rid yourself of sin [Jess]

[Hazel Johnson]

Hazel wandered into the cafeteria, hands hooked in her belt. Everything had been fairly quiet today, and she was bored, but the cafe tended to offer opportunities to do something. The anorexic kids, for example; the suicidal ones, trying to beg knives off the kitchen staff, and so on. Hazel went over the the counter, gave the serving lady a quick grin, and grabbed a slice of toast and a bottle of water from the buffet bar. Biting into it, she made her way to the back of the room and leaned against the wall, taking occasional swigs from the bottle. The toast was gone in minutes.

Hazel leaned back, staring across the room as it gradually filled with chattering, yelling and occasionally crying students. Nothing too interesting seemed to be happening, and she considered leaving. She could do a bed check, maybe go down and check nothing untoward was going on in the gym or the changing rooms, or behind the studio block. They seemed to be the favoured places for the students to bang each other, and although Hazel didn't particularly want to walk in on that, she was paid by the hour and that would waste some quality time dragging them off and reporting back to Gabe Hudson.

Hazel spotted a girl sat at one table, stirring her food around her plate with the dismal expression of someone who has just been given a plate of good food and expected to eat it, despite all the- shockhorror- calories! Hazel knew the symptoms. You didn't work at mental institutes for four years and not learn to recognize an anorexic. She had also learned that these tended to be the people who wallowed in self-pity, something Hazel invariably lost her temper with.

Walking over, she swung herself onto the bench opposite the skinny blonde, and gave her a friendly smile. "You really ought to eat that, you know. It's that or get tube-fed, and if you've had that done before you'll know it's not pleasant."

[Jessica Air]

Jessica poked her toast with a fork. Usually, people didn't eat toast with a knife and fork, but she preferred to for two reasons - one being that it stopped your hands getting all sticky. The other was that you could casually flip chunks of toast behind you and people tended not to notice that you were skipping on the calories. Here, though, they had security that would frown upon that, she'd been told. Why was everyone here blind? Seriously?

Glaring at her plate, she started cutting the toast up into minute pieces, each about the size of her thumbnail. There were two pieces, that all seemed to be swimming in butter - applied by the canteen staff in a bid to make her fifty stone, of course. God, she hated people here. Why were they all such idiots? Speaking - thinking - of idiots, here was one now, coming straight at her. She watched through narrowed eyes as a security guard headed over to her, her authority obvious. Jessica wondered if she could move quickly, go and sit with...who, exactly? It wasn't that she didn't have any friends, it was more that she just didn't want to sit with any of the idiots here. She couldn't sit and eat with people, anyway. They'd watch her eat.

When the guard sat across from her, Jess raised her head and stared at her, a cool, 'what the hell do you want' look. Really, some people had no manners. She didn't return Hazel's smile, and continued cutting the food as the guard spoke to her. She seethed quietly at her words. She couldn't just threaten her like that! You couldn't just go around threatening people! She glared at her. " I've been tube-fed before. And I'm not having it done again. " With that, she stood up, pushing her tray back. " And I'm not eating this crap, anyway. "

What a bitch.

[Hazel Johnson]

Hazel got the usual reaction. The glare, the angry food demolition. Hazel sighed. That toast was good, better than she usually had, and this girl was turning her nose up at it because of some stupid fixation with her weight. Hazel tapped her fingers against the tabletop, resolving to stay here until the girl ate it. And not throw things and hit people, specifically the girl. Standing up, she stood a few inches taller than the girl, which was always useful. "You know," she began mildly. "If you just tried eating like a normal human being and doing enough exercise, you wouldn't have to worry about your figure. And the other thing to think about is the fact that I'm getting paid by the hour, so if you want to stick around for a while and kick up a fuss, you're more than welcome to."

She gave the girl a friendly smile. Resting one foot on the bench, she stood there, waiting calmly for the denial. Then something else occurred to her. "Oh, and if you still refuse to eat, I'm allowed to drag you off for undermining school authority, and that will result in you getting forcefed, and that won't be pretty. I think you know that already, though." She stood there, happily staring the girl down with the ghost of a smile. I could do this all day, I really could. It's not fun, but it is quite entertaining. The girl looked like the type who would go down kicking and screaming, and Hazel took a sort of grim satisfaction in her job with these ones. It was probably considered sick, or sadistic or something, but there was something satisfying about seeing the self-pitying brats knuckle under to you, even if they were muttering threats under their breath.

