner of the room. She knew Krutz was watching. "Fuck it," she said softly. Susan had turned away, embarrassed slightly by her outburst but still fuming.