Ice frozen dreams turned golden

Chapter 16

This is the last part of the "Mrs. March one-shot series". It takes part right after Lizzie's therapy session and develops from that.

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Taylor waited for her in the car - as usual. Lizzie still had red eyes from crying at her last therapy session, and she forced a smile when she could see Taylor waving at her from the car.

"Hey, you're okay?" Taylor asked as soon as Lizzie had opened the door. "You look like you've been crying..."

"Ähm..." Lizzie replied, her german accent coming through like it so often happened when she was upset. "I have something to tell you."

"You know you can tell me everything, Lizziebug," Taylor said gently and took her hand to squeeze it three times. "I'm all ears."

"It's about our new math teacher," Lizzie began to explain, "I think she doesn't treat me the way she should,"

"You mean Mrs. March?" Taylor asked, her voice calm.

Lizzie nodded. "Exactly. She... she is... being mean to me."

Lizzie knew she had probably talked too fast, but she wanted to get it off her chest.

Lizzie shot a glance at Taylor and could see the woman furrowing her brows. "What did she do?" Taylor asked gently, but Lizzie could have sworn she had heard a quiet growl, too.

"It started the very first lesson we had with her," Lizzie began, "Thea, Betty, and I were the last ones to come to class that day, and somehow - even though the bell hadn't even rung yet - Mrs. March didn't take that kindly.
She wanted one of us to go upfront and explain what we had been talking about in our last lessons. I volunteered because I know that neither Betty nor Thea like math very much."

Lizzie went on to explain every single lesson to Taylor. How Mrs. March had called her a smart-ass and had made her solve an equation twice even though it was right the first time in their first lesson.

How she had chosen her to come to the blackboard in every single lesson after that and had tortured her with difficult equations she had to solve without a calculator. How Mrs. Marched had gotten mad at her for not being quick enough, or even for being too quick.

How she had given her thousands more equations to solve as homework. How she had laughed at her multiple times, had called her names, and had made her feel absolutely stupid and helpless.

Then Lizzie recalled the events of her last lesson with Mrs. March and told Taylor all about the lines she had to write till tomorrow. The girl wasn't sure if she should mention how Mrs. March had grabbed her and had hurt her.

Taylor had listened to her attentively, asking a few questions here and there and squeezing her hand when Lizzie had trouble finding the words. The girl didn't want to bother Taylor any more with her problems than she already had and decided to keep quiet about how Mrs. March had grabbed her arms and had squeezed them too tight.

"Was there something else you wanted to tell me?" Taylor asked as if she could sense that there was more to the story though.

Lizzie bit her lip, a habit she knew Taylor didn't like but couldn't help it. "She grabbed me," Lizzie admitted quietly and looked down, not wanting to face Taylor.

Before telling her about it, she could've pretended it didn't happen. She could've just imagined it, but telling Taylor now made it real.

"She grabbed you? Did she hurt you?" Taylor asked and gently turned Lizzie's face around to make her look into her eyes.

The girl nodded, and she could feel the tears starting to run over her cheeks again. "I'm used to much more. It wasn't as bad as it sounded..."

"What exactly did this woman do?" Taylor insisted, and Lizzie took a deep breath.