[Jessica Air]

Jess stared open-mouthed at Hazel for a moment. How dare she? Honestly! Some people were unbelievably rude. She glared up at the guard, snapping her mouth closed. What a bitch. Just going round, abusing kids because she got paid extra? Evil bitch. " I do excercise, except for when idiot guards like you stop me! Anyway, I'll eat when I lose weight, and you can't make me eat before then! "

She pushed away the horrible thoughts that said Hazel probably could make her, and focused on some more pleasant ones, like how she would look when she lost two more stone, and was beautiful. Then she'd eat 'like a normal human being'. Jess wondered if there was some way she could trick Layla into thinking the guard had called her a freak, and then see how Hazel liked being disgustingly overweight because she'd eaten her own hair. And blood. Don't forget the blood.

At the guards next stupid little speech, she glared more. " I'm not going with you! You can't forcefeed me, freak! " Her voice got slightly louder and she realized that a few people at the nearest tables could probably hear her. " Bitch, " she muttered, knowing that Hazel could hear but the few people at the neighbouring tables probably couldn't. Ever so casually, she turned her back on the guard and walked towards the door, hoping that a magic portal would open, such her inside and lock Hazel out. And make her look good in a bikini. Sighing, she shook her head, and wondered how far she'd get before the guard ninja-pounced her, stabbed her with a sedative or screamed the place down getting her to come back. Hopefully it'd be the third option - that way, she could keep walking and then run away and hide somewhere until the calories the guard went away.

[Hazel Johnson]

Hazel sighed. Oh, she was one of those ones. The self-righteous ones. "Idiot guards like me are here to make sure you obey the rules, girl. And that involves eating. After that, go and exercise all you want, but for now, sit down and eat." She sighed. Great, now she was going to have to drag her back. She walked after Jess, ignoring the curious stares of the other students, and draped an arm across her skinny shoulders. It didn't even take a whole arm. She effortlessly steered Jess back to the table, driving them around in a big loop, and pushed Jess into a seat, seating herself down next to her.

She didn't reply to the second torrent of verbal abuse. It wasn't worth it: they both knew that she could, quite easily, and there was no point in arguing it with her. Anyway, Hazel was already losing her temper, and sh had a feeling that if she opened her mouth, all the wrong words were coming out. She took another swig from her water bottle and stretched out her legs, surveying the hall. Most of the students had stopped staring now, and returned their attention to their food. She glanced at Jess to check she was still there and not planning on running away. Hazel didn't want to have to shove bites of toast down her throat. Speaking of, the toast was practically liquefied by now, the pieces were so small. Sure she could eat something that size without worrying about the calories? Hazel never worried about calories, but Hazel never worried about much, except perhaps where her next paycheck was coming from, and who in the room was able to kill her if they wanted to. It was the years in the military: she wasn't very bothered about doing anything except the job any more.

[Jessica Air]

Jess was shocked at how plain rude Hazel - the hired help - was being. She glared, wondering if she should stamp on her foot and run for it. Maybe. She decided that that would be a last resort, because security didn't tend to react well to be assaulted. She'd been there, done that, and they usually yelled at her, shoved her in isolation or sedated her there and then. Of course, that was in her last psychiatric hospital. They might do things differently here. It struck her that she could now say her 'last psychiatric hospital' and she almost laughed. God, how sad was that? Very.

" I can exercise all I want? As in, for as long as I want? " It had taken her a while for that to click, but once it had, she was excited. Usually, she was only allowed half an hour every day, and that was if she had eaten all her meals without complaint, which was yet to happen. But if she could exercise all she wanted... Well, a piece of toast with butter was only about one-hundred and twenty-five, and she had two, which was two hundred and fifty calories. Add another fifty, just to be sure that she had the right amount, and that was three hundred calories. It'd take...not long to burn that, if she was on a treadmill. She burnt around one hundred for every mile she ran, and she could run pretty fast. So, fifty minutes at the most to burn the toast.

