Open Case File [COMPLETED]

Playing Hooky

My happy place! Which means it should be your happy place and if it's not, sucks! I'm doing whatever I want, live with it Noodle!

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Make it to the library, that's all Carter had to do, she simply had to make it to the library and it would be okay. She cut through the sea of students, one more sophomore in the never-ending tide. She kept her steps confident but not fearful or hurried. She held firmly to her mask of indifference.

Nothing and no one around her mattered, she barely noticed them at all. She said that to herself over and over again, building up the wall around her that had crumbled a fraction.

Carter pushed through the library doors and managed a nod to Patty but kept moving. Patty often sent Carter soft and motherly expressions as if she knew the hardships Carter faced. But Carter didn't want that, she wanted the quiet of the second story corner where no one went.

Make it to the corner, all she needed to do was make it to the corner and she'd be fine. She quickened her steps as she reached the stairs and had to stop herself from bounding up them. Students still sat at the tables and would be able to hear her frantic steps and it would draw attention.

Almost there, she thought.

At the furthest back corner, she let out a breath and sank to the floor. She curled her legs in and dropped her head onto her knees.

Words it was only words, that was all it was. But those words were accompanied by laughter that still rang in Carter's ears. She could still see the smug smiles, the ones that said the girls knew they hit a mark even if Carter didn't react.

Carter clenched her fists, digging her short, rough nails into her palms. She pictured slamming her fists into her punching bag over and over again. She imagined the taut leather and heard the chain rattling. She imagined the release as she hit the bag again. She felt the strength in her arms, shoulders, down to her core.

She felt her body using every ounce of energy to punch the bag. All the energy she had meant she wouldn't use it to cry or fall apart. All she did was imagine that bag, her fists making contact.

Slowly, very slowly, one imagined punch after another, Carter felt her tension, anger, pain, and unshed tears retreating. She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Drained, but without a trace of crying, Carter raised her head and leaned it back against the bookshelf.

If she could, she would stay there all day. She'd wait for the final bell to ring, for the last light to be switched off and slip away, never having to walk with the pompous and self-important students again. Or at least for one day, tomorrow she'd be back, her face unrattled by their words, their looks, their smiles, their mere presence. She would be the Untouchable Girl.

But right then she wasn't, she knew it. She felt the weak parts of her curled into a ball behind her makeshift wall. She could feel how if put up against one more person that wall might crumble.

She couldn't let that happen. Maybe she would stay in the library, there were only two more classes left. But if she missed them would Captain hear about it? Would she have to tell him why she hid away? Was there a way she could keep it from him? Not likely, he saw everything.

"You can't be serious?"

Carter tensed at the voice but forced herself to relax and appear unconcerned.

"You promised me, you said that for this day we could do what I wanted. You said that, do you not remember?"

Carter continued to tell herself to remain completely unfazed as Mason walked into view at the other end of the aisle.