"Oh yeah," Latisha said, making a circle with her forefinger and thumb. "Sure, Grace. Just tired. What did Scary do to you this morning?"

"Nothing," Grace said, pushing her tray away. "Just drop it, okay?"

"Damn, get the girl some coffee," Campbell said.

"You want coffee?" Jan asked.

"Do I look like I want coffee?" Grace pushed her tray away. "Oh, forget it. I'm not hungry anyway."

"Is there a problem here, ladies?

"No, Instructor Donaldson," Grace said, rising from her seat. "I'm just leaving, ma'am."

"You haven't touched your food," Donaldson said, pressing down on her shoulder. "Sit."

"Yes, ma'am," Grace said in a resigned tone, giving her friends a dirty look as she sat down. The table was silent until Donaldson left.

"Whatever," Jan said, looking to make sure no instructors were watching them, then taking one of Grace's waffles. "You're entitled to a bad day."

"If you need to talk," Latisha offered.

Grace waved her hand. "Thanks but I'll be fine. Just something I need to work through myself." She pushed the other waffle onto Jan's plate.

"See ya later." After taking a quick look to make sure Donaldson was otherwise occupied, she left her tray on the table and ran out of the mess hall. She was halfway across the parking lot when she heard Jan calling her name. "I don't want to talk about it," she said when her friend caught up with her.

"Come on, what's got you so wigged out?" Jan asked. "You were so excited yesterday about your dad coming to visit."

"But she had to come too and ruin everything."

"Your mom?"

"Yeah."

"What did she do?"

"She came- up here with that asshole husband of hers. She knows I hate him, but she doesn't care. She still thinks she can get me to come live with them, but I'd kill myself if she tries to make me go back there. I swear I would."

Jan took her arm. "You can't mean that, Grace."

"I mean it all right." Grace pulled her arm away and walked off.

Jan just stood and watched her go. There was something about the way Grace had looked at her when she said it that made her believe her. Damn. What do I do now?

"Instructor Carey, can I talk to you?"

Carey stopped in front of the door to her office. "Don't you have class right now?"

"I have study period, ma'am," Jan said, nervously looking up and down the hall.

Opening the door, Carey held her hand out. "After you." They went inside. "What can I help you with, Bowen?" she asked as she put her cap on the hook.

"I shouldn't say anything because I don't want her to think I'm a snitch or that I'm narcing her out, but I'm worried about Grace, ma'am."

"Shut the door," Carey said. "What about her?"

"She's probably just having a rough day but I've never seen her so…I dunno, depressed, I guess," Jan said. "She's not gonna have to go back and live with her mother again, right, ma'am?"

Carey sat down in her chair. "I'm not going to comment on her situation with you," she said. "Why are you asking?"

"She said something that..." Jan shrugged. "She just said something, ma'am. That's all."

"About her home life?"

The teen nodded. "About what she'd do if she had to go back there, ma'am."

Carey leaned forward. "What did she say?"

"She probably didn't mean it, ma'am," Jan said. "But she just seemed so upset."

"Bowen, I'm not going to ask you again," Carey said. "What did she say that has you so concerned you came to see me?"

"I caught her after she left the mess hall and talked to her a little bit," Jan said. "She said she'd never go back there, to live with her mother, I mean." The teen shook her head. "I don't think she really meant it, ma'am."

Carey stood up, her fists on the desk. "Meant what?" she asked. "Stop stalling."

"She said she'd kill herself before she'd ever go back there," Jan said. "But she wasn't talking like she was thinking about suicide, ma'am. I swear."

Carey swallowed and sat down. "What do you call it when someone threatens to kill themselves?"

"I 'm just worried about her, ma'am. I don't really think she'd kill herself, I really don't, but she seemed so down. I got to thinking about a neighbor lady of ours who had a sister that killed herself. Mrs. Connor said that her sister had talked about it but she didn't do anything because she didn't think she would really do it." Jan cleared her throat and fidgeted in her seat. "Grace is my friend and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't tell someone and then something happened to her."

"You did the right thing, Bowen. Grace is lucky to have a friend like you."

"Thank you, ma'am." Jan got to her feet. "If you don't mind, ma'am, I'd better get back. I have a test I need to study for."

Carey nodded her head and got up to walk her to the door. She had been worried about Grace too, especially after that nightmare last night. Now she was more convinced than ever that she needed to get Grace to open up. But how do I do it?

Jan opened the door, then paused and looked back at Carey. "Please don't tell her I said anything."

"I won't. I promise."

Jan nodded her head and walked out the door.

"It's time for your mentoring session, is it?" Carey said when Grace


entered her office.

"Yes, ma'am."

"So what would you like to talk about?" Carey asked, resting her elbows on the armrests and lacing her fingers. "Or rather, what do you not want to talk about?"

"I don't want to talk about that," Grace said, her gaze going to the glass paperweight. "I'm sorry I woke you up, ma'am."

"You said that last night," Carey said. "That secret is trying so hard to get out, Grace. Why do you keep fighting it?"

Grace blinked several times. "I'm not ready, ma'am."

"Whether you like it or not, you're more than ready," Carey said, leaning forward and taking the egg-shaped paperweight. "Now look at me. You were quiet this morning and you've been walking around all day with a face that tells me exactly what you've been thinking about."

Grace looked at her hands. "I can't stop thinking about it."

