Following several emails from her mother demanding that she explain her life choices paired with numerous stern emails from Hingham Savings reminding her of her negative bank balance, freshman Madeline Blackburn is refusing to let the stress of the real world dim her holiday spirits. “I can’t wait to get home and see my family. If there’s anything I’ve missed, it’s my hometown of Cohasset in Massachusetts, the same town I’ve lived in for my entire life,” beamed Madeline, as she tore pieces of her own flesh off of her fingers. “Yup. If there’s anything I could ask for at this time of year it would be to return to my hometown. Granted, I transferred to a different high school when I was 15, so none of my close friends actually live in Cohasset,” muttered Madeline, her gaze suddenly distant. “But, I’m beyond excited to spend some quality time with my family. It’ll be great to be back in my clean, cozy room again! Well, my sister actually bought a rabbit that isn’t exactly cage-trained, so I’ll probably have to vacuum up its dung for 20 minutes or so once I get back” she thought aloud, stabbing her Panda Express with a surprising forcefulness. “I’m kinda allergic to the rabbit too, so it gets hard for me to breath in the room sometimes. But it’s really adorable! Sure, it won’t permit me to actually touch it, but one time it accidentally grazed my ankle as it was darting away from me and its fur was unbelievably soft,” smiled Madeline, as her left eye began to twitch. “But yeah, I’m looking forward to spending extended periods to time with my family, and because I’m pretty low on funds I’ll be spending a lot of time around the house. It’s gonna be so -” the latter portion of her sentence was drowned out as the fork she had been bending taught to snapping fragmented in her hands. “Yup. Four weeks at home are gonna do me a lot of good” her voice nearly a whisper now as a grimace vaguely resembling a smile flashed across her face.

Sources later reported Madeline listening to “Santa Baby” in the stacks while sobbing discretely.

Blackburn is a member of
the class of 2018. 



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