She decides to go to drama class.

The sound of the bell announcing the students' release rang like a mockery in Sabrina's ears. While her classmates left in boisterous groups, she remained motionless in her seat, anchored by the weight of an unbearable reality. She could not go home or face questions; her only escape had always been the drama club. She needed to stop being herself.

With mechanical movements, she stood up. As she leaned down to pick up the remains of the tunic, a new shiver of horror ran through her. The silk, battered by falls and the dirt of the floor, was now a filthy rag. The red ink stain on the buttock area had expanded, creating a slimy mark that denounced Professor Valdez's seal.

The garment had ceased to exist as such; it had been reduced to two simple strips of fabric—long, thin, and frayed—barely held together by a thread at the shoulders. With numb hands and an uncontrollable tremor, Sabrina tried to wrap them around her waist to cover herself. However, no matter how hard she tried, her fingers failed and the knots came undone. The silk was so deteriorated and her hands shook so much that she could not tie the tunic ; the strips simply slipped, falling to the sides of her legs and leaving her torso, her belly, and her SPQR marks completely exposed to the cold air.

Holding the strips with her hands in a **** and futile attempt to maintain some decorum, she walked through the empty hallways. When she pushed open the heavy auditorium door, the uncomfortable silence of her drama classmates hit her like a slap. Mr. Miller, from the stage, watched with horror the two strips of dirty silk and the red stain that gave away the second punishment.

"Please, Mr. Miller. Just let me stay," she pleaded, with the untied tunic hanging like tatters of her skin.

"Sabrina, what happened is being talked about a lot. Maybe you should go home today," he replied, avoiding her eyes.

"Hey, Sabrina!" Josh's voice—the group's Macbeth—cut through the air with cruelty. "Is that your costume? Because you look like a gazelle after the hyenas are through with it".

"With those two strips, you wouldn't even have to act to play a beggar," another actor added among nervous laughter.

The humiliation exploded once more. Mr. Miller did not reprimand them; he only showed discomfort. Sabrina, with a frozen void in her chest, nodded slowly. She turned around and left the auditorium, with the silk strips waving like flags of her absolute defeat, while every inch of her marked skin screamed her degradation to the world.