The girls could, in fact, not play soccer, but Mark smartly avoided pointing this out.

They instead ended up just kicking the ball around to each other for a bit, and then they did one-on-one with the third as goalkeeper.

Mary managed to score one goal on Mark, which was when she decided it was time to stop, not because she was a terrible winner, but because class would start soon.

Josie had turned out to improve surprisingly fast, having scored quite a few goals as well as prevented a lot when she stood on the goal, and Mark, unsurprisingly, had won big time.

“You might have a future as a goalkeeper,” he had told Josie when they were heading back inside, to which she had shrugged, as if shaking off the compliment. 

But, what Mark couldn’t see as he walked behind her, was how big of a smile it had brought out on her face.

They got to class a bit before the bell rang, and immediately Mark was surrounded by the boys, introducing themselves, asking him to join their sports team once again, and telling him when they usually meet up and play.

Mary and Josie did not help him out. They had done their duty, for now, and decided to sit and relax for the last two minutes before the class would begin.

When class did begin, the distance between Mark and Mary had lessened a bit, Mary sitting more towards her original spot than before. Not that it meant anything. She was still sharing books with Josie, and Mark still got books all for himself.

The day dragged on, and when lunch time came, Mary and Josie invited Mark to come with them, asking if he had brought anything.

“I’m going to go buy a sandwich…” he said, shaking his head. The girls nodded, grinning. He had listened on their little tour, and they were glad for that. That he wasn’t some stuck up city boy.

But then again, they should already have known better.

Josie offered to go with him, but Mark once again shook his head, telling them he would just come back to eat with them afterwards.

A group of the boys from the soccer club came over and dragged him along with them, trying to recruit him for the soccer club. Mary reached a hand out, trying to stop Mark, but Josie held down Mary first, and shook her head ever so slightly.

The soccer idiots, as they were known by the girls, were infamous for causing a lot of trouble. They tended to mercilessly bully anyone who got in their way, but were smart enough about it to not get noticed by teachers, and scary enough to make sure their victims wouldn’t tell on them.

One incident in particular, involving Mary, had made it clear that they were not a group to get involved with. So of course Mary wanted to stop Mark from going with them, and of course Josie wanted to stop Mary from getting further involved.

And of course Mary did what Josie wanted in this case, as she didn’t want to worry her again…

And after Mary silently resigned herself to not helping, thinking everything would probably be fine, Mark was gone.

With nothing else to do, Mary looked at Josie, who nodded. They had maybe ten minutes before he would be back.

And so they stood up.

And went to the toilet.

They were ordinary high school girls, after all. Nothing nefarious or suspicious going on there.

At least…

It was supposed to be entirely innocent and normal.

But after they had taken their time and went back out, there were none other than the ones they wanted to avoid, the soccer idiots, who had dragged Mark along with them, coming out from the boys toilet.

With no Mark.

The soccer idiots didn’t notice the girls, going towards the cafeteria, clapping each other on the back and laughing about some ongoing conversation the girls had no idea about.

The girls stood in silence, waiting for the idiots to be out of sight.

“You think he went ahead?” Mary asked, looking as far into the boys toilet as she could, eyes knitted together, mouth down in a frown, but with no luck.

“Maybe…” Josie agreed, but didn’t sound too sure. Rather, she sounded worried and guilty.

The fact of the matter was, the soccer idiots were a troublesome group. A really troublesome group.

And while Mary was ready to fight them if they ever came too close, she had promised Josie to try to stay clear after the incident.

But they still knew it wouldn’t be beneath them to pull a new kid to the side and lock him in a bathroom stall or steal his pants. Or worse, but the girls didn’t have the imagination for that kind of cruel pranks.

But surely not… Not on his first day… Not with someone they wanted to recruit…

They looked at each other, not knowing what to do. If it was even their business to do something. 

Mary looked at Josie, who looked down at her feet. She understood. Mary could have stopped this before it happened, but Josie had stopped her. It was their fault for not speaking up when the boys dragged Mark away, and while Mary had chosen to listen to Josie, Josie without a doubt solely blamed herself.

But, she wouldn’t let that stop her from figuring out a plan to fix it. That’s what Josie did. Kept calm and collected, logic over feelings and took one step forward.

“We could ask a teacher to check?” Josie suggested. She could see Mary was ready to go in herself, and depending on what she found in there, was ready to run after the boys and make them pay. Josie couldn’t stand the thought of that. Couldn’t stand the thought of Mary getting in trouble.

“I guess…” Mary agreed, anger seething behind her words. She knew it was the logical thing to do, and yet…

But she had gotten into too much trouble last time she went in the boys room, and she wasn’t sure she could get away as easily again if she was caught. And she didn’t want to add more guilt to Josie, who would undoubtedly blame herself even more…

“Yea, let’s find someone,” Mary finally said with the hesitation gone, and they went towards the teachers lounge, popping in their heads to take a look around.

