TFP-University

🎗One🎗

The first day of school.

...

It's going to be a nightmare wherever I go, isn't it.

Ratchet stood at the doors of her tenth high school this year, busying herself with the hem of her embarrassingly short skirt as she stared angrily at the chipped double doors--the only things standing in between her and a brand-new Hell. She glanced at her watch, which was a rude reminder that she'd already stalled as much as she could. She'd be late to her first class if she waited any longer. No way was that happening on day one.

Ratchet took a deep breath and pushed open the door, clutching her books tighter to her chest as she surveyed the crowded hallways of complete and utter strangers. She had never been good with new people, especially other high schoolers. Ratchet knew from experience that telling secrets--actually, revealing anything personal at all--could ruin your reputation in a heartbeat. Eleventh-graders could be such dicks. Particularly the female variant.

Okay, Ratchet, you can do this. Locker #916, hallway C. Obviously this is hallway A, so--gahh, don't make eye contact, especially with that 6' brick wall of jock--turn left here. Whew, right hallway. Okay. Now if I could just find...

Ratchet glanced up just in time to find herself face-to-face with a huge white pillar, gasping and reeling back awkwardly to avoid smacking into it and breaking her nose. Somebody snickered as they passed her and she had to force herself not to cry out in annoyance (what shit-for-brains architect put a pillar in the middle of a high-school hallway?!?!), huffing out a breath and pushing away from the pillar to continue down the hall.

Ratchet finally located her locker, the second-last of a long line of the things. At least she got a top--a few years back she'd been under a guy who seemed to think that flipping her skirt up every time she was crouching at her locker would be fun. Long story short, he'd ended up with a broken collarbone, and Ratchet had been out. That was probably the longest she'd ever lasted at a single school before. Hopefully she managed to hold out at least a month at this one--but with the way things were going so far, Ratchet doubted she'd even last a week.

She sighed and slammed her locker shut, pretending to answer a text on her phone when she noticed a small group of girls heading in her direction. As long as she didn't make eye contact, she'd be fine. Just keep looking down...

Ratchet nearly jumped out of her skin when her phone buzzed in her hand. She'd gotten an email from somebody--the address read orionpax@tfpu.net. She didn't recognize it, and apparently neither did her phone, because the little yellow box at the top was asking if she wanted to report spam. She ignored it and scanned the email, which said something along the lines of "if you received this email, you are most likely one of our new students. Welcome to TFP-U! Please note that you need to report to the cafeteria for the kickoff assembly. Afterwards please head to the front office, where you will be assigned a faction, meet your faction leader, and receive your class schedule".

Nope. Nothing she'd hadn't seen before. Ratchet glanced over the rest of the email and shoved her phone back into her bag, slinging the strap over her shoulder and following the signs she'd seen on the walls to the "cafeteria".

Ratchet walked through the open doors and almost immediately regretted it. The room was huge, and open, which only served to amplify the whooping and laughing of the hundreds upon hundreds of high schoolers packed into the bleachers along the walls. Ratchet surveyed them with wide eyes, starting to seriously consider ditching this unnecessarily large school and its impossibly loud students. But--Ratchet sighed in defeat as she realized--she was here and she didn't really have a choice at this point. Plus, if she backed out now, she'd look like a total idiot. Not a chance.