3 days went by and Violet's mother was still nowhere to be found. She and her friends had searched desperately for any trace of her. Todd spent endless hours scavenging the internet while Larry, Sal, Ash, and Violet searched every square mile of Nockfell.

Nothing.

Violet's father said nothing about her missing nearly a week of school. In fact, he didn't say a word about anything. On the now extremely rare occasions on which he was home, he was completely silent, ignoring Violet's every attempt to speak to him. He came home late into the night and reeked of alcohol and cigarette smoke. He'd completely given up.

After seeing the state of her father, Larry and Sal thought it best to convince Violet to return to school. This was better for her than watching her dad drown himself in nicotine and alcohol to cope with the loss of his wife. After all, she was trying to learn how to cope with the matter herself. He was setting an incredibly poor example that the boys couldn't risk her learning from.

"Here, Vi," Sal said, pulling a stack of papers from his backpack. "Give these to Mrs. Packerton today, okay?"

He, Violet, Larry, and Todd were all heading to school together. The morning air was cold, nipping at their ears, cheeks, and fingertips. November was only half-way over and yet December weather had already made its grand appearance. Everyone was bundled up in their coats, hats, and scarves.

"What is it?" Violet asked, weakly accepting the papers with numb hands.

"Your math homework from the days you missed."

"Sally, you didn't have to do this..."

"I don't wanna hear it. I know how much you value your grades and stuff. Plus, we all chipped in."

"Your handwriting is, like, impossible to forge, little dude," Larry chimed in. "It's so neat."

"I've never pictured myself doing organic chemistry with a pink glitter pen," Todd added.

The girl gave a small chuckle. "It helps me remember stuff. That class is hard."

"You're all caught up, so don't stress about make-up work or anything like that," Sal assured her.

"Thank you all. It means the world to me."

> > >

Mrs. Packerton was easily fooled by her forged algebra homework. She was an old lady, after all. Her eyesight was likely below par. Unfortunately, Violet's relief was short-lived, as today was the last day to work on her project, which she'd done none of since her mother went missing. Not to mention the fact that she was reminded of her partnership with Travis.

She trudged toward the seat beside the blonde boy, who glowered at her as she approached, a wave of dread flooding her mind. Travis seemed to have taken another beating since their last encounter. Black and blue splotches covered his face and pooled beneath his left eye. Violet was too depressed to feel any remorse for him. All she could do was resist the urge to turn around and leave, knowing that he'd be even more of a delight than usual today.

"You look like shit," he sneered as she took her seat beside him.

"Thanks, my mom went missing and is probably dead," she deadpanned.

Travis surprisingly fell silent after this and began furiously flipping through his notebook. Violet mentally thanked the heavens that he actually shut his mouth for once. She wasn't in the right state of mind to tolerate his mouth.

She reached into her backpack and pulled out her own notebook. How she'd manage to get this project done in time was beyond her, especially since Travis was practically helpless compared to her. Without her there to keep him on track, she was sure he hadn't done anything either. However, when she opened it to where she began her half of the work, she was surprised to see the entire page plus several more completely full.

Sal must have gotten his hands on it.

She glanced over to where he was sitting with Amy Fletcher. His head was stooped over his own paper as he scribbled down whatever problem Amy was reading to him. Judging by the lack of scratch paper or a calculator on her desk, Violet knew Sal was doing their whole project. Of course he was.

"Did you do any work during your little vacation?" Travis's harsh voice pulled her from her thoughts.

"U-Uh, yeah, I did. Did you?" She replied, peering over at the blank page in his notebook.

He scoffed. "I figured you were sitting on your ass so I did the same—hold on, what the fuck is that?!"

The blonde pointed to the bottom right corner of Violet's paper, where a note was written in small letters: "Hope this helps. I love you🖤 ~Sal."

Violet quickly slapped a hand over it and pulled her notebook to her chest. "Nothing!"

"So you did sit on your ass for 4 days!"

"Travis, please," she begged in a hushed voice, glancing at Mrs. Packerton and praying she didn't hear the commotion. "I'll do your whole half of the project. Please don't do this."

Travis was having none of this. He let out a bellowing laugh and sprung out of his seat, grabbing not only Mrs. Packerton's attention, but everyone else's as well. He pointed a finger at the distraught girl. "This freak had her faggot boyfriend do her part of the project! She cheated!"

"Shut the hell up, Travis!" Sal snapped, standing up so quickly that he nearly knocked his chair over.

"Boys, enough!" Mrs. Packerton intervened. "Violet, hand me your notebook."

When she didn't move, Travis took it upon himself to rip her notebook out of her hands and toss it onto the woman's desk with a victorious grin on his face. Violet dropped her head onto her desk in shame.

An agonizing silence fell over them as Mrs. Packerton presumably skimmed over Sal's writing. Travis snickered as she did so, as did a few other kids. Violet's eyes burned as tears clouded her vision. White-hot anger pulsated through her veins as she resisted the urge to jump up and shove Travis to the floor and take out all of her pain out on him. The only thing keeping her at bay was the mere fantasy of her repeatedly stomping him into the ground.

"Violet, is this true?" Came Mrs. Packerton's voice, her words laced with disappointment.

Violet didn't lift her head. She couldn't bear to look at her teacher. "Yeah..."

"Mrs. Packerton," Sal interjected, "this is my fault. She didn't ask me to do that. Please don't punish her."

The woman clicked her tongue several times. "I'm afraid I won't be able to give either of you credit for this assignment. The both of you will be serving detention for the entirety of next week."

The girl squeezed her eyes shut, forcing tears to drip onto her lap. She could already see the big fat 0% on her report card, which would likely drag her grade down to a low B, if not a C. This project was worth a hefty percentage of her overall grade. Needless to say, Violet was crushed. She was devestated, furious, and extremely depressed all at the same time.

"I think I should get an A," Travis smugly remarked. "After all, I was paired with a cheater."

"We will discuss your grade after class, Travis."

Suddenly, Violet raised her head and sprung into a standing position, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. With one swift motion, she swept all of the blonde's belongings off of his desk, causing them to scatter across the floor in front of him.

"Screw you!" She spat.

With that, Violet stormed out of the classroom, ignoring Mrs. Packerton's protests. Sal followed right behind her.