– Hold on, hang in there! – the janitor shouted while trying to help the principal.

The students formed a large circle around them, watching in terror as blood came out of the fat man’s neck. While catastrophe ensued, Katsumi teared down the photos and written letter, pushed them into her pocket and headed towards her classroom.

– Hold it! – one of the older students blocked her path. – You can’t seriously think you’ll just get away with…

Stab!

She lunged towards the boy’s chest. Fortunately, he blocked it just in time and the sharp pen pierced only his palm.

– Fuck! – he yelled in pain.

Katsumi didn’t care about him. That student was only and obstacle in her path and as such, she pushed him away and rushed out of the dining hall.

Other students gave both terrified and confused looks. Some have just arrived, so they had no idea why she was so upset. A few have even fearfully stepped away, seeing blood drip down from her pen.

– Judea! – she shouted, kicking open the classroom door. – Where are you, you piece of shit!

It was still relatively early, only a few students occupied the room. One of them was indeed him, the boy she’s been searching for. To no surprise, Judea was surrounded by a group of scary looking men.

– Oh hey, Momo! – he carelessly waved. – How’s your friend search going?

– I’ll kill you! – she charged towards the boy, but someone grabbed her from behind.

– Hey, how about you calm down for a second, eh? – it was one of his friends. – My man’s just tryna’ help a lost case!

– Let me go!

Katsumi tried to stab the much him, but another student quickly took the pen out of her hand. She tried to resist by scratching and biting his hand, but soon enough she was subdued into a chokehold.

– I’ll… fucking… kill you…

She tried scraping the boy’s arm, but to no effect. The feeling of not getting any air was pushed aside by an extreme anger, which helped her overcome his attacker by a backwards kick in the nuts.

Free once more, she plunged towards Judea, only to be met by his punch in the face. It was stronger than anything she’s ever felt, shaking her entire being. Black circles blinded her vision, quickly disappearing as her sense of balance was regained and she found herself on the floor, held down by Judea’s friends.

– You won’t need that. – he took the papers out of her pocket.

She tried kicking him, but Judea was fast to dodge.

– I’ll kill you! I’ll seriously kill you!

– Sure.

– What? You think I’m joking? You think this is a fucking joke?

– No-no. – he carelessly waved while looking through the pictures. – Huh.

– Give them to me!

– What?

– The photos, give them to me!

– Hm… nah.

She was trembling. She screamed and fought like a captured animal, yet to no avail. Judea’s friends had her pinned to the ground. There wasn’t anything she could’ve done.

– I’ll make good use of them later on.

– I’ll call the police on your ass! – she laughed below the tears. – I’ll sue your fucking ass! You know what that is in your hands? Pictures of a minor! You’ll get sent to jail, dumbass!

He put a finger on his chin and looked away into the distance.

– Weren’t you the one desperately searching for friends?

– Motherfucker, that won’t save you from jail!

– Hey, I tried to help. If that wasn’t enough, I’m sorry. There’s not much I could’ve done besides advertising you like a stray dog. If that didn’t help you find any new friends, then I’m sorry, you’re hopeless. – he leaned back and sat up on his desk. – But don’t worry though! Last night we became ‘inseparable friends’, remember? No matter how lonely you might get, this smile will always be with you!

He smiled. And that smile. A single, careless smile. It was enough to break Katsumi.

– Shoo-shoo! – he signaled to his friends. – Let her go. I want to see how she reacts.

When Katsumi was finally released, she didn’t get up. Her eyes gazed at the snow white ceiling for a few seconds. Only after that did she stood up.

Her arms and legs were weak. She could hardly balance herself. Observing her surroundings, Katsumi found herself in a circle of students from many different classes. Behind them, she caught glimpse of a teacher, watching in silence as the events unfold. She felt like a circus animal, humiliated and looked down upon.

Pushing the crowd aside, she ran away. Her crying echoed through the halls, before going out of the building and disappearing the same way she came from.

– Mom!

Finally arriving at her apartment she pushed the door open, almost tearing the hinges off the wall. Her mother was cooking in the kitchen, but hearing Katsumi’s cries, she threw everything away and rushed to her defense.

She was a beautiful woman, motherly in every way. Her hair was reached down to her waist and was just as black as coal. A white, flowery head kerchief kept it all intact. Her sharp brown eyes were reminiscent to her Asian origins.

– What happened?

