Whenever Maddy was called a "kid", she would scrunch her nose and take that offended look of hers, the one she took when people underestimated or disdained her.

Her muscles tensed at the sight of a hefty medical kit and a sheet of paper in the nurse's right hand: she was well aware of what all of this meant.

Maddy felt an ominous panic upsetting her stomach.

"Some of you haven't visited the infirmary for the vaccine today," stated the nurse bluntly, and Maddy could read the disapproval all over her face. "I will call out the names of those who have been vaccinated, and I want you to follow Mr. Rob over here to another classroom while the rest of your classmates will be getting vaccinated. Richard Parker, James Thompson, ..." the nurse started calling out a bunch of names, but Maddy could barely listen, it was all a buzzing sound to her.

Soon most of the students left the classroom, following a gloomy Rob outside, to the wide corridors. Inside the detention class were only left Maddy, Sia, Logan, Mia, the ebony-headed idiot and the almost invisible girl from earlier who was on her phone.

The muscular, sinewy man closed the door behind them, and then...

Did he just lock the door?

Maddy looked at Sia on her right, pure terror reflecting inside her hazel eyes. Sia gave her a puzzled, what-is-going-on look.

"So," started the nurse, "who would like to go first?"

For what felt like eternity, no one spoke. Then the girl who had been stuck on her phone for the past half an hour stepped forward, saying: "I'll go first."

"Can't we just do it tomorrow?" asked Maddy before she could help herself.

The nurse shot her a piercing look, but then smiled with that "kind" smile of hers. "It's best to get things done as fast as possible. Those are the orders we have got, Miss Wesley."

Maddy just nodded, immersed in that one particular memory from her past that had been torturing her the whole day.

She pushed her thoughts and reminiscences away, shoving them in the back of her head, to watch carefully the vaccination procedure on the girl with the phone, who sat on a chair in front of the nurse, poker-faced.

The nurse laid the medical kit on the desk in front of her, then opened it with stable hands and took out a huge, pointy syringe. Maddy's hair stood on edge, and she scanned her new "friends'" faces, searching for hints of the same thing she was feeling: panic. And she discovered what she was looking for was there, spread all over of their expression: they were just as confused and scared as she was.

A green liquid filled the syringe in the nurse's hand, as the rather young woman drew it near the girl's right upper arm, and it found a home as it sank in her flesh.

Initially, she just winced as the needle stabbed her skin, but then the pain must have intensified with the push of the syringe and the release of its content into her blood, because her knee-jerk reaction was to thrash away from the source of hurt, throwing her elbow in the process.

The automatic motion was soon accompanied by a screech, and the girl screamed:

"Ouch! Let go of my hand, no!" She went to get up, but she was immobilised by the strong man who had come along with Miss Jane, the nurse. His strong hands pressed her shoulders down, forcing her to stay still on the chair.

"What the fuck is going on?" whispered Sia to Maddy, leaning closer to her on the window sill.

"I don't know... I don't wanna do this," was all she uttered in response. She wanted to think she was just being childish, but she had a bad feeling about all this, a foreboding.

"Don't move," ordered the nurse.

"No! Don't touch me. It hurts! Ouch!" the girl flailed in her chair, but in vain.

Then the nurse stepped back. "It's over. You can go now." She placed the syringe back in the kit to clean up its point and fill it up again, turning her back on the girl.

A few seconds passed. A few heavy breaths and unsteady gasps escaped the girl's trembling lips.

And then she fainted. Her lifeless body collapsed on the floor with a loud thud, and she just lay there, completely still. Her face looked pale, drained of every colour, and Maddy wondered for a moment whether the girl had actually died. She couldn't even hear her rhythmic breathing, or at least see her chest move up and down.

Her gaze snapped at Carter, and she realised the boy was holding his breath too, just like her. Just like everyone else in that god damn classroom, except for the nurse and her bloody bodyguard.

"Check her pulse," commanded Miss Jane, and the man delivered, placing his fingers on the girl's carotid artery on her neck. Greenish veins were popping on its surface, filling Maddy with disgust, not just because of the repulsive sight of the girl's neck, but more because of the man's fingers on it.

C-Check her pulse? What's that even supposed to mean? She could've died?

"She's not breathing, Miss," said the man in a voice so calm and unbothered, as if he had just said it was a beautiful day today.

Which it wasn't.

Maddy thought an alarm set off in her head, because the blood was running clamorously inside her ears.

She's not breathing.

"Call a hospital, give her first aid."

Maddy jumped off the sill, alert as ever.

How could the nurse be so serene when that girl was not even breathing?

The man fished his mobile phone out of his pocket and quickly unlocked it, fingers pressing the numbers hastily to call an ambulance.

He must've been explaining the situation on the phone, but Maddy wasn't paying any attention to him at all. She was just... lost.

Then the nurse's "bodyguard" started performing CPR on the unconscious girl, interlocking his big hands on top of her flat chest and giving her gentle, yet strong and accurate compressions.

Maddy watched him in a mixture of suspense, anxiety and fear. When he gave the girl the first rescue breath, his lips hovering right above the girl's mouth, ready to press them against hers, Maddy looked away in aversion.

"Who's next?" asked the nurse then.

Maddy fixed her eyes on the woman in front of her, wondering whether she had heard right.

"Are you serious? She's not even breathing! And you expect us to do this like nothing's going on?" Mia flipped. "No! I'm not doing it."

"She's right, Miss Jane, we can't-" started Sia, but the woman cut her off.

"I said, who's next?"

Maddy stepped back at the nurse's brisk tone.

"Kids, listen to me. I have specific orders to vaccinate every single student who steps foot in this building, and I'm not going to lose my job because of some rebellious teenagers. Have I made myself clear? Now, who's next?" She was on the verge of screaming, and Maddy didn't like that.

"Miss, she's still not breathing." Now there was definitely a speck of colour staining the "bodyguard's" otherwise set in steel voice: the colour of panic. Maddy could feel it, as imperceptible as it might've been.

"Then don't stop. You. Come here. Now," ordered the nurse, her tone curt.

It took Maddy a second to realize the nurse was pointing and looking straight at her. She went to take a step backwards, scared out of her wits to speak, but her legs were suddenly glued to the ground, and soft like whipped-cream.

"I said now!" shouted the nurse, and she banged her hand down the desk in front of her with force. Maddy started at the sound, and she looked around, eyes pleading for help and seeking for it in the faces of those strangers she had only met half an hour ago.

No one's gonna save you, Maddy, she realised.

She took a step forward, surprised at the confidence and surety the motion overflowed.

So save yourself.

And Maddy turned around and raced towards the window.