Alice stood up before any of them could touch her. She drew on long learned practice to make her face appear blank, all thoughts and emotions locked away. Being afraid would only arouse Stuart's creativity, and any other emtion would only make the lecture she was going to receive longer. She settled the police officer's jacket around her shoulders and zipped it up, reluctantly following along behind her 'family'.
                              

                              
####
                              

                              
The school bell rang and Alice was still sitting in the principal's office. He was staring at her file as if he could make it say anything but what it listed. She tried not to shift in the uncomfortable plastic chair as her legs stuck to the seat. It was this stupid uniform's fault, freaking Catholic school insisted that all girls wear appropriate feminine attire. Thus a kilt, blouse and sweater that she paired with knee high socks and black shoes. Other girls were using platform black heels or the style de jour, but Alice's shoes were black runners, ugly and practical. Not that she needed the extra height from heels. At 5'10 she loomed over most of the other girls even in their clunky footwear. And also unlike most of the other girls, she'd added black bicylcing shorts under the kilt.
                              

                              
Finally Mr. Bottomswell put her file down. Then he cleared his throat and took a sip of his coffee. "Now Ms. Spade. It says here that you were located after running away in a... a strip club? As a dancer. Here at the Sacred Heart, that sort of behaviour is not tolerated and any infraction on your behalf along those... immoral tendencies will result in swift punishement. Do you understand?" he asked, not unkindly.
                              

                              
Alice nodded her head mutely, bruised ribs a more telling reminder of her 'punishment' than any nebulous threat. The Walters hadn't appreciated her speaking out against them and had made their displeasure known. There was only one thing that made life not absolutely hopeless for her and that was the fact that Stuart had moved out of the house and into his own apartment. He still came home on weekends apparently but no longer was Alice terrified to simply come back to the house after school. Mr. Walter still used a heavy hand to enforce his 'rules' but he had never touched her inappropriately other than to hit her and she could endure that. She just needed to find a legitimate excuse to not be around the house on weekends. Her job as a stripper was gone but she'd also moonlighted as a DJ occassionally and had a decent following amongst her own classmates without them ever knowing who she was. To them DJ Mask was an androgynous mute who used music to speak. It didn't bring in as much cash as the dancing had, and she hadn't told the Walters that she had this alternate source of income so it was useless as an excuse.
                              

                              
"There's only a couple more things to discuss then you may attend your lunch and afternoon classes." Mr. Bottomswell said kindly, noticing the slight fear in Alice's eyes. She was startled at his change in demeanour, accepting the harsh but leery of the kind. "You will need to complete community service hours, it is required of all our students. Our graduates are expected to have completed 100 hours but as you are late it is not fair to expect as much. We are willing to accept 25 hours of community service as you're technically only getting a year of schooling here." he offered with a kind smile. Ace felt like wilting in relief. The Walters couldn't aruge with a gradutation requirement. Just slumping in her chair however reminded her that her ribs wouldn't take a full bend right now. She sucked in a sharp breath.
                              

                              
"Thank you. I really appreciate it. And I promise I will be an exemplary student." She swore. "I know you won't believe me but I ran away for very good reasons. And I did what I had to to survive." Alice stated softly, for some reason wanting this rotund elder man's respect. He seemed like a decent man and she hated that every one of the faculty could read her file and judge her solely on what it read. But she'd stand by her actions, knowing it had been the right thing to do. That year on her own had given her a self sufficency she'd lacked and taught her to fight for what she wanted. Freedom and security.