This choice: Hunter Black—Scholarship Student! • Go Back... The size of this place alone was intimidating.
Hunter came from a town where tall buildings were for places of business. She’d never been to any kind of campus that had six stories and three wings and a courtyard and a dome at the top in the middle and creepy stained glass windows. They didn’t have buildings like this back home. In her little beach town, this place would have gotten destroyed. It all looked so new and exciting…
But also 100% absolutely terrifying at the same time.
Was that weird?
Like, as a logical person she knew that she shouldn’t be afraid of a building. Or intimidated by the size of the campus. It was just a bunch of land with a lot of bricks on it. But the cabins along the mountainside and the golf carts puttering up the gentle slopes of the unofficial road system that had been paved, catching the harsh morning sun against the bright gray pavement… it all looked so… so…
“Aw geez, this place is creepy.” her mother said with a little laugh as she touched her daughter by the shoulder, “It’s like something out of a horror movie, right sweetie?”
“Mom!” Hunter whipped around, beet-red as she felt her mother’s hand touch her shoulder, “Stop that!”
“I’m just saying—like, you are going to come home right?” Mz. Black snorted, “You’re probably too young to remember the Outer Limits, but—”
“Oh my God.” Hunter squeezed her eyes shut, “It’s not… It’s not that creepy!”
“Kind’ve creepy.”
“Stop!”
“Probably gonna replace you with a robot.”
“Mom stoooop!”
This was Hunter’s chance. She knew that—and so did her mother, Harper.
Without her sister pulling these connections with her old boss, there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of anyone from the Black family ever making it in this ritzy Academy. Even with her grades, good fortune rarely smiled on the often-bullied, hand-me-down-wearing, too-smart-for-her-own-good Hunter Black. She knew that—and so did Harper.
It was just something of a Black family tradition to joke around in light of serious situations. It’s how they dealt with things back home in their little mill house.
It was easier than admitting that this was going to be the first time that sweet baby Hunter Black had ever been away from home longer than a sleepover. Or that Harper was officially going to have an empty nest before 50. They were both scared, and that was okay. Not necessarily of the campus, but more of what it represented. “Change and stuff” as her mother had put it awkwardly during the 6-hour car ride. Multiple times.
“I’m gonna miss you, kiddo.” Harper said as she wrapped her arms around her daughter, “You make sure to call me.”
“Okay.” Hunter hugged her mom tightly
“Or unless this weird Stepford School has something against that.” Harper snuggled tighter, “Then you text me.”
“Okay.” Hunter grunted
“E-mail. Skype. Whatever apps you kids are using.”
“Mama.”
“Your youth keeps me young.”
“MAMA.”
***
There wasn’t a lot of sense in bringing her wardrobe to an Academy like this. They would provide her with her uniform(s?) and all the other clothing she’d need. She’d brought along a few of her favorite shirts—mostly hand-me-downs from her sister Piper. But for the most part, her suitcases were filled with whatever she could fit from her bedroom back home. Family photos, posters from her wall, some knick-knacks.
Just something to make all of this feel more… normal, somehow.
Hunter didn’t really see that happening.
But if she wanted to go anywhere with her life, she would have to suck it up. She wasn’t going to get into a good college by staying in Daven’s Port. And this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that had literally been handed to her. A full ride to one of the most prestigious schools in America? How could she refuse?
So there was little Hunter, wheeling her suitcase behind her as she set foot onto this huge, foreboding fortress of higher learning.
The only question was… where the heck was she supposed to go?
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