Chapter Text
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The sun shone through Carla's window, the rays reflecting and bouncing off of her phone screen where all her friends sat doing the same thing as her.
Packing for college.
Senior year of highschool had flown by so fast, that Carla would've missed it if it was an object like a vehicle. The past 9 months had felt like a fever dream — full of heartbreak, denial, and acception to make way for new beginnings.
Everyone was moving on to do their own thing, For the first time since they weren't going to all be in the same school, in the same class, with the same teacher.
Things were changing, however, the one thing they'd learnt this year... is that change is good.
And with that, Carla carried on shoving her clothes into her suitcase — trying to ignore the looming feeling that she couldn't pack her entire bedroom into Monty's car.
The brunette looked back to her phone, looking at all her friends as they packed their lives into tiny bags. Cindy was busy packing her makeup, however she wasn't getting very far because every piece she put away, she would take back out to touch her face up with. Buggs was trying to find a sneaky compartment for his knife, and Carla didn't have the heart to tell him that school security would search their bags before they settled into their dorms.
Jerome was plotting out loud where he's going to throw his parties now they were too far to throw at the Huxley Manor, and you could sense Felix's relief through the phone. Ted and Billy were packing together, giggling to themselves about god knows what, whilst Lily was trying to compromise with Nugget as to how many Nuggets he could take in his case.
Penny was brushing her long golden hair, humming a tune to herself. She'd already finished packing long in advance — in true Penny fashion. Diana was quietly observing, thankful that Jerome didn't know sign language so she couldn't understand what on earth she was rambling about.
And Kid? He was... spacing out, in his own world like usual — but this time was different.
Since he was 5, he'd dealt with every single traumatic thing you could think of. Evil principles? Seen it. Secret labs? Getting a bit repetitive. Kids being turned into monsters? Reoccurring trend. He's been through every single problem imaginable, and he's always had his reset to fall back on.
But now he was wondering, what if his reset just... stopped one day? Sure, he'd be free, but he wouldn't have the sense of security he'd had all his life to fall back on. College was a new environment, and with a new environment meant new scenarios...
But Kid was still burying the old ones. The ones that had scarred him and shaped him to the man he was today... and he felt it was far from over.
"You ready, Carls?" Monty called out, breaking Carla out of her train of thought. He'd been sat on her bed, scrolling on his phone whilst waiting for her to finish packing, but every now and again he'd gaze down at her and smile softly.
"Yeah, all packed," she attempted to zip the suitcase up, but it wouldn't close.
"You need any help—"
"No! I've got it!" She quickly called out, and after 5 minutes of cursing and huffing, she jumped on the case and finally got it to shut.
She said goodbye to everyone on the phone and ended the call, hauling her suitcase downstairs and out the door into Monty's car.
Carla walked back into the house and hugged her dad goodbye, who was definitely holding back tears.
Monty walked back up, and Carla's dad quickly pulled him into a hug and pat his back. The brunette looked back and smiled, watching her dad welcome her boyfriend in as one of their own.
Once all the tears and goodbyes were out, Monty and Carla were on route to college. She was excited, sure, but she kept thinking back to Adam's face... and she knew that college wouldn't be free of the horrors they've experience over their lifetimes.
However, they were all together, and that was all that mattered. They'd survived mutant monsters, what could be worse than that?
But what they didn't know, was that something sinister was right around the corner...
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