Diana had a breakfast consisting of a single toaster waffle for the second day in a row, and discussed the upcoming day with her ten tiny captives: "Okay, everyone, I think I want to carry a cute girl in my chest today. She'll get to ride with me all day, as I go to classes and work."

Tamara visibly stepped forward. "If it keeps me warm, I'd be glad to-"

"Natasha," Diana said, ignoring what had been said, "you're the lucky girl! My tits will keep you warm, snug, and safe from whatever's been making noises in the walls," she said, deciding to scare the fuck out of the girls before she left. That said, the tiny mute was picked up and deposited in Diana's shirt, her protests in sign completely unintelligible to the lanky athlete.

"Wait, what?" Penny asked nervously. "You mean, your apartment doesn't just make those noises on its own?"

Diana shrugged, inwardly grinning. She knew the scratching from inside the walls came from shoddy insulation, but she had been scared at first, too. "I'm thinking- I'm hoping- that one of the mice my neighbor feeds to his pet snake just got away. If that thing got loose again . . . eurgh." That much wasn't a lie. The skinny man had promised he'd gotten a better tank, but there was nothing that would erase Diana's mental image of waking up to a huge snake just off the side of her bed.

"A snake?!" Anne positively flipped out inside her glass prison. While all the  girls displayed their fear of that situation, hers was the worst reaction. She had a massive fear of snakes, and began hyperventilating with her knees clutched to her chest. "Take me with you, please! PLEASE! I'll ride in your fucking bra, just don't leave me alone with a snake!" The usually controlling teen was sobbing, begging to be anywhere but trapped under glass.

Diana's eyes narrowed. "You are being punished. Maybe, if you're good when I come back tonight, you can have your turn tomorrow." With that, she jogged out the door.

Penny, for one, was actually rather calm. Even if a snake broke in, it would be unlikely to eat all of them, and with Anne under glass, Tamara in rather bad shape, and Kayla far too trusting, the redhead was certain of one thing: she would live.

***NATASHA***

The girl between Diana's breasts was scared, at first. Scared for her friends, scared for herself. Perhaps terrified would be a better word.

Natasha had seen Diana's eyes on her when she was normal-sized, and while she personally found the attention flattering, she had brutally pranked the girl alongside her friends to fit in. So she wouldn't be an outcast herself. Now, with the black-haired girl ruling over her very life, the brunette began regretting her decisions.

And yet, as Diana walked, the motions' quaking through her chest began soothing Natasha. After all, it felt almost like being onboard a ship, and the mute was very nautically-oriented. In fact, the reason she owned a rather bulky waterproof phone was because she liked being on the water so much, simply staring out at the ocean. Out there, it didn't matter that she couldn't talk. You just wanted to listen, anyway.

Natasha felt like she should apologize more and more as Diana walked: after all, without Anne and the other girls actively messing with her, being on Diana's person was the safest place anyone could be. Outside the blonde's gang, no one really dared go near the ravenette- she was taller than anyone barring a couple of the teachers, an accomplished athlete, and before last year she had been a member of the girls' kickboxing team (Natasha herself wasn't sure if she'd quit for her job, or been kicked off because everyone else was uncomfortable with a lesbian on the team).

However, she couldn't. Without her phone, or her notepad, or someone who could understand ASL, Natasha was completely helpless to express herself. The brunette remembered being able to talk, remembered her voice being very pretty, remembered that she used to like to sing. However, a terrible throat infection had completely destroyed her vocal cords, and rendered her completely mute for life. She remembered being devastated by it, remembered wondering if she'd just be better off dead with all the heckling she'd received. 

However, Natasha had persevered, and made do with her inability to speak. And yet she'd been just as cruel to this poor girl as her old friends had been to her when she'd lost her voice. She felt so ashamed, so hypocritical. Natasha almost felt like she deserved this, penance for her actions. She desperately wished to communicate to Diana, to apologize . . . 

Suddenly, lunch began, and she found herself on a small table. "We're alone," Diana whispered down to the three-inch girl.

Natasha pantomimed writing in midair, desperately trying to get her hands on a writing implement. 

"Oh, right. Duh, I wouldn't be able to ask you my question if you didn't have a way to write, here . . ." The ravenette found a mechanical pencil on the floor, snapped a length of it free, and handed it to Natasha, before giving her the clean side of a sheet of paper. There was obviously writing on the other side, and the tiny girl began trying to work out what "V L A V" was about.

