He kept saying, 'I never said anything', but Miss Rodriguez didn't care. She made him swap seats with a girl on the far side of the room, so that he o...ly had boys near him. My teacher told me that I should have spoken up earlier and I said, 'I was too shy. It was my girlfriend who told me I should speak up. She's sixteen, and very pretty and smart.'"Julia interrupted. "That was very clever, Carol. And thank you too." To the rest of us, Julia explained, "We rehearsed some things, but not for how. I almost turned around and took the elevator back down, but knew that I couldn’t really escape.I walked back to the sleeping area and stripped off my clothing then headed for the bathroom. After taking care of what I needed to do and having brushed my teeth I went back to the bed and started to climb in, that is when Susan stopped me.“CT” she said quietly while motioning me to stop as she slid over to the edge of the bed “we need to talk.” She got up and put on her robe while handing me the one. As for Becky, I asked a hypothetical question. You took it as my opinion which says more about you than it does about me. I told you that you could fix things with Joyce and you assumed I meant make her your lover again and consider making her your wife. Finally, with Jennifer, I’ve only encouraged you to be honest and work through your issues. Everything else you think I said you inferred. Again, all of this tells you more about YOU than anything I said.”“Argh!” I groaned. “So what are you. Jo rounded up Jessie's clothes and slung them onto the wet floor alongside the sobbing girl. The other girls were laughing as they walked out of the toilet, and Jo switched off the lights as she left, leaving Jessie sitting on the cold floor naked.Jessie's eyes became accustomed to the fading daylight coming in through the small window at the top of the outside wall. She pulled on her now damp clothes as best she could before leaving the toilet herself. The school was strangely silent and empty.