When Lizzy made it to English class, she ended up being about three minutes late because she left Sausage in the girl’s bathroom. When she walked into English, everyone was beaming in her direction.

“So kind of Ms. Hawthorne to grace us with her presence.” Mrs. Steward said mockingly. “But doing so on time is preferred.”

“Sorry ma’am, I got caught up in work.” Lizzy lied.

“Well, next time make your work caught up here then.” she scorned. “I work my hardest to make sure you can learn. You could at least do the same.”

“Yeah, I got it…” she said, head hung low and making her way to her seat. 

“Good. Do you have your novel?”

“My novel?”

“Yes. If you were paying attention yesterday in class you’d know that you were supposed to bring a novel of your choice from the list.”

“The list?” she asked, almost falling asleep just listening.

“Yes, the list.” Mrs. Steward said, pointing to a piece of paper on the board with a bunch of crossed out book titles. “Looks like you’ll have to go get the last one. Try the library.”

“Now?”

“Now.”

Lizzy reluctantly got up and heard various snickers and comments from her classmates as she walked out of the room. She wasn’t exactly having the best day so far. She made her way to the library and went up to the librarian.

“A pleasure to see you, Elizabeth.” the old librarian smiled with her sweet eyes. “Is there something you’re looking for?”

“A book for Mrs. Steward. It’s called The Night Circus I think.”

“Hm… I think I remember it being in those beanbags over there.” she said, pointing an old finger to a pile of them.

“You remember where that specific book is?” Lizzy asked, surprised.

“Yes, I quite do.” she laughed. “Now go on.”

Lizzy made her way over to the beanbag pile and began to slowly remove them all from their resting spot. Lizzy jumped back in shock when she realized there was a person sleeping under all the beanbags. The girl was still snoring away, clutching a book in her chest.

The girl had hair that curled around her shoulders like a lion’s mane, spilling across her chest and back. On her face was a pair of square glasses, which made her look a bit nerdy, but in a sweet and endearing sort of way. The last notable facial features on her were the shining blue eyes and freckles that dotted her cheeks.

The girl was maybe 5”4, and while not overweight or anything, she was a bit chubby; it made her seem like a little ball of dough to Lizzy. Her blue jeans looked maybe a size too small, but it didn’t seem to bother her too much. She also wore ankle-length socks with a pair of white and brown tennis shoes. The girl had on a slightly baggy brown sweatshirt, which looked pretty comfortable to Lizzy.

“Hey,” Lizzy said, nudging the girl gently. “Hey, wake up.” The girl quietly yawned and stretched her arms and legs.

“Is it fifth period already?” she asked drowsily.

“No, but it’s almost lunch.”

“Hm… I ate already…” She looked ready to fall back asleep.

“Hey, stay up.” Lizzy asked. “I’m looking for a copy of The Night Circus and the librarian told me that it would be under the beanbags.”

“Hm… oh, here you go.” The girl lazily handed Lizzy the book in her arms, which was the exact one she was looking for. “Remember to renew it in a week. And don’t move my bookmark when you do.”

“Oh… thanks.” Lizzy said. 

She checked the inside of a book and looked at the bookmark only about a hundred pages from the end. It was a beige strip of fabric over hard cardboard decorated with flowers and had a name on it. If lost, return to: Cassidy Crass.

When Lizzy looked back, Cassidy had already dragged the beanbags back over herself and closed her eyes. Lizzy didn’t have time to stay and talk though. The last thing she needed was another earful from Mrs. Steward. She paced out of the library and went on her way back to the classroom, but ran into a certain janitor.

“Ah, Elizabeth,” Irelia said with glee. “I see you’re using that school library we talked about yesterday.”

“Hi, Ms. Irelia.” Lizzy said, trying to get by.

“Ooh, what’s that volume you’ve got?” she asked, curious. “The Night Circus? What a mysterious title. I’ll have to read it myself sometime.”

“I’ll have to talk later, Ms. Irelia.” Lizzy apologized. “I’m just in a bit of a hurry.”

“Alright then. Can we talk at your lunch then?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

It wasn’t uncommon for them to have small chats at lunch, so Lizzy thought nothing of it. She turned the corner and was almost back to the classroom when she heard the distinct sound of a high school bitch at work.

“You angry, emo?” hissed a voice around the corner.

Lizzy quietly creeped around the corner and saw Lilly, one of the popular girls, standing with two of her friends in front of some girl who had her back against a wall. Lizzy could guess what they were doing just from one sentence.