“Hello girls, what are the two of you up to?” A young female teacher asked when she saw them. They had seen her before, but never had her in any classes, and didn’t know her name.

“Uhmm… Are there any male teachers around?” Josie asked timidly, but she knew she couldn’t leave it to Mary, who would rather go in and look for herself.

“I don’t think so,” the teacher said, looking around and then back at the girls, “it’s not something I can help with?”

“What about Mr. John, our homeroom teacher? Class 3-C?” Josie asked. She didn’t actually want to get him involved, but he was one of the few teachers that still treated Mary okay, and they had just seen him earlier, so he should be around.

“Oh, no, I’m afraid Mr. John had to take the rest of the day off. He didn’t feel so well. But I might be able to help?” The female teacher offered again.

“I don’t think so… We don’t know for sure but there might be, uhm…” Josie wasn’t sure how to put it, and took a break to think about it.

It was important to phrase it just right, so they didn’t directly get anyone into trouble and so it wouldn’t be traced back to them.

“Trouble,” Mary supplied, “there might be trouble in the boys' toilet. We don’t know for sure, though.”

“Oh…” the teacher said, looking back over her shoulder once more, to see if a male teacher had suddenly appeared out of thin air in the few seconds she hadn’t looked.

“What makes you think that?” she asked instead, looking at Mary intensely, like she had been the reason.

Mary realized then, they might not know who the teacher was, but the teacher certainly knew her.

Mary sighed and glanced at Josie. She knew whatever she said, it wouldn’t be believed as easily as if Josie spoke the same words.

“We just saw something concerning and… Some troublesome individuals leaving with one person missing. So we just thought it was something that should be checked… maybe…” Josie spoke firmly even if she took long breaks between her words, very clearly thinking of the best way to convey their concerns, without it sounding too silly but still vague.

Mary started to regret caring in the first place, not wanting to be blamed for something she didn’t do, but another part of her also couldn’t let it go. Mark had been their responsibility for the day, and if he was hurt, the help was being too slow.

“I guess I can go check…” the teacher finally said with a neutral expression, then she walked out of the teacher’s lounge. After a few steps she turned her head and said “you can go back to your lunch break now.”

Mary and Josie looked at each other. Mary seemed anxious and angry, while Josie seemed sad and anxious. They couldn’t do anything else now, and even if they tried, it would most likely only come back to bite them. They decided to go back to class.

“Hey, where did you go?” Mark asked, as soon as they took a step into class, sitting with a sandwich where a big bite had been taken out of it.

“Where did you go?” Mary asked before she could stop herself, sounding both mad and accusing.

Mark didn’t answer, and instead looked at them with question marks written all over his face. He then looked at the sandwich he was eating, and was about to answer, but Josie started talking first.

“We just saw the group you went with, and you weren’t there, so we got worried,” she said, sending Mary a look that very much told her to calm down.

Mary gave a slight nod and breathed in deeply, calming herself the best she could.

It had been such a small thing, about a complete stranger, and yet she had let herself get to the point where she almost entirely forgot there was an “after” to her actions. If it hadn’t been for Josie, she would have stormed in there and checked every stall herself.

But Josie had been there. Josie was always there when it really mattered.

Except that one time.

“Oh, yea, they said they needed to go to the toilet, so I just went ahead alone, and then some guys from the basketball team grabbed me instead, and helped me out. You two didn’t tell me to avoid the tuna surprise sandwich, but I was saved from that by the guys instead,” Mark laughed, showing the ham and cheese in his sandwich, along with some cucumber and tomato and one very sad and very small leaf of lettuce.

“Right! I knew we had forgotten something,” Josie said, instantly turning around and playing along. Mingling. “We always bring our own lunch, so don’t blame us for forgetting.”

“I might have blamed you a little if I got sick before my second day of school because of an unwanted ‘surprise’, but I was saved in my moment of need, so I forgive you,” Mark said, now sounding a bit like a mix of the two Marks they had seen so far. The timid and shy one they had met at first, and the confident one they had seen after the floor incident.

“Mary?” Josie said, noticing Mary still hadn’t moved from the door, “are you okay?” she asked in a softer voice, reaching out a hand.

Mary went to her, having calmed down.

She appreciated Josie’s patience. Her understanding for how she worked. And while Josie did calm her down and hold her back at times, it wasn’t like she tried to fundamentally change her. Just to make her think twice and remember there were consequences.

She had never been good at remembering that.

Mary sat down, smiling,  and playing along she said “I think the tuna surprise is tasty.”

If Mark was curious about what was up with her, or if he had even noticed she had needed to take a moment, he did not ask, nor let it show. Instead he just blew out his cheeks like a squirrel, holding up his hand in front of his mouth, and pretended he was going to get sick with a loud “BVAAAR”.

“Ewww,” Josie screamed, while Mary pretended to eat an imaginary tuna surprise, raving about how delicious it was.

And so, the three of them ate their lunch, with nothing of note happening the rest of the day.

Although, Mark did seem to sit a tiny bit closer to Mary than before…