Mr. Ballin

She'd reported it missing to the campus police, but she really had no idea where it went.

But for now, Barbara forgot about the gun and just took a deep breath and finished up her goodbye letter.

Then she glanced over at the clock and saw it was almost 10 a.m., and so she had to get to class.

So she grabbed the letter and put it inside of her purse, where she also was holding a turquoise necklace, which she planned to sell that day.

It was the single most valuable thing that she owned, and she was going to pawn it to get some seed money to leave town.

She'd figure out her actual destination based on how much she got for it.

As Barbara threw her bag over her shoulder and got ready to leave, she heard a car pull into the driveway outside, which was a relief because she'd actually let her best friend, Jerry, borrow her car to go skiing the other day, and she had been hoping he would drop it off before she left for class.

And so clearly, that's what he was doing.

And so Barbara hurried out her front door, and sure enough, there was her car, and there was Jerry climbing out and waving her keys, basically being like, hey, I'm back.

As Jerry handed the car keys back over to Barbara, he asked her if they were still on for hanging out later.

But Barbara was busy thinking about getting to class and the logistics of selling her necklace.

She had decided that Salt Lake City would have more pawn shops that would pay better, and it was also less than an hour north.

And so now that Jerry had dropped her car off, she could drive up there right after class.

And so, you know, Barbara just kind of nodded at Jerry and whatever he was saying, and then she took the keys, jumped in her car, and she was off.

Over an hour later, Barbara was sitting in her social work class, waiting for the teacher to dismiss them.

And as she was sitting there, she began to hear some students whispering behind her.

And as they did, even though she couldn't quite hear what they were saying, she began to feel her face get red.

Because even though she didn't know if they were talking about her, if they were, it certainly would not be the first time.

People talked about her a lot.

So Barbara just did her best to try to ignore them.