The girl had dark black hair that parted over one eye. She had on an black shirt with an unbuttoned dark flannel on top of it. Her ripped black jeans were held up by a brown belt, and the black platforms clicked against the ground when she walked. Lizzy was drawn to the dark makeup under her bright blue eyes. Tiny skull stud earrings were placed firmly in her ears too. Her figure was pretty similar to Lizzy’s, being fairly curvy and filled out.

“Gonna do something?” Lilly teased again.

“Gonna cut one of us?” another taunted.

“Let me go to class.” the girl said, trying to keep calm. She tried to walk away, but Lilly pushed her back against the wall.

“You’re not going any-”

“Leave her alone.” Lizzy demanded, strutting around the corner.

“Pft, or what?” laughed Lilly. “Or does the Fat Patrol have to keep each other safe?”

“I’ll make sure you don’t get to touch her again.” Lizzy threatened. She knew it was absolutely a hollow threat, but she went with it.

“You gonna land me in the hospital or something?” Lilly laughed again.

“Push me and you’ll find out.” she hissed, glaring with her light green eyes. She had seen Beatrice use this trick plenty of times before, but she usually had a snake to back her up. Fortunately, these girls were a lot less brave than most.

“Ugh, let’s go.” Lilly said, briskly walking away and being followed by her two friends. Lizzy picked up a book that the girl had dropped and handed it to her.

“I’m sorry about that.” Lizzy apologized. “They’re the worst.”

“Yeah, I know.” she sighed, taking her book. “Thanks.”

“It was nothing. My name’s Lizzy by the way. I don’t think I’ve seen you around here.”

“I’ve been here for a couple years.” she said. “My name’s Violet.”

“That’s such a nice na-”

Suddenly, the bell rang and they both jumped. That meant that fourth period was officially over. Lizzy spent way too long getting sidetracked everywhere.

“Can we talk again sometime?” Lizzy asked.

“If you want to.” Violet shrugged.

“Yeah! Here’s my number!” Lizzy wrote her phone number on Violet’s hand before rushing away to her next class. Violet was left standing there and wondering how she was going to wash red marker ink out of her skin conveniently.

When Lizzy got home, she happily bounded towards the fridge and took out a few slices of cheese to snack on. Lisha laughed at her chipper attitude.

“Why’re you so happy?” Lisha giggled, poking her in the cheek.

“I gave this girl my number and I’m hoping she calls.” When Lizzy turned back, Lisha was frozen in place and she dropped the wheel of cheese that she had just picked up.

“My baby’s getting a girlfriend?!” she asked, as if she was going to explode.

“No!” Lizzy exclaimed, not wanting a misunderstanding. “I made a regular friend who is also a girl.”

“So not a girlfriend yet.” Lisha insisted.

“Ma, I don’t plan on having a girlfriend.” Lizzy sighed. “Like the other dozen times you’ve asked about it.”

“A mother can dream, sweetie.”

Lizzy grabbed a stick of string cheese for good measure and went to her room to do work. She reached under her shirt and grabbed Sausage, putting her on the desk.

“That’s enough of that for today.” she sighed, seeing another ropelike mark around her waist. They had become slowly more prominent and frequent over the past few months.

She used to think Sausage was tightening her grip, but now she was sure she was definitely just getting bigger. And with the compounded her newfound sense of insecurity, she only felt worse about it. She would’ve thought more about it if her phone didn’t go off, called by an unknown number. 

“Hello?” Lizzy answered.

“Is this… um, Lizzy?” asked a timid voice.

“Is this Violet?” she asked back.

“Yeah.” she said quietly. “So, um, thanks for helping me today… Those girls were especially mean today.”

“Sometimes people just need to know their place.” Lizzy giggled. She thought for a second about it and didn’t like how much she sounded like Beatrice. “And it was just the right thing to do.”

“Well, thanks.” she said again. “I appreciated it.” Lizzy was going to say something, but heard a gigantic thump on Violet’s end.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about me.” Violet said. “That’s probably my dad doing something stupid again.”

“Is he alright?”

“Only when my other dad is around to make sure he doesn’t break a bone trying to build a treehouse… again.”

“Sounds like my ma. Only instead of building a treehouse, mom has to pull her away from another bucket of mac and cheese.”

“Wait, another bucket of mac and cheese?”

“You’d be surprised what you can buy.”

“I guess you’re right.” Violet laughed. “Hey… my parents are going to be on a date night in a couple days. Wanna hang out?”

“Yeah!” Lizzy exclaimed. “That’d be great.”