Chapter Text
More chalk on the blackboard.
More ink in the notebooks.
More sweating palms rubbed against tensed thighs.
More ticks from the clock above the door.
But also last exam.
Last mandatory day between these walls.
Last sunbeam taunting her through the window.
Last morning waking up in the most dangerous prison.
Soon she would be free.
Oh she had always loved school. It just seemed like school never really returned the feeling. She got the message and decided to end her misery after high school. She would have loved to go to college, learn more things, make friends and all of that... But she got the feeling college would be just the same as high school... And middle school... And primary school... Actually, the whole educational system had always been rejecting her since she was seven.
It felt super unfair because no one around her seemed to suffer the same issues but everytime she had tried to speak about it to someone it backfired at her or the person so she had learned to keep a low profile by now.
She had made her own way, not dragging any attention on herself, staying away from the bullies and from the loners. Blending in.
She got some good grades, considering how fuzzy words became when she tried to read them. English class had always been a challenge but she loved History a lot. She didn't completely suck at maths and had a blast in PE. Despite everything, she managed to look like a perfectly normal teenager.
But that "everything" was not to be underestimated. The thing is, she was actually completely crazy and got herself into some pretty serious matters because of that. Pretty serious matters like in almost dying. Several times.
Just last week she had found herself fighting with her roommate for no reason at all and barely made it alive. The usually nice girl had suddenly became monstrous and tried to bite her neck with inhumanly long fangs. She couldn't even remember how things turned, she just woke up the next day in a single-bed bedroom with a huge hump on the forehead. No one remembered her roommate and everyone acted like she had always been in a single room. The usual stuff. People around her would randomly turn into monsters and try to kill her, she would fight them until she passes out and then wake-up wounded in a world acting like these persons had never existed and nothing had ever happened. See ? Crazy girl.
"Adora." snapped a voice accross the room. "Stop daydreaming and complete your test please."
She complied. Looking back at the paper on her table she instantly remembered why she had given up. Even though she knew her "Ancient Greece" class chapter by heart, this test was all written in cursive. The letters looked like they were dancing together in some sort of pagan ritual instead of quietly sitting on their lines. Lucky her. Favorite subject shows up to the final test and she's not even able to read the questions...
She left the classroom a couple of hours later. All of her classmates were discussing the tests, laughing or complaining together but she ignored them. School was over. Teachers, roommates, friends or janitors turning into deadly monsters were over as well. She couldn't fathom it. For the past ten years, this was all she ever knew.
Her mom died in a car accident when she was seven and since her dad had never been a part of their life she ended up alone.
Well, not really alone, quite worse actually. The foster families'hell started. Looking back now, some of them were quite nice, but she was a crazy little girl which made her difficult to handle. First of all, she couldn't shut up about the monster that caused the car accident who took her mom. She also had terrible nightmares and was scared of everything. At school she was seeing monsters everywhere and kept destroying stuff. For a few years, no one wanted her. Schools would expel her, foster families would reject her, everyone repeating the same things over and over again : "that little girl is crazy" or "she has lost it in that accident" or even "she is the monster she talks about all the time" and other nice words.
After a couple of years she slowly learned to keep things for herself. No one wanted to hear about the monsters so she would not tell anyone about them. She might be crazy, but no one had to know about it. She worked on controlling her fear. Since no one would help her, she would help herself. The monsters were her ennemies indeed, but the humans were not her allies either.
When she reached eleven she was put in a boarding school named "The Hord" in the countryside of New York. The place was huge, with thousands of students and she could stay there all year long. Monsters kept showing but she got more confident in front of them. Teachers were nice and she started to love learning stuff. She even made a friend ! She thought she could stay here forever, being a normal girl during the day and a crazy monster fighter during the night, without anyone knowing about her double life. She almost told her friend once but she got scared of jeopardising her. She would die with that secret. She had to.
Three years passed. Middle school was coming to an end. High school wouldn't change much. Except the monsters began to visit her more and more often. Keeping her "secret identity" (as she liked to call it) became more and more difficult. She was exhausted, couldn't focus during classes and started risking her life in combat again. She wasn't getting weaker but the monsters were definitely getting stronger for some reason. She heard about other students having accidents or being hurt and she knew the monsters were behind it. She was not strong enough to protect such a big school from all the monsters so she had to leave. It broke her heart but she managed to get expelled.
She was sent to another boarding school for her first year of high school but she didn't last long there. She changed six times. But there won't be another one. She was done.
Summer was finally there and she had applied for a job in a small souvenir shop. She had no plans on where to live but it didn't really matter, as long as she wasn't at school.
In her room she picked up the few clothes she had, put on her favorite red jacket and left forever.