ᴍᴏᴄʜᴀ | ᴛʏʟᴇʀ ɢᴀʟᴘɪɴ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ ✔︎ [ON HOLD]

III

Like one year earlier, on my first Outreach Day, every student of Nevermore gathered in the Quad to get their assignments. Last year, I'd been posted to the local zoo, and even though that should have meant animal fun, I spent my day in animal number two's.

On the brighter side, because Ajax had been given the same assignment as me, we'd met there and bonded over the glorious smell of dung rotting in the mid afternoon heat.

The zookeeper was out to get me.

I was silently praying that I wouldn't get the zoo again, when Enid popped up from behind me. We had split up for breakfast, but there was no escape from my pinky promise. As expected, Ajax and Xavier were right behind her, prepared to hear the story of why I had been called into Mother's office last night.

Almost immediately after explaining things, I regretted it for many reasons, the top few being: Xavier looked ready to kill the school board on sight; there were far too many gossipy students around; and even though Enid was a great friend — my bestie, even —, there was no doubt that this would end up on her blog by the end of today.

At least she would get the story straight. Mostly, at least. But leave it up to her readers to twist the truth.

"How can Weems expect you to survive out there?" Xavier muttered, glaring at said Weems as she stepped onto the stage to give her welcoming speech. She talked too much. "The normies can barely stand us when we go there for a few hours."

"Well, at least it's no school, right?" Enid said hopefully. "You'll get to chill in your new home, that's privacy at least. You can make Tik Tok's, and no one can interrupt hours of scrolling— "

"I need to go to Jericho High School," I mumbled, tuning out Mother's words. "Always wanted to be the strange new kid. I mean, that's how all YA Wattpad's start, with guys swooning over the new girl and her needing to choose between these perfect guys."

Xavier scoffed. "You wish."

"Cap."

"Fact," Ajax countered, quickly diverting the brewing argument. "Go get your assignment."

I took the first card in the stack offered to me, keeping it face down until everyone else got theirs. "I got Sheriff Station," Xavier said. "Anyone wanna trade?"

"Anyone headed for the zoo?" Enid asked.

Ajax whistled, shaking his head. "Good luck with that. The zookeeper has a thing against Nevermore. But so do most normies. I got the hair salon."

"Trade with me?" Enid begged. "Please? I would do a lot better than you in a hair salon, no offense," she flipped her hair, which looked amazing now that the dye had set. "What I mean is, you don't like being in the salon either right? And there's a chance you won't have to scoop turds..."

She trailed off hopefully, glancing at Ajax. Finally, he shrugged and gave his card to Enid, and I knew her little heart couldn't handle it. As the crowd began pushing to exit the Quad for the bus, Xavier turned to me. "What did you get?"

"This coffee place called the Weathervane."

☕︎︎☕︎︎☕︎︎

As the buses rolled through the streets, finally arriving at the drop-off point, I already knew that there would be people looking suspiciously at us.

"Have fun making coffee," Ajax said, waving.

"Have fun scooping turds!" I replied. Leaning in to whisper in his ear, I added, "Play it cool. That exchange definitely put you in Enid's good books."

Everyone began parting ways after Mother gave a final reminder about meeting in the town square for lunch, and I headed off with Enid. At least our assignments were on the same block.