Coach Cooper points toward the boys’ locker room entrance, then settles at a nearby bench with the referral and safeguarding note spread across her clipboard. The gym remains otherwise empty.
Coach Cooper
Retrieve anything you left in the locker room, Mikey. I will remain here handling the paperwork. Lucy, stay at the doorway.
Mikey crosses the polished floor toward the familiar locker room. Lucy follows only to the threshold, her unusually tall silhouette stopping beneath the doorway’s fluorescent light.
Lucy
I am not coming in, silly little boy. Coach said the doorway, and I heard her.
Inside, the room smells of disinfectant, rubber, and damp towels. Open lockers and scattered benches offer privacy from the gym, but Cooper’s paperwork remains visible beyond the entrance.
Lucy
You said you liked hearing Lloyd cry. Did you actually mean that, or were you trying to look tough in front of Coach Cooper?
Lucy
He looked pleased before, but now there is nobody here to impress. Maybe he really does care about Lloyd, underneath all that strange cruelty.
“Will Lucy have contempt for me when she finds out that I genuinely enjoyed Lloyd being in pain?”
YES (VeryLikely, rolled 24)
The locker room’s fluorescent hum continues through the silence. Lucy studies Mikey’s face from the doorway, waiting for an answer she already seems to fear.
Lucy
You really did mean it. You enjoyed hearing Lloyd hurt, and you are not even pretending it was only a joke.
Her expression tightens into open contempt. The teasing brightness leaves her voice, replaced by a flat disgust that makes the familiar room feel suddenly colder.
Lucy
That is pathetic, Mikey. Lloyd cared about you, and you wanted his punishment to be entertainment. I do not respect you for that.
At the doorway, Lucy folds her arms and keeps her distance. She does not spread the confession or raise her voice, but she no longer treats him like a silly target worth playing with.
Coach Cooper
Lucy, keep the exchange private and factual. Mikey, collect your belongings when you are ready, then return to the bench.
Lucy
He is not tough. He is just willing to enjoy someone else suffering, and that is worse than his usual foolishness.
“Will Coach Cooper agree that an exception can be made such that I don't need to shower after PE in the communal showers like the other boys are doing?”
YES (Unlikely, rolled 22)
Coach Cooper’s clipboard pauses over the safeguarding note. She looks toward the locker room, then back to Mikey, weighing the practical request rather than Lucy’s judgment.
Coach Cooper
Yes. You may skip the communal showers today. Rinse at the private sink, change into clean clothes, and report to me when you are finished.
Lucy’s folded arms loosen slightly, though her expression remains severe. The exception is granted as a privacy accommodation, not as approval of Mikey’s comments about Lloyd.
Lucy
So you get a private option, but you still have to clean up. Do not pretend Coach is rewarding that awful attitude.
Coach Cooper
Correct. This is about managing the locker-room situation appropriately. The rule remains that students leave PE clean and properly dressed.
She writes the accommodation beside the completed reflection, specifying the sink and change of clothes. Beyond the doorway, the communal showers continue running as the other boys finish.
Coach Cooper
Collect your belongings, use the private sink, and return to the bench. Lucy will remain at the doorway, and nobody needs to discuss this arrangement further.