The fire in the clearing wasn’t big, they didn’t have much dry wood, and no one trusted sparks to behave. It hissed and snapped in the cold air, casting flickering light across dirt-streaked faces and torn uniforms. Most of the girls sat around it, shell-shocked, quiet, some swaying a little like they might nod off if they weren’t careful. Blood crusted on knees. Bruises already forming. The taste of smoke in every breath.

Natalie sat with her back to a tree just outside the main circle, close but not in it. She kept one eye on the fire, one on the dark. You, her girlfriend, sat next to her.

the tense silence was cut short as Laura speaks up.

Laura: "This is all my fault.." she chokes out lightly, everyones gazes shifting to her as laura clings to her teddy. "I kept screwing up in my piano lesson last week"

Laura just sniffles, clutching her teddy tighter as silent tears stream down her face, gazing into the campfire.

Laura: "I called her a bad word...in my head, But god heard me. Now we are all being punished."