short story - Stories to be told

last update:

12-11-2024
Hello, I am someone they call the watcher. They know I'm here but not where I am or who I am. You may be wondering who I am referring to when I say they. I am talking about a group of 7 teenagers. It's no fun explaining like this so let me just tell you their story instead.
It begins with a kid named Raven. Raven was a child of 2 very rich parents. Their father owned a large business and their mother was the manager of a big store in town. Raven was 14 years old when their parents decided they had enough of them and sent them away. "Noo, Mother please don't make me go to boarding school! It's stupid and probably has a bunch of stupid rules!" Raven begged. "No, You have to go. I have had enough of your stuff. This school will be great. You will learn manners, you won't be bullied and maybe they can even teach you to fit in better." "Mother, I don't care that I get bullied and it's not even that bad. Just let me stay here and don't bring me to a place with only fancy people!" "You are also a fancy person Raven. It is better trust me." So even with Raven begging to not get sent away their mom still sat them in the car a brought them to the boarding school. When arriving Raven and their mother were greeted by an old-looking woman. If Raven had to guess they would say she would be around 50 or 60 years old. "Welcome to Woodsview boarding school, and you must be Miss Raven." The woman welcomed the two but instead of replying Raven just stared at the woman because she called them 'miss Raven'

21-11-2024
“You are in the Sparrow house, focused on kids who do not fit in at regular schools.” The woman explained. A tall boy came walking towards them. “Sorry that I am late miss…” The boy said looking a little nervous. “Oh there you have Mathew he will be your guide for a few weeks. He is in the same house and I am sure you two will get along.” The boy looked at Raven like he was a little shy. “Why don’t you show Raven to her room Mathew.” “Alright miss.” With that, he signalled Raven to follow him and lead them to their room. The whole walk Mathew and Raven didn’t say a word so the two just awkwardly walked to the room. “Uhm here is your room.” He said. “My room is number seventeen on the other side so if you need help you can find me there.” “Okay… thanks I guess…” Raven looked at their door and saw the number ten standing on it. It was the highest number in the hallway and also the last room in the hallway. The boy was about to walk away when Raven asked “Uhm where is your room if it only goes to ten here?” “This is the girls' hallway. Numbers eleven to twenty are in the next one also the boys' hallway.” He explained. “oh okay…” After the awkward interaction, Raven walked into their room. It was a small room with one single bed, a closet, a nightstand, a desk and a little shelf above the desk. Raven put down their suitcase and started unpacking it trying to accept their fate. While unpacking Their thoughts started to spiral. They started worrying about their parents and thinking about the woman who greeted them, the way the boy looked nervous, the fact that he was late. Why would he be late? It's not like the travel time is that much. Why does that woman look so scary? Right before Raven felt like they might go insane from the thoughts someone knocked on the door. When Raven opened the door 4 girls were standing there looking excited, one with brown hair, one with black hair one with blond hair and one with dark blond hair. “uhm… hello?” “Hii! You are Raven, right? We heard you were new here and wanted to welcome you.” The girl with blond hair said. “Okay? You said hi so you can go again. So you know I don’t think I will stay here long and I am also not looking for friends so don't try it.” “Sure but I think you won't survive without friends this place is boring as shit if you don't have friends to share rumours with,” The dark blond girl replied. “Talking about rumours I heard that two boys from another house have kissed but they deny it.” The girl continued before the one with black hair joined in on sharing the rumours. “I heard that a girl in this wing might be pregnant from a boy in another house” “What? Don't tell me its Britanny she’s only sixteen” The brown-haired girl asked. “It is” All the girls looked shocked.

