Elizabeth closes her locker door and walks down the hall, carrying her morning books. She turns a corner and freezes, seeing Liam and Jennifer talking at the far end of the hallway. Once she realizes she's stopped she also realizes that she can't bring herself to keep moving toward them. There's nothing unusual about it, the two of them talked all the time, but not lately... lately they never talk. And now he's laughing, and she's looking at him in such an obvious way, and Elizabeth waits quietly, thinking rejection, rejection, rejection... any moment now he'll tell her to leave, he'll tell her that he doesn't want to talk to her and that he doesn't want her talking to him and for her to go away from him, but she's not leaving. They continue talking for far too long, and he's not doing anything to stop it. At one point she briefly touches his arm, and Elizabeth feels a hot flush against her face.

Finally their unheard conversation starts to take on the mannerisms of coming to a close, and for a cold moment it looks like Jennifer's about to raise herself onto her toes to... what? To kiss him? But the moment passes, they exchange final smiles and Jennifer walks away. Liam watches her until she walks around a corner, then leans back against some lockers and looks up at the ceiling, smiling a giant smile to himself.

Elizabeth is paralyzed, anger flowing through her body. She relaxes and breathes slowly, trying to calm herself, to go to Liam as though nothing had happened, but she can't; the feeling keeps getting stronger, swelling inside her until she can't even bring herself to examine it, she simply has to accept that it's everywhere and it's not leaving. She turns and walks away, out the nearest door and along the outside of the school, a very small part of her mind disturbed at the realization that she had tried to fight and had been completely bowled over.

She goes to the back of the school, her head down, watching the gravel beneath her feet, then walks behind a utility shed. She sits down, putting her head in her hands while she lets her teeth grind. After a few moments her head finally starts to clear, and with a shock she recognizes the height of the emotions she'd been feeling. Where did they come from? That wasn't like her, nothing like that had ever happened before... and even now she could still feel it, it was far from gone. Was this because of Liam? There's no way... there's no way he could be that important, to unhinge her like that. What the hell had just happened?

She starts to feel angry again, a different kind of anger, this time used to fight her original feelings, to reprimand them for being so ridiculous. She couldn't allow herself to be attacked by her own feelings like that. Calm down, relax. Think this through. The feelings had come when she saw Liam with Jennifer. Her original anger flares slightly at the thought, but she ignores it. Somehow, this had happened because of Liam.

When she's with Liam she feels relaxed. She feels like she doesn't have to worry about things, like she doesn't have to think about things and critique them all the time – She brings things up and argues and complains, but it seems almost idle, like it doesn't really matter. Like it's not really important. She can talk about something with him and then let it go, it doesn't get stuck in her head, it doesn't consume her... When she's with him, she can stop.

That's such a small thing, is that really worth this much? Is it really that important?

Slow sigh. Breathe out.

Relax.

Evan and Hillary sit down at the same table as Jessica and Lindsey. "Hey, ugly," Evan says to Jessica.

"Morning, you phony fuck," she replies.

"At least I've got a beautiful shell. So, this is your little petition?" he asks, looking over the papers on the desk.

"Yeah," Lindsey answers. "You wanna sign it?"

"No thanks, I'm staying out of this. So you asked everybody else?"

"Not everybody," Jessica says. "Only the people we thought would sign it."

"Well, it couldn't hurt to try some others. Did you ask that guy?" Evan points at Steven, who sits brooding a few tables away.

Jessica shrugs. "Hey, Steven!" she calls. "Come over here a minute!"

Steven glares at them mistrustfully for a moment, then walks over. "Yeah, what is it?"

"We wanted to know if you want to sign our petition," Jessica says. "We're trying to get Cantrell fired."

"Really?" He looks down at the list of names for a moment, then says, "Fuck it, give me a pen."

Lindsey and Jessica glance at each other with surprised smiles while Evan supplies Steven with a pen. As soon as he finishes signing the paper it's snatched from his grasp, and they turn to see Elizabeth leaning over the table, signing Elizabeth Patton at the bottom. The girls exchange a new round of surprise as Elizabeth pulls out a chair to sit with them.

"No, I was... just leaving," Steven says, turning and walking away.

"So," Elizabeth asks, turning her attention to the group. "How are things coming along?"

Jessica smirks mischievously. "Today's the day."

A little surprised, Elizabeth asks, "Really? So what have you got?"

"Well, there's the petition, and we've got written accounts detailing instances of gross misconduct on Cantrell's part from over a dozen students. But this is the coup de grace," Jessica says, holding up the tape recorder.

"And what's that?"