"At me, Grace," Carey said, waiting until the teen's eyes were upon her. "Would you feel more comfortable talking to Instructor Gage or Donaldson?"

"No, ma'am."

"Then why are you so afraid?"

"Why does it matter if I talk about it or not?" Grace asked, looking down at her hands. "It's not going to change what happened."

"No, but it will change how you react to it," Carey said. "Grace, look what it's doing to you today." The teen continued to look downward. "It wasn't your fault. You need to know that, Grace. No matter what happened, it wasn't your fault." Her eyes raised at the soft snort. "Look at me. What did I just say?"

"It wasn't my fault," Grace said without emotion.

"Now if only I could get you to believe that," Carey said. "You were the victim, Grace, not the abuser. Why do you keep protecting him?"

"I'm not protecting him!" Grace snapped, blue eyes flashing anger, instead of the melancholy look Carey had seen all day. "Why do you say things like that?"

"Because you are," Carey said.

"Protect him from what?" Grace asked in the same angry tone. "From the cops? Bullshit. They won't do anything and you know that. It doesn't matter what I say or do, nothing changes." The teen shifted in her chair, leaning her right elbow on the armrest and rubbing her chin. "I don't want to talk anymore...ma'am."

"I gave up counting how many times you forgot, long ago," Carey said. "You're right that the lack of evidence would make prosecuting him difficult if not impossible, but I don't care about that right now. Grace, I'm telling you for the last time, look at me. I care about you and what this is doing to you."

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not," Carey said, rising from her seat. "You keep your eyes on me," she said, moving around the desk. "You're holding on right now by a thread and it's about to break...soon."

"So?"

It was almost enough to make Carey lose her temper. "If you don't know..." She turned her back to the teen and slowly counted to ten. "So maybe I don't want to find you hanging by a rope or lying next to a bottle of pills," she said, turning around and locking eyes with Grace. "You're too special to be another statistic." She leaned on her desk, inches away from the chair where Grace sat. "I'm not kidding here. I'm really worried about you."

"I'm not going to do anything," Grace said.

Carey sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Let's stop tiptoeing around this," she said, watching as the girl clenched her jaw. "Grace, you were sexually abused whether you want to admit it or not." Blue eyes flickered away from her. "You're also seventeen and clearly miserable. Any idea what that spells a recipe for?"

"I hate feeling like this," Grace said.

"Then change it," Carey said. "Change it by opening up and letting that secret out. Talk about what happened to you, how you feel about it, anything but just talk before this destroys you."

"Let's take a seat, girls," Instructor Gage said as she entered the room and put her hat on the hook by the door. "You've been learning a great deal about yourselves and each other over the last four months. Now that those chips have been knocked off your shoulders and you're acting like civilized young ladies, it's time to take a deeper look at why things went so wrong at home." Gage took the remaining seat in the circle chairs. "Who wants to start? Waters."

"I don't have anything to say, ma'am," Grace said, her eyes focused on the carpet.

"You seem to be having a rough day," Gage said. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, ma'am."

"So answer the topic. Why do you think things went wrong at home?"

"What's the point?" Grace asked. "Nothing's gonna change. They're not going to change, ma'am."

"We can't change other people," Gage said. "The only thing we can do is change ourselves and change the way we react to those around us."

"Bullshit," Grace said, clenching her hands into fists. "Nothing's gonna change, ma'am. That's why I won't go back there."

"Why, what's happening at home?" Gage asked, her gentle voice a stark contrast to her usual tone.

Tears stung Grace's eyes. "He's there," she said, sniffling. "He's there and if l went home he'd be waiting for me." She closed her eyes as the tears began to spill out. "I hate him so much, ma'am."

"This is a safe place," Gage said. "No one can hurt you here." The words, eerily reminiscent of Carey's, caused Grace's heart to pound, her body to tremble. "Waters?"

"What, ma'am?"

"What did he do?"

"Doesn't matter, ma'am."

"You know you can't get away with that kind of answer in here," Gage said. "What did he do to you?"

"He...he..." Grace jumped from her chair, pushing it back so she could escape the circle. "I'm sorry, I can't, I..." Feeling the sob in her throat, she threw open the door and ran down the hall, ignoring the instructor calling her name. Grace ran, though the side door and outside, unsure of where to go but knowing she needed to get away.

There was a sharp rap on the door before it opened and Sue Gage entered. "You got a problem," she said, slumping into the chair in front of Carey's desk.

"What?"

"Waters," Gage said. "She ran out of Anger Management like a bat out of hell."

Carey was instantly on her feet. "Grace? Where did she go?"

"Took off running," Sue said. "I started to go after her but she ran off into the woods and I thought you might want to talk to her."

"Damn," Carey said.

"I'm sure she didn't go far," the petite woman said. "Probably just needed a quiet place to go and have herself a good cry."

"What happened?"

"I almost got her to talk about her mother's boyfriend," Gage said. "First time I've seen her cry."

Carey rubbed her face. "I knew it was coming," she said. "Marilyn tell you what she heard Grace say to her mother yesterday?" Gage shook her head. "She said Boyfriend has a thing for little girls."

"No question about it now," Gage said. "Not that there was much doubt."

Carey nodded. "I wish it wasn't true," she said, rapping her knuckles on the desk. "She's a good kid deep inside." She reached for her cap. "I'll go after her. You said she headed into the woods?"