Overtime

eight ✧ || suspect

Normally, Jay, Noah, and Aubrey didn't blink twice when it came to their history class to send-off their days. It was just another class, another hour into their mission, before they could dismiss themselves to home. Except for today's class, it seemed. Today's class was to be more 'interesting'.

"Okay class, split into two groups."

Aubrey watched with a pinch of disdain as the twins went to the front of the room while she was stuck at the back. She didn't mind being surrounded by strangers, but she also wasn't surprised that they would rather venture off by themselves rather than stick with her.

She was one of the weirder ones in their strange, experimental family. She didn't bat her eyes at the idea that they would ditch her in a heartbeat.

"Today we're going to be doing an activity to better understand our country's history." Their teacher explained, pivoting in between the desks. "More specifically, we're going to go over how there are differences in the struggles one must overcome depending on where they're from."

Their teacher, wearing a snarky smirk, paused facing the group at the front. Within her fingers were a collection of papers. She weaved her way through the hordes of empty desks, setting a paper on the occasional one. On each of them were names of government Acts enacted during the early days of American history, or the names of battles fought on US soil.

"Alright." Standing before the group at the back, she pivoted to face the crew at the front. Her arms jetted out. "You all are America's lovely Indigenous and First Nations populations." She pointed to the ground she stood on. "Where I stand represents everything you need to be successful in a European-centric country." She smirked, arms crossing. "On the count of three, you need to race to get to this spot with the rest of us Europeans." She claimed, gesturing to the students behind her.

"Through the desks?" Noah questioned. The teacher merely nodded.

"All of us?" Jay continued.

She nodded again. "It's difficult to achieve anything substantial in a country which is designed to benefit those who stole the land from you. You all are about to witness that." She gestured to the students waiting behind her. "These Europeans are already successful. So get to us."

Hesitantly, everyone on the other end of the room glanced back and forth at one another. Aubrey gripped her arms in nervousness. Noah and Jay forcing themselves to run in class was a mistake waiting to happen.

"Ready?" Their teacher crossed her arms, taking a few hesitant steps back. "On your mark, get set," there was a pause, nervous hesitation filling the air. "Go!"

In one fail sweep, everyone at the front of the class surged forwards, colliding violently with the desks in their way. Many of the papers instantly slipped off, the group at the back watching in horror as the teens slammed through the mess of desks to their goal.

As the group charged, Aubrey slithered to the back of her group, wanted to avoid as much collision as possible. Through the swarms of people, she watched in horror as a football player shoved a desk to the side, enabling him to jump over the seat and get closer to the back. At the same time, the desk collided with the legs of a girl charging behind him. The desk caught her off guard, causing her to tumble forwards.

Jay spotted what was going to happen before it did.

Aubrey tensed, palms clenching her arms as she witnessed everything unfold. A part of her knew this would happen. As quickly as possible, she began to unwind the bandages on her right wrist, fumbling to clench the fabric in her hand. Luckily for her, everyone was too focused on watching the madness to notice what she was doing.