"A tape of Cantrell yelling at me for putting puke in her car. You should hear it, it's something else."

"You put puke in her car?"

"Yeah, but there's no proof I did it," Jessica says. "So I've got Cantrell verbally abusing a student under no real grounds."

Skeptically, Elizabeth answers, "I don't think that's going to work quite as well as you think. You need something better."

Her cheeks flushing slightly as she frowns, Jessica asks, "Like what?"

"We need to make use of the rumors about her, especially about her and Liam. Almost everyone thinks they're true already, so all they need is a little push of legitimacy. And who would know better than me? Liam's significant other."

Jessica watches her for a moment, then slowly smiles. "You'd do that?"

Also smiling, Elizabeth answers, "Yes."

"Man," Evan mumbles. "You are some evil bitches..."

"Shut up," Jessica tells him with a glare.

"I was just leaving anyway," he says, standing up. "Hey dummy, you coming?"

"What?" Hillary looks up at him. "Yeah, I guess so. See you guys later," she says, joining Evan.

"Alright, slut," Evan says, slapping her on the ass. "Let's roll."

"Evan!" she says, slapping his hand away, but follows him from the cafeteria. Watching them go, Jessica says, "I don't fucking understand those two."

Evan kisses Hillary on the neck. The two of them leans against a set of lockers in a deserted hallway at the back of the school, his hands running up the sides of her body as she struggles slightly to keep him away. "Evan, stop it..."

"You don't like it?" he whispers into her ear. "I thought you wanted me to touch you."

"I didn't ask you to call me a slut in front of my friends."

"Comes with being a piece of meat, babe. I'm just fulfilling all your high school boyfriend desires." He reaches up to her breast, and this time she doesn't resist. He rests his hand on her chest for a moment, giving it a small squeeze, but glances at her and notices a smile. He sighs and pulls away.

"Goddamn it, Hillary," he says. "You couldn't be less fun if you tried."

Lenny, Carl and Jeff watch Ms. Cantrell speed into the parking lot and park her car with expert precision. "She certainly has tamed that wild beast," Carl says.

"Yes," Lenny replies, "But what man could tame her?"

Jeff and Carl give him an odd look.

"What?"

Elizabeth walks into her homeroom class and sees Liam leaning back in his chair, reading a magazine. "Hey," she says, sitting down next to him.

"Hi," he answers, not looking up.

She feels a distinct sense of unease rising inside her; she has to talk about something, anything...

"I saw this priest walking down the street yesterday who had this really phony sort of smile on his face, it made him look like he was trying to give the impression of being humbly satisfied about everything, just a simple man with simple pleasures, happy with his place in the world, and it was so fake. He looked like the kind of asshole who'd answer any problem with 'But look at what a beautiful day it is', like that's some kind of legitimate answer. He radiated such a ludicrous amount of false hubris that I just wanted to pop him in the jaw."

She looks at Liam and sees him nodding slightly, still focusing on the magazine. "Liam, I love you," she says.

Looking up, he asks, "What?"

"I l-love you," she repeats, glancing away slightly.

He grins. "You should stutter more often. It's kinda cute."

She sees that he's returned to the magazine and frowns. "What the hell is that?" She glances at the cover. "A wrestling magazine?"

"Hey, give me a break. I'm reading about Foley."

She feels a knot begin to form in her stomach and puts her hands on her abdomen. "Ugh... I have to go to the bathroom." She doesn't bother waiting for his acknowledgment before getting up and leaving.

Standing at his locker, Steven sees Elizabeth walking down the hallway, holding her stomach. As she passes him she moves one hand to her forehead, then pushes open the bathroom door and almost falls inside. He continues watching the door as it slowly closes.

Inside the empty bathroom Elizabeth leans against one of the sinks, her eyes closed. The pain in her stomach has lessened, but has moved into her shoulders and behind her eyes. She looks into a mirror – her eyes look the same, they look exactly the same... how can they hurt so much?

The bathroom door opens and Steven walks slowly inside, glancing around to make sure they're alone.

"Oh god," Elizabeth mutters, turning away. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see if you were alright."

"I just have a headache. Go away."

"I have some aspirin in my locker."

She gives him a quick glare. "I don't take drugs."

He slumps his shoulders, exasperated. "I just want to help you."

"You can't help me. Jesus, Steven, whatever gave you the idea that you could help me? And this is the girls bathroom, so get out!"

With a frown Steven backs away, then reluctantly exits. Elizabeth turns back to the mirror for a moment, then locks herself in a stall and sits on the lowered toilet lid, her head rested on her knees.