"...go take a shower in the boys' locker room."
Yuki's mouth went bone drain and grew numb, causing her objections to come out as an incoherent whimper.
The boys' locker room? Where there could have been other stragglers still using the showers? Where the members of the sports teams changes into their gear before practice? And where those same players shower after practice?
The idea alone made Yuki hunch her back and move her arms in front of her, giving no thought to the sudden prominence of her behind.
"Here's how it works," Trisha continues. "I'll wait here for you, Antoinette and Wanda walk you to the door of the locker room. You get to the showers, I'll uncork one of the peep holes the boys drilled and signal you with a finger. You shower in front of the hole so I can watch you, and I'll tell you when you've done enough and can come back."
After swallowing the rotten taste in her mouth, Yuki finally formed words. "W-w-w-what if someone sees me?"
"No one objects to a woman in a men's room," Wanda answers.
"I, uh, I mean..."
Antoinette replies, "If you're that worried about what'll happen if you're seen, then start your shower before the football team enters. They'll think you're a guy running late or something and they won't look. Probably. But you'll have to hurry to beat them!"
"And if you're not showering off in one minute," Trisha concludes, "I'm sending the insurance out to the school and we're leaving you here naked."
Yuki didn't need to be told twice. She only paused to stick her head out the door. Even with the coast clear she kept her hands clamped over her modesty and made sure to tread very lightly. The last thing she needed was another witness. If only Wanda and Antoinette weren't stomping around like giants. Anyone could have heard them and gone to investigate. Then they'd see Yuki parading down the hall naked.
Yuki would have started running and gotten off the icy floor of the hot zone, but the pokes at her back offered some solace. It didn't make her feel any better about the situation, but at least it looked like bullying, a justification that could nab all three of her tormentors and get rid of that video and picture. She didn't want to be seen by anyone, but perhaps that was the lesser of two evils.
She'd never know.
One good shove launched Yuki into a humid room smelling of mold and men's deodorant. The room was silent as a cemetery, alleviating some concerns, but only briefly. The door hadn't smacked against the wall, the showers were all off, and she couldn't hear anyone moving about or packing away their stuff; in other words, no one was looking for her, no one was using the showers, and the room sounded empty. It would have been a normal walk of absurdity, if Yuki hadn't continued thinking.
What if they're drying themselves? Or what if they're spinning in their locker combinations? I can't hear those sounds. Or they could be in the stalls or at a urinal. A whole wall would be between us.
The racing horrors only made Yuki more cautious, and the empty space only allotted more room for her fears to grow. Her body scraped across the wall with each step, and her head would extend like a turtle's at the start of each row. She didn't dare run, even with the clock ticking. Much too noisy. And with her arms clamped to her lady-parts - which would not change, she told herself - too awkward. In her mind, the lack of people meant it would be even harder to know if the rest of the room was empty.
Fortunately for Yuki, the entrance to the showers was only halfway into the locker room, just like in the girl's room, she noted. Better yet, there was a smaller wall in the area separating the showers from the lockers, preventing anyone from peeping from the outside. It might even muffle the sound of the water a bit! Sure, there were two ways around the wall and no additional doors, but the sound would still have to bounce around a few times to get beyond the solid wall, especially if Trisha picked a middle stall. With firm marching steps, Yuki walked around the dividing wall, and felt the color drain from her face.
There were no stalls. It was one big communal shower. Several shower heads adorned the wall, but nothing divided them or offered any additional modesty barrier. If anyone came around, Yuki would be completely exposed. No denying it. No imitating a boy. Nothing. She would be a naked girl in the boy's locker room.
For all the bad things about the showers, the lack of partitions made it easy to find Trisha's finger, and it was around the middle. Yuki continued her careful trek to the finger and hissed, "Okay, I'm in."
The finger withdrew itself, and the sudden shadows consuming the hole told Yuki that Trisha was watching closely.
"Then get to it!" Trisha's slight voice seemed deafening to Yuki, more so with the absence of any other sound. "And it has to be a real gym shower. Half-ass it and I leave."
Yuki quickly blasted the closest shower, hoping to figure out how a gym shower isn't half-hearted. It wasn't much more than letting the water's spray blast away sweat and most of the smell without getting her hair wet. She didn't have any soap, and the school never supplied any. Regardless, she thoroughly scrubbed with an imaginary bar of soap. The one thing she knew was thinking about it was sure to be a phony effort. Trisha definitely wanted stretching and turning, anything to have Yuki flash her audience. And with the warm water relaxing her, even Yuki began to enjoy the thrill of her act.
A loud thud broke Yuki's serenity, and the following discord of discourses only rekindled her fears. The teams were here. And there was only a wall separating her and them.