Oh but it was quite different undressing as a class! Elisabet would have thought woefully. Not that she could have said anything about it. Her mournful face simply contorted with some bizarre pain, the agony of not being able to argue or articulate everything she wanted to say. If anyone could just open her head with a can opener and pull the string of words from her brain, they would be much welcome to do so. Taking off her clothes in front of someone was something personal, private...sacred! That was the word that she kept wanting to blurt out.
How Elisabet wished she could scamper, flee the room, and run far far away. But with the book under her protective seat, she simply couldn't.
She let Felicia speak. Maybe if she simply allowed her roommate to just 'let it all out', she would be calm, she would tire herself out, and leave her alone. Elisabet prayed this as Felicia ranted on her. Hyne please ease her. Let her say everything she ever wanted to say, just let this ordeal be over--
But Elisabet's concentration snapped at Felicia's mention of parents. Her parents? The image flashed in her mind as Felicia probed and dissected her. It was the effect of breaking through a glass or bursting a protective bubble that Elisabet must have built around her: Barriers that allowed her to simply tolerate and be immune from any assault from the outside. Now it was as if Felicia finally found out about those walls and destroyed them pitilessly. Elisabet whimpered, desiring so much to defend herself for the last time by closing her ears and eyes to no avail. She could hear everything Felicia was saying. She could understand and make sense of each angry truth and feel their blows. How did Felicia do it? Did she have that power all along? How did she figure it out?
Stripping her clothes was quite nothing against that incisive examination.
For the first time, Felicia had Elisabet's undivided attention.
“See, these are both nice, Elisabet. You’d look like a girl in them instead of a transvestite.” Felicia threw her a shrewd side-ways glare. “I know you’re not ugly, you just like to pretend to be with your hair and your clothes. That’s alright though, you know? I told you, I’ll fix it.”
A forlorn look at the clothes, then at Felicia. The "dress up" concept was completely alien to her. Clothing was a basic necessity. As long as she had them, she was a full person. It did not matter what color, or style, or texture they were. They were merely there for "cover" and nothing more. Why would she try to be anymore fancier than that? Elisabet had no aspirations to begin with. She was bound to live simply, and leave the world simply...Was it wrong?
In the book of Felicia, it must be. And she was eating the hamburger and expressed no intentions of ever leaving.
Subjected to that sort of situation, Elisabet was compelled to follow. Compelled because there's no way out, because she had no choice, and because it's actually perfectly natural to follow an order.
Biting her lip, Elisabet turned around to start the process. Her shaky hands started pinching her clothing and tugging it. It was as excruciating as a burnt patient being told to remove her clothing with no assistance whatsoever. At that sort of pace, Felicia would finish her hamburger with the nightgown just over Elisabet's head.