Bella collapsed onto her bed, still dripping with the foul-smelling fish water. Her uniform clung to her skin, scales stuck in her hair, and her scraped knees burned. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to catch her breath.
Molly grabbed a towel from her closet and handed it to her, sitting on the edge of the bed with a worried frown.
“Talk to me,” Molly said gently. “What the hell happened?”
Bella wiped her face with the towel, but it only smeared the mess. Her voice came out shaky and broken between sobs.
“I… I was just walking back from class, minding my own business. Then this group of girls started staring at me weirdly. I tried to ignore them and kept going, but someone tripped me. I fell hard — my knees…” She lifted the hem of her skirt slightly to show the bloody scrapes.
