Chapter 3

"Kill her?" Marie let out a cold, sharp laugh, her eyes flashing with pure contempt. "If she actually had the spine for it, she'd pass out and never wake up. At least, that would save me the embarrassment of dealing with her pathetic attention-seeking out here!"

With a violent shove, she released my collar. My limp body crumpled instantly, crashing heavily against the edge of the corridor steps.

A dull crack echoed as my head slammed into the sharp concrete, and a warm, thick crimson began to well up from my forehead immediately.

My body convulsed even more violently from the impact, but I forced my heavy eyelids open, staring desperately up at her.

I wanted to scream, "Mom, look! I'm bleeding. I really am not faking this. Can you just believe me this once?"

But Marie merely looked down at the blood with unadulterated disgust. "You're even manufacturing blood now just to keep your little act alive? You truly are something else. Too bad you waste all that cleverness on underhanded tricks."

Turning on her heel, she barked at the lingering students in the hall. "What are you all standing around rubbernecking for? Don't you have physical exams to complete?

"Get back in line right now! Anyone caught slacking off will have their physical exam eligibility revoked!"

The students scattered immediately, and a hollow quiet returned to the corridor. Only three people remained: me, Marie, and Hailey.

Hailey crouched beside me, her hands trembling as she gently tried to dab away the blood pouring down my face, her voice thick with heartbreak. "Does it hurt terribly? Come on, let me get you to the infirmary, okay?"

"Absolutely not!" Marie snapped, striding back to yank Hailey away. "No one is taking her anywhere! Let her lie right there on the floor and reflect on her behavior. We'll see if she still has the nerve to stage these fake illnesses after this!"

"That's way too far!" Hailey finally exploded. "She is your daughter, not your enemy! What if something goes wrong?"

"She brought it on herself!" Marie's stance remained unshakeable. "Let me tell you something: no one is playing the savior today. I am going to ensure she burns this lesson into her memory. She needs to understand once and for all that faking a medical crisis achieves absolutely nothing!"

She stepped over to my convulsing form, crouching down and clamping her fingers around my jaw, forcing my face upward.

"I am asking you one final time: are you faking this or not?" she warned. "If you confess right now, I'll show some mercy and let you get that cut patched up. Otherwise, you can rot right here on this floor until your brain clears up!"

The agonizing pressure on my jaw collided with the throbbing, burning pain in my forehead. My entire body was shaking uncontrollably, and my awareness was rapidly dissolving into grey shadows.

Yet, with the absolute last breath of life left in me, I weakly shook my head. "I'm not... pretending."

"This is just great!" Marie shook with rage.

She violently released my chin, letting my head snap back against the floor, before standing up and delivering a brutal kick straight into my ribs.

"You still want to play the stubborn martyr? Looks like you have to learn it the hard way!"

She stormed back into the examination room, returning a moment later with a chilled bottle of water clutched tightly in her hand.

"Don't you love acting sick? Didn't you say you were freezing and shivering all over?" Marie crouched down again, ruthlessly pinning my trembling wrist to the tile floor. "Since you claim you're so cold, let's give you a real reason to wake up! Stop lying here like a corpse just to fish for sympathy!"

She ripped the cap off the bottle and dumped the freezing water squarely over my face and head. The piercing, icy torrent saturated my hair and ran down my neck, soaking straight through my clothes.

My core temperature plummeted, causing my limbs to curl inward instinctively as my consciousness drifted even closer to total blackness. Yet, Marie remained blind to my agony, her hands continuing their relentless assault.

"Are you awake yet? Do you still dare to fake a faint?" she growled. "I'll douse you until you're completely lucid! I'll wash away your laziness and your desperate need to humiliate me! Let's see if you ever have the audacity to pull a stunt like this again!"

I tried to turn my head away from the freezing stream, wanting desperately to beg her to stop, but my muscles had completely locked up.

I could only lie there in the freezing puddle, utterly paralyzed, as the ice-cold water washed over me again and again.