Secret Singing Superstar

Four ~ ♫♪♫

It turned out that Caitlin didn't manage to find Leanne until the end of recess as she headed up to class. When Claire confronted her about it, Caitlin replied that she had gone to the classroom at first, but Leanne wasn't there. Claire told her that she should've moved faster instead of lagging behind in the library.

Claire still felt horrible for making Leanne upset. She knew that when she said "How do you know? Have you tried?" it had really unnerved her. She didn't fully understand why, but she wanted to help her. The problem was, Leanne wasn't letting anyone help her at the moment. She remained silent through Science, leaving Caitlin and Claire to just talk to themselves.

Caitlin seemed to be a little upset as well - her voice wasn't as bubbly as it usually was, and she didn't meet Claire's eyes. Perhaps she was upset because Leanne was.

"How do I answer this question?" Leanne asked Claire. Claire was happy that she was speaking, but her tone sounded flat.

Claire showed her how to answer the question. After that, Leanne returned to being silent. It was as if nothing ever happened.

Caitlin looked at Claire searchingly, and Claire quickly turned away. If Caitlin didn't know what was making Leanne so upset, then she would tell her at lunch. Not now. Not when Leanne was here. It would only make her more depressed.

Caitlin then returned to her work and became almost as silent as Leanne. In the end, the only person talking was Claire, but the only times when she talked was when she wanted to ask the teacher a question.

Even the teacher noticed Leanne's silence. By the end of class, she congratulated her for 'not talking as much' during class.

"I want to kill her," muttered Caitlin as they headed out of class.

"Why?" Claire asked.

Leanne was walking ahead of them. Caitlin whispered in Claire's ear so nobody would hear: "because she makes it sound like that nothing is wrong. If Leanne's happy, she gets upset because then she talks too much. If Leanne's sad, then she's happy because the class is quiet. She doesn't care - she likes it better when Leanne is silent, because it's easier for her to teach!"

"She's a teacher, what do you expect?" said Claire. "They don't deal with these things."

"Well, if I ever have a problem, I'm never going to a teacher, no matter what they tell me." Caitlin's eyes were full of anger.

"We've got LOTE now," said Claire, wanting to change the subject.

"Great, we're all in different classes," said Caitlin. She didn't seem to have any heart to put any sarcasm into her words. Claire did Japanese, Caitlin did Italian, and Leanne did French. They headed into their classroom. "See you later."

"Yeah, see you."

Caitlin looked like she wanted to say something else, but at the last minute she went off to get her books, leaving Claire very confused.

* * * * * * * * *

Leanne walked to class, making sure that she was ahead of Caitlin and Claire. She didn't feel like talking to any of them.

Before, in the library, when Claire had asked her, "How do you know? Have you tried?" it struck a little too close to home. She could relate it to other things, like How do you know if you would be a horrible singer at the concert? Have you tried singing in it yet?

That was why Leanne couldn't stand it anymore, and why she had run out of the library so soon. She knew that they would come after her, so she had hid behind a tree in the courtyard. She saw Caitlin head up the stairs to their classroom, but didn't emerge from her hiding spot until it was the end of recess.