Chapter Text
Bland and flat. Those were the only two words that your brain could conjure up as you sat slumped in the backseat of the car, squinting out the window at the trash-scape outside. You were squished beside a heap of bags and boxes and could feel a cardboard corner jabbing you in the side.
Moving away was the last thing you had wanted. Your old town was just right, full of people you cared about and the school you had grown familiar with. It had never been perfect, but it had been home.
Why did your dad have to get a new job? It wasn’t fair to make you pick up and leave everything you cared about. Couldn’t he have kept his old job at home? What was in Exclamation that wasn’t at home?
You scowled, glaring at the rolling suburbs outside. Every house looked the same, with a postage stamp patch of grass. God, it was boring.
You lost yourself for a moment in bitter thoughts, only jostled back to the real world when the car rolled into a driveway beside a house.
It was a boxy beige building with a scraggly patch of yard and several shriveled rose bushes in the front.
You stepped out of the car, peering down the road. To one side was a line of houses identical to yours. To the other side was an enormous building surrounded by trees and a grassy lawn. The building itself was gray and orange and had a bizarre geometric shape. It was the ugliest thing you’d ever seen.
“That’s your school,” said your mom, pointing at it. “Clone High. It’s supposed to be very prestigious. You should read up on it online, check out their website maybe.”
What a bizarre name for a school , you thought to yourself. You didn’t even want to think about going to Clone High, full of strangers and unfamiliar places. You already had a school, and it was back home.
With a huff, you grabbed your bags and trudged inside, marching yourself immediately up the stairs to find your new room.