~Assigned Seats~ Fpe ZipClaire fic

~Entrancement~

It was Monday, usually they were long and atrocious, especially when you have 3 specific teachers who were extremely harsh along with a strict principal. Today the weather was predicted to be sunny but fuck that. It was raining so hard it almost seemed like a flood could start.

Claire, along with her cat MoeMoe, were walking down the wet sidewalk since Claire didn't really have a ride or anything to get to school. It was a mess, water seeping into the hand-me-down hoodie she got from her mother. The droplets hit the pavement with a rhythmic tap-tap that seemed to echo in the silence that filled the mostly quiet neighborhood Claire was in.

She only had a few steps to go, and she'd reach paper school. Once she walked in, the tiles underneath her became soaked with rain drops.

She looked around her. It was pretty much the same as always. Lizzy and Petunia were chatting, Edward and Zip whispering and snickering while Oliver was presumably with Alice as he wasn't seen in the halls. Kevin was busy rambling on to Riley about how she should really fix her behavior, but Riley probably wasn't, anyway. As she was more focused on.. whatever her crazy head was thinking..

The bell rang as Claire made it to her locker, where both Bubble and Engel met up with her, their usual calm and positive self a stark contrast to the gloomy weather.

"Rain got you down?" Engel asked, seeing Claire extremely drenched from the rain.

"I just want to get this day over with.." Claire groaned.

"Um, you studied for the test, right?" Bubble inquired, her voice a mix of concern and curiosity.

Test!? She forgot all about that. This day was already off to a bad start, getting soaked by rain and now a test!? That she completely forgot to study for. Just lovely.

"What test?" Claire asked, trying to play it cool, hoping against hope that she had heard wrong.

"The math test that Miss Circle rambled on about almost all of last week," Engel replied, raising an eyebrow at Claire's apparent forgetfulness.

The second bell rang

"We might wanna get to class, don't want to end up late, now do we?" Engel said, nudging Claire gently as they started to walk towards their first class. The hallways crowded, like always.

Everyone sat down. Miss Circle cleared her throat.

"Sadly, I'm going to have to move the math test you guys have worked so hard to study for to next week,"

Miss Circle announced to the class. A collective sigh of relief filled the room, except for the few overachievers who had studied. Claire felt the weight of failing lift off her shoulders. She was in the clear for the moment, she now had time to properly study

A kid raised their hand

"Yes, Kevin?" Miss Circle sighed. She already knew what he was gonna ask.

"Why did you cancel the test this week?" Kevin asked, his voice slightly annoyed as he took so much time on figuring how everything worked.

Miss Circle took a deep breath before speaking. "The test has been rescheduled due to a majority of the classes grades. I've noticed that a lot of you haven't been doing too well. However, none of you she's gotten an F."

*Miss Circle held the paper up to read it"

"I've decided I'm going to move your seating, to help boost the class's overall performance," Miss Circle continued, her voice firm. "Everyone stand up to the side of the classroom,"

Claire's stomach churned. She hated change. She was fine. Why was she getting moved? Did she do something wrong?

As everyone shuffled out of their seats and to the sides of the classroom, the atmosphere grew tense. Almost everyone was disappointed. They got to choose their seats at the beginning of the year and now they were being changed?