26-11-2024
“Oh wait we haven't introduced ourselves yet.” The girl with blond hair says. “oh yeah that’s right.” The dark blond girl starts “Well my name is Bridget, that blond girl is Lexi and she-” “We can say our own names, Bridget.” The black-haired girl cuts Bridget off. “My name is Zoë.” “And my name is Madilyn but you can just call me Maddie.” The brown-haired girl finishes before Zoë starts talking again. “Has anyone heard how Estella and Meredith are doing? I haven't seen them together in some time.” “Do you think they broke up?” Bridget asks. “Maybe, but I think-” “Can you guys discuss this in another room I want to unpack my bags.” Raven asks annoyed. “oh yeah, sorry.” Lexi says before the girls leave the room and close the door.
Raven goes back to unpacking their bags being happy that at least their mind wasn’t spiralling as much anymore. After a few minutes, there was knocking on the door again. “Oh my can’t those girls give me a break.” Raven walked to the door and opened it “I said you girls needed to leave!” A boy was standing in front of the door. “Uhm I didn't mean to upset you?” “Oh shit uhm, I’m sorry I thought you were someone else.” Raven was a little embarrassed. “Is Mathew here? He isn’t in his room and I heard he was your guide so yeah I thought he may be here?” “uhm no he left some time ago, why?” “I need to tell him I am pregnant.” “Uhm what the frick? I am sorry but you very much look like a guy.” “Yeah I lost a bet, I am not really pregnant you dumbo.” “What the fuck is wrong with the kids at this school,” Raven said to themselves. The boy thought for a second before saying “Hey what if you help me find him?” “Why would I?” “It's fun you can see his reaction.” Raven thought for a second. “It's not like I have anything better to do. I will help you I guess.” “Yay!”
Together they walked around in the building to find him. “My name is Ashton by the way.” “Amazing I totally care.” “Well, you can be a bit nicer what's your-” Raven cuts him off whispering “Hey sh, I hear something” They both listened and heard a woman's voice coming from the next door. “You need to be stricter with your schedule. This is a bad representation of the school, it makes people think we make their kids lazy. Do you know how fast parents take their kids out of this school because of lazy mistakes from people like you?” It was silent for a second before the woman continued “Huh? Answer.” Someone answered but so softly that they could barely hear it “Uhm I don’t know… Not that quick?..” “Wrong! To fricking quick, don't do this again. You understand?” “Yes ma’am…” Raven looked at Ashton trying to signal that they needed to go away before the people came out of the room. They ran back to Raven's room.
“What the hell was that?” Raven asked. “It was the woman that runs this house. Kind of a Head of the house or something but I don't know who the other person was.” “Why was she being so rude like that person almost caused the downfall of the whole school.” “That’s because she believes that person did. She is crazy, if she is around you better be on your best or expect to get a scolding like that.” “How is someone like that in a school?” “Don't ask me I have the same question.” They stood there in silence for a bit. “Hey, maybe Mathew is outside.” The boy suddenly jumped back to wanting to find Mathew. “Why do you want to find him so bad don't you wanna let this process for a little or something?” “Nah you get used to it after some time. Come on let's check outside.”
He ran outside and Raven followed him not running because who is so excited to find someone for a lost bet? While outside they somehow find Mathew. “Hey Mathew dude, I have news,” Ashton said. Mathew looked at him a little confused and then at Raven more confused. “He dragged me along,” Raven said before he could ask anything. “Okay, so Mathew… Big news, I am… Pregnant!” “Dude what?” Mathew looked really confused for a second before realising something. “You really have to stop making bets with Oscar, Ashton.” “But if I won I would have gotten twenty euros!” “You know you almost never win because Oscar cheats most times.” “Ugh, I just want to have fun and make some money in the meantime.” Mathew looked disappointed. “Why did you even drag Raven along?” “Oh, so that’s your name. I dragged her along for the fun and I originally thought you were in her room. Oh, and we heard the head miss scold somebody.” “Do you know who it was?” “No the person spoke really soft and we left before we could see who it was.”
Raven looked a little annoyed at Ashton “Why did you tell all that have you never heard of not telling everything?” “It's just Mathew?” “Yeah, so? Have you ever heard of not trusting everyone? You yourself said you need to be at your best when that woman is around but have you ever thought about it that someone might snitch that you were listening to the conversation?” “Gees why are you so paranoid?” “Just survival instinct.” Mathew just looked at Raven arguing before walking away knowing it was not going to help that he was there. “What kind of weird survival instinct do you have weirdo?!” “Why are you calling me a weirdo? You are the idiot who tells everyone everything!”
The argument turned into a fight and soon enough they were both in the room of the head of the house. “Why were you two fighting?” Raven didn’t reply as they were too mad but Ashton almost instantly replied. “I am sorry miss we got in a disagreement.” “And you two were too stupid to just talk it out?” “Yes miss we are very sorry.” Raven looked at Ashton as if he was crazy. Ashton looked back as if he was saying that Raven also needed to say sorry. “Uhm sorry?” Raven said not meaning it at all. “You are lucky that it's your first day other you would have been grounded for a long time. Also, tell Mathew he needs to be a better guide and not let you get into fights.” “Sure I guess” “Say it formally.” “What?” “This is a formal school say it formally.” “Uhm… Yes, ma’am?” “Good now go again.” They both left the room again.
Raven went to the girls' hallway before Ashton stopped them. “Aren't you going to Mathew?” “Why would I?” “Uhm she said you needed to tell him something.” “Yeah? You actually think I am going to do that?” “I would do it before she gets mad.” “What is wrong with this school.” Raven said to themselves. “Fine, I will go.” Raven walked to the boys' hallway. They realised they had never actually seen it before, not that it was that different but still. They knocked on one of the doors in the middle of the hallway room seventeen. Mathew opened the door. “Oh hi, what are you doing here? Do you need help?” “I needed to say that you need to be a better guide and not let me get into a fight anymore or something.” “Oh okay…” “uhm yeah good night…” “You too.” He closed the door and Raven walked back to their room.
They felt completely exhausted and beaten up. Raven laid in bed thinking about the day. They felt abandoned and confused. How could anyone leave their kid at a school like this? A kid that did nothing wrong.
Raven was in their pyjamas in bed still thinking when there was suddenly knocking at their door. “Who is even knocking at this time? And why can’t they leave me the fuck alone.” Raven walked to the door. “Hello, who is there?” It was a boy one they had not seen before. “Hello I am Wilson, You have been invited to join the Good Kids Society.” “What? A good kids' society? What’s that and why now?” “I can't explain unless you join.” “What does it mean if I join?” “I can't tell you” “Yeah seems really trustworthy, goodnight.” Raven wanted to shut the door but the boy put his foot in the door opening. “Wow you are good, you already passed the first test.” “Test?” “To see if you are worthy of joining the society.” “Ugh, I don't want to join.” “Wait! You don't want to be here, right?” “yeah?” “Then join we are going to leave this place.”