Instead of giving an answer, Katsumi buried her face in the woman’s chest. Her crying was on par with screaming, only muffled by the motherly clothes. For a few minutes that felt like hours, she couldn’t speak besides the feral cries escaping her throat.

Her mother brewed hot chocolate and brought some ice cream. Katsumi explained everything that happened down to every detail. She felt shameful and guilty, sometimes breaking down just to cry about how stupid she was. But her mom didn’t mind. She answered every tear with a head pat, followed by a hug.

– So, the first thing we’ll do – she said after Katsumi finished – is put you into your room with some cookies and have you relax. Then I’ll make some phone calls.

– Am I in trouble?

– Not at all! – she smiled. – Your classmates on the other hand yes, they are!

– Will the police come and take me?

– No-no, my dear. The way you acted is understandable. Even if the police think otherwise, you’re still a minor! They won’t send you to prison, don’t even think about that. Worst case scenario is you have to do community work, like pick up trash or play with puppies for a few hours.

– That’s… not so bad.

– Now-now, go to your room and rest for a while.

Katsumi grabbed her ice cream and headed towards her room. Before leaving though, she mustered up all her courage and asked her mother one last question.

– Mom!

– Huh? Why are you shouting?

– Mom, you’ll have that big TV appearance tonight?

– Y-Yeah. – she nodded.

– Can you… go on like that?

– Like what?

– Like… like that! Your… daughter is disgrace and she brought shame to the entire family! What if they’ll ask questions about me and not you? What if they’ll embarrass you or give our family a bad name?

Her jabbering was met with a confusion, then a sweet smile.

– You didn’t do anything wrong, just what everyone would’ve in your place. Momo, you’re still a young girl. You’re inexperienced. You make mistakes. We’ve all been young, we’ve all been there. Besides, no matter what happens, I’ll always love you. You’re my daughter, after all.

Katsumi could barely keep herself together. She felt a lot better, seeing her mother’s cheerful smile. Knowing she’ll always have someone to count on, her soul eased by a lot. Hiding her tears, she left the room.

– T-Thanks, Mom!

– Now go-go! Mommy’s gonna’ yell through the phone, so be quiet!

Katsumi’s old bedroom was a sight to behold. A pink and white color scheme ruled over this spacious kingdom. Fluffy plush toys warmed her large bed, differing from small elephants to human sized rabbits. It was girly in a clishé, but sweet way.

The small gray notebook she kept on her nightstand was her way of escaping this world. With it she can become anyone she ever wanted to be and live through lifetimes worth of adventuring. She can become a lich lord ruling diligently over the lands, she can fight in space on the side of green mecha-orcs against plasma aliens, the choices are endless and it’s all up to her!

Katsumi loved to hide under a blanket and pretend these were indeed parts of reality. Whenever she played a videogame and her character got hurt, she let out a loud ‘ouch’. When an anime she watched killed off her favorite character, she cried like one of her best friends just died. Sometimes she would try and recreate the magic she sees, making strange hand gestures and trying her best to convince the blood gods it wasn’t ketchup.

But just like all good things, these nerdy afternoons didn’t last forever.

– Coming! – she could hear her mother run to the door.

It opened with loud creaking. Two pairs of legs walked into their home.

– Oh, yes! I’ve been expecting a visit. Would you like a cup of coffee?

It was the police. Kats could hear their voice, but not make sense of their words.

– No, she’s in her room. I’d ask you not to go there, she’s out of commission at the moment. Please! You probably understand. She had it really rough. Thank you. Ah. Yup. No, well, you couldn’t get much out of her other than crying. Yeah. Tomorrow? Ah, sure. Who, me? No, I’m her mother.

Katsumi sneakily pushed the bedroom door open. The voices of the outside became a lot clearer and she could finally understand the conversation.

– We’ve got our doubts with the situation and given the look of it all… well…

– Yeah?

– Ma’am, I’m not a lawyer or anything, but you should probably press charges. The entire school could be brought to trial. From what I’ve heard, their way of handling the situation was against protocol.

Katsumi could barely control her excitement. As much of a relief hearing those words meant to her, she felt an absolute joy just by knowing she was in the right. With her doubts cleared by a cop, she was just about to step out into the light and bombard the man with details, when…

– But then again, I’m no lawyer, so…

– Thank you for your professional insight, but I’m pretty sure there’s been a mistake on the police’s part. I don’t believe any kind of stabbing or photo sharing has occurred. Me and my daughter won’t make a legal battle of this. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on TV tonight and I preparations to do. Please allow me to show you outside.