Chapter Text
Penny brushed her frail fingers through her new dolly’s hair when she looked out the window she realized her and her little brother, Ezra, has “finally” arrived at their new school, a new school in the new town they have both recently was forced to move into after they got new foster parents.
The truth is, she was the very opposite of excited, her classmates in the last school she was enrolled in the was kicked out after trying to bite someone's ear off after they called her a “Feminist Lesbian” almost all her fellow classmates were mean to her, bullied her, mocked her, teased her, never had the decency to even call her by her actual name instead opting for dehumanizing nicknames, really anything you could think of. The only person that was nice to her was a girl named Tammy Edwards, but Penny was probably never gonna see her again.
Which made Penny upset, she just automatically assumed everything was going to be the same hell she went through the first time. At Least she her new foster parents got her a doll she could take anywhere she was feeling scared or uneasy.
Both her and Ezra innocently walked out of their foster dads car and tried to prepare herself for whatever Saint Cassian and Uranium had in store for her.
⤌⤍
Luckily, It was finally the last hour of the school day and fortunately for Penny, instead of having to sit through meaningless Algebra lessons she didn't understand, she got to go take her own personal mini tour of the school. She was able to look at every little corner or nook that the school offered! But that didn’t mean there was a lot to look at, it was a tiny school. Which meant there was a tiny amount of students which meant less bullying. So far there hasn't been any but, Penny was just mentally preparing herself in case it DID happen.
Penny was showing her new doll around the music hall like she was a mother showing her child the animal exhibits of a zoo, she realized that the school also had a very sad excuse for a “music hall” it only had a closet filled with various different items to the point you couldn't even tell if it was a junk or janitor closet, an almost empty room filled with a printer, dust and scattered papers on the floor, and finally one single room ACTUALLY dedicated to music!
It was a small room built with sickish faded yellow tiles that looked like they haven't been washed since the place had been built! But nevertheless the kids inside looked like they were having a good time doing…choir stuff? Ok Penny didn’t really know what they were doing all she knew was that they were singing and dancing. But some kids specifically caught her attention, a tall kid with a hat on (even though Penny was sure that was against the dress code) and sitting there doing nothing but typing on his phone, another kid was sitting on the small bleachers, holding an AAC device, also doing nothing.
But no other kid quite caught Penny's attention quite as fast as one of the girls managed to do while passionately singing a song that was seemingly written specifically for this choir– Maybe it was written by the director?
Anyways back to the girl, she had bright orange hair, light freckles, pearl earrings, a purple friendship bracelet that sat on her left wrist, and a uniform that was so perfect it seemed like she rolled a lint roller over it 6 times a day! Penny couldn't help but just stare at her. Not in a creepy way! But like in an admirable way! Like how someone would stare at their spouse on their wedding day! But also not like that because why would Penny be lovingly staring at someone she doesn't even know the name of yet?
That's weird
That would just be confirming the rumors that her bullies spread about her!
Ok! I can’t think of any more reasons but I promise you, it's weird!
By the time the choir was done singing, Penny was still unusually staring at that one girl when the kid on their phone looked up and caught Penny before she could back away.
As a last resort Penny ran to the empty room on the side just in case they were gonna go find her and beat her up or something just for watching rehearsal
⤌⤍
“I think I just saw ghost. I knew it, this school is haunted.” Misha choked out, looking suspiciously at the music hall corridor.
“This school is not haunted Mischa!” Ocean contested, “I think you're just hallucinating after staring at your phone INSTEAD OF PRACTICING!”
“Quiet Orphan A-hole, I know what I saw and what I saw was a blonde ghost.”
“Maybe it's the ghost of the kids who died from the toxic waste we call lunch.” Noel babbled to no response.
Constance perked up, "Maybe it's a new classmate who wants to join the choir!”
“Constance, sweetie, if it was a new student I would have already known, because I know everyone here. Ok?” The ginger remarked.
Ricky typed on his AAC device, “Mischa is right,” A robotic voice chirped in, “It's a ghost, and we all have been chosen to be the next ghostbusters and save the planet again.”
⤌⤍
Penny waited out the rest of the hour sitting in the printer room hoping– PRAYING she doesn't get found by the choir.
When the bell rang Penny was able to finally escape and be released from what Penny would call “her new Jail Cell” Penny made her way over to the 9th grader wing so she can go pick up her brother, by the time she got there her brother was already waiting for her, the two made their way over to their foster parents old almost broken down car before sitting down.
As soon as they got in the car, Penny expected for her foster dad to hit the gas immediately and get out of this purgatory as soon as possible, but she was wrong and instead she has to endure another awkward family talk that she never wanted to have.
Penny’s foster dad, William, cleared his throat and spoke up, “So Penny.. Ezra…how was your first day at Saint Cassian? …You know me and my wife met at this school we met when we were-”
“It was Ok.” Penny and Ezra interrupted.
“Oh, well that's good.” William noted.
When the car started to move, Penny leaned her cold head against the window, thinking back to whatever just happened with the choir, but if Penny even knew one thing,
It was that she NEEDED to get into that choir.