[Thank you,] Natasha wrote, glad to be able to "talk" again. [You said you were going to ask me a question?]

"Yeah. Um . . . I can't believe I'm doing this," the comparatively gigantic girl murmured, "but what's . . . wrong with me?"

[What do you mean?] Natasha's pencil scratched the paper as she responded.

"I mean that I'm hopeless!" The large girl slammed her fist on the table, knocking Natasha on her ass. "I mean, I've pretty much fallen in love with a bunch of girls who think I'm a freak! I still think there's a God out there somewhere, and I don't think he'd be cruel enough to force me to want someone I have zero chance with, so it's something wrong with ME! What am I doing wrong? Why does everyone hate me?" The huge girl began crying, and Natasha began to wonder what had set her off.

[I don't hate you,] Natasha wrote quickly. [I'm sorry I made you feel like I did. I should have known exactly how bad it feels to get picked on. I mean, I don't even know all that much about you.] Natasha realized that the paper being upside-down had something to do with it. "V A L V".

"What are you talking about? You're popular, you're drop-dead sexy, you're actually pretty smart, you're not gay . . . what would anyone have?" Diana seemed more confused by the prospect of Natasha being bullied than anything else. 

[I can't talk!] Natasha wrote angrily. [Imagine, if someone wants to ignore you, they can just look away, or smack a notepad out of your hands. Wouldn't you be scared?]

"Yeah," Diana admitted, "but it doesn't sound like anyone's done it to you, you're just scared that they will. After I came out, I lost all my friends, I was kicked out . . . I don't WANT to be all alone, dammit!"

[But Anne made it out like you were just going around fucking any girl you got your hands on,] Natasha wrote. [How can you be alone if you're getting some all the time?]

"Pfft," Diana dismissed. "I wish. Unlike some people, I'm still a virgin. Only person who's ever touched me has been me."

[Haven't you been using Val to get off?] Natasha countered. [She's]

"Stop right there," Diana didn't let her waste her lead. "Val hasn't touched any more of me than anyone else has. She's kinda there more as . . . inspiration. I get off TO her, not WITH her. Do you just believe everything Anne tells you about me? Natasha, I'm gay, not a rapist. I'd prefer a girl who . . . y'know . . . does things with me . . . to want to do it. I mean, yeah, I fantasize about straight girls all the time, but that's because I don't have other lesbians around here to fantasize ABOUT."

[Maybe if you got laid you might calm down,] Natasha suggested, smiling as she presented her writing to Diana. 

"Is that a come-on?" Diana laughed. 

[It's a suggestion,] Natasha wrote vaguely. 

The bell rang, and Diana immediately shoved Natasha back into her cleavage. "Lunch just isn't long enough," she muttered.

As the day continued, Natasha was glad for her pencil fragment- it gave her hands something to do while she figured out what to think about all this. However, before she could come to a conclusion, she realized one of the letters she saw wasn't a letter at all. It was V A L, and then a narrow heart.

Val. Natasha couldn't believe that Diana had a crush on Val. It almost made her jealous that the short liar managed to get the gay girl in love with her.

***THAT NIGHT***

Natasha quickly ran over to the dirty napkin on the table at the soonest opportunity, which happened to be when Diana walked off to bed. Notably, tonight she was too tired and worn-out to take Val with her for her nightly self-pleasure session.

The mute immediately took her short length of graphite to a dirty napkin Diana had had on the table since they'd arrived (Andrea had tried to use it as a parachute to reach the floor, until she discovered it was too stiff and would probably only wind up killing her faster). Penny was the only one intrigued enough to follow her, as everyone else seemed to be more preoccupied with keeping a lookout for the snake Diana had told them about.

"What's going on?" The British girl whispered, knowing that something was happening. 

[Diana has a crush on Val!] Natasha wrote excitedly. [Once we tell her, she can keep us safe!]

Penny's jaw dropped. "I think she already knows. I should've put it all together faster, but . . . Val is the one who got Diana to kill Evy and Andrea. I've been thinking it over: Diana honestly doesn't want to kill us. She's just trying to get in Val's currently nonexistent pants."

[Then what do we do?] Natasha asked.

"Leave that much to me," Penny said seriously.