[hail2thechief]

PART II

Lacey took care of the absence slip and started her walk home. She didn’t need to think hard to wonder what all the students would be talking about around school that day.

One of those students, Tara, could not have been in a better mood. She had more than exposed the biggest prude at the school. That was more than enough payback for the pool party and lacrosse incidents. She began to wonder if Lacey would ever piece together how it all happened, replaying the events in her head, unable to focus on her teacher’s stupid Greek classics lesson.

“And so Enfermides prayed to Zeus, god of the sky, for a storm to wash away the robes of all the women who had wronged him. And Zeus spoke down to Enfermides, ‘yeah sure, why the hell not?’”

Tara didn’t need to listen to this garbage. She would just marry a rich guy anyway. That thought was short-lived, as her mind wandered back to the terrified look on Lacey’s face. Her wailing arms, unable to properly shield herself from the eyes of half a thousand students staring directly at her bare crotch. That part kind of surprised her.

Meanwhile, Lacey’s walk home was not going very well. She was severely hampered by her inability to take a step without having to tug her heavy pants back up and stay decent. Plus the rain and wind seemed to only be getting stronger.

Out of nowhere a stray plastic grocery bag flew up, smacking and ensconcing her face . Lacey was flustered, and forced to soften her grip on her pants to attend to the bag. But the wind and rain played with the bag, practically gluing it to Lacey’s face. For every shift of Lacey’s face, the bag maneuvered to into a more inconvenient position.

She felt her pants dip. She was still safety covered, but she had to let go of her grip and spread her legs wide to keep them from falling. Just as she finally got a solid handling of the bag, a flash of light obscured her vision, and she felt herself lose her footing thanks to a particularly strong gust.

Taking a step back and straightening herself out, she felt the pants make a quick descent. With the bag finally removed and her sight no longer obscured, she found the source of the light: a short caravan of cars traveling in her direction.

“Ahh” she yelped, reaching down for the pants, which had bunched up around her knees. Requiring both hands to pull them up. Lacey couldn’t believe. Once again she’d made a fool of herself, this time being completely her fault.

All she wanted to do was get home, get changed, and start thinking about getting Tara back. But for now she was shaken. She stopped there and closed her eyes as the rain washed away a bevy of tears escaping down her cheeks.