5-12-2024
“Are you serious?” Raven asked, not really convinced because the boy looked like a geek. “Of course I am serious, why wouldn’t I be? ” “You don’t exactly look like the type who could escape this place.” “That’s rude but do you want to join or not?” “Fine, if that gets you to shut up.” “Okay! We have our next meeting tomorrow night in the boys' bathroom see you then.” The boy left excitedly. “Ew wtf who holds a meeting in a bathroom,” Raven said before going back to bed.
The next morning they were waken up by a loud alarm clock. They thought back about what happened the previous night and was questioning if it was real or a dream but was pulled out of the confusion by a knock at the door. “Why can't I have just one second of peace in here?!” A boy's voice could be heard at the other side of the door. “Oh I am sorry but I need to be here as your guide in case you need help.” “And you need to stay at my door for that? Can't you just do your thing and I find you when I need help?” “No, it’s school policy.” “Stupid.” Raven went to the bathroom with a pile of clothes in hand. They took a shower and afterwards got dressed. They walked back to their room and saw Mathew still standing there. “Wow, you are really going to stand there the whole time.” “Yeah…” “Well if you are going to be here might as well help. I assume we are going to have classes today so what do I need to pack?” “Oh just your books they should already lay in a drawer, I will help you get them.” He walked into their room and opened a drawer before he got a few books out of it. “Here these are the books for today.” “Thanks.” Raven grabbed their backpack and put the books in there. “So uhm what do we do now?” Raven asked. The boy checked his watch. “Uhