Go to school

"I want to go back to school today. I don't know what else to do, but it would be nice if things were normal for a while."

It was not nice.

Every class Penny attended had one or two students who were clearly gossiping about her. Some of them were amused, some of them seemed sympathetic or worried, a couple of boys looked like they were about to say something stupid, and the teachers were avoiding eye contact.

Did scansites--

Yeah, of course the scansites released her files already. There were at least 4-6 unfortunate seniors getting jumped and scanned every year, and Penny had somehow never let herself think too much about what it would be like for the victim.

Penny had spread some gossip. Penny had avoided talking to the victims. She probably "deserved" this.

It still hurt.

Philosophy was the second-to-last class of the day. Penny was lost in depression and self-loathing by the time she made it that far, and she was dreading her basketball practice at the end of the day more than anything else.

Penny snapped to her senses as four boys sat in the nearby seats. She started to let out a little yelp, and she had to physically slap her hand over her own mouth to avoid making it loud enough for the class to hear.

"Whoah, easy there Penny, didn't mean any harm." It was one of the esports boys from Thursday. This was Mammoth, easy to remember because he was the shortest of the four.

"Yeah, we can move if you want. Lots of empty seats here." That was the boy who called himself T-Rex. Penny mostly couldn't remember their real names, but his was Trevor.

"Are you OK, Penny?"