School felt like a different world entirely when Lily arrived hours later, running on almost no sleep, her mind still tangled in border markers and war declarations while the hallways around her buzzed with the mundane, oblivious chaos of ordinary teenage drama. Vivian's latest scheme apparently a petition to have Lily removed from the honors chemistry track, citing "disruptive behavior" had gained enough traction that Lily found a printed copy taped to her locker, several signatures already scrawled across the bottom.
Under any other circumstances, the pettiness might have stung. Today, exhausted and afraid in ways that made high school politics feel almost laughably small, Lily simply pulled the paper down, crumpled it, and dropped it into the nearest trash can without a second glance.