How much free time did she have before she was forced to go to class, bed or meals every day? She had less free time than everyone else, because of her stupid tutoring sessions, but she still had maybe three free hours, at least, every day. And that was a lot of calories she could burn... She stared at Hazel with joy. She'd lose weight! All she had to do was eat one stupid bit of toast... Slowly, she poked one of the tiny pieces and put it in her mouth, chewing it carefully despite it being small enough to swallow without noticing. It made her feel sick to eat, to give in to the staff here, but she could still lose weight...

[Hazel Johnson]

OK, that had been a misphrasing, but the kid wouldn't eat if she was told no. So Hazel shrugged mutely, and indicated the plate. When Jess put the toast in her mouth, Hazel was practically screaming inside. For God's sake, you spoiled brat! That food's good for you, you're killing yourself and all because you want to look nice! Jesus! But she kept her expression carefully friendly, smiling encouragingly at the girl in front of her as she watched her eat. She'd better eat it all quickly, then she'd be out of Hazel's hair. For a while, at least.

Hazel took another drink from her water bottle, turning around on her bench to survey the rest of the school for possible miscreants. She could see a few students who looked like they might be on the verge of a breakdown, but Hazel reckoned going over wouldn't help. It they started trying to cut themselves with the plastic knives, then she'd go over and sort them out. As it was, she was staying here, right next to Jess, until she'd eaten ever last crumb of toast. Hazel knew from experience that if she walked away, Jess would make a break for it, and then Hazel would have to hunt her down and take her to the infirmary to be force-fed. Sighing, she glanced back at the skinny girl, noticed how little progress she'd made. She considered saying something, but decided that distracting the girl from her breakfast wasn't the best idea, especially with the state she was in.

So Hazel sat in silence next to her, occasionally swigging from her water bottle, her gaze flickering between Jess, Jess' plate, and the rest of the cafeteria. Well, this beat being bored shitless, but not by much. Making stupidly skinny girls eat wasn't high on Hazel's list of 'entertaining things'.

[Jessica Air]

Jessica ate in silence, as slowly as she could. She could feel the guards eyes on her occasionally, and on her plate. She didn't have much chance to get rid of the food, then... Just when Hazel looked around the rest of the room, presumably to check nobody was murdering anyone else. Well, she was an expert in getting rid of food that she didn't want to eat - which was pretty much all food - so she'd have a go. The woman seemed so thick, she probably wouldn't notice if Jess got up, strolled over to the garbage can and threw the whole damn plate away. Her napkin was in her lap already; it was easy from there.

As soon as Hazel looked away, Jess shook her fork that was halfway to her mouth, neatly dropping the toast onto the napkin. She shuffled into the table slightly, so it wasn't blatantly obvious, and smiled sweetly when she got a suspicious look. It might have just been a normal look and she was just paranoid, but security guards tended to give her the suspicious sort. Especially at meals. They all wanted her to be fat...her smile disappeared at the thought and she scowled to herself. She had got rid of one piece of toast without being caught, sure, but she still had the rest of the meal to go. And the problem of how to sneak the napkin away. Looking at her toast, she realized how little progress she'd made; maybe quarter of one slice was gone. Sighing, she continued, actually eating a piece, before dropping another one into her lap.

Oh, crap. She'd twigged. As Hazel opened her mouth, ready to say something bitchy, she was sure, Jess pushed her plate away from her, so hard it came off her other side of the table. She listened carefully for a smash, before remembering that all the plates were plastic. As was all the cutlery, and the glasses. It was like they were two year olds. Biting her lip, she did her best to look innocent, while slipping her hand into her lap so she could shake the few pieces of toast onto the floor. If Hazel tried to make her eat it now - after it had been on the floor, getting all manky - well, she was sueing for sure. " I didn't mean to! " Damn. Her voices had gone a few notches higher then it was supposed to; she sounded very guilty, which wasn't good. Making her voice slightly calmer, she spoke again. " The plate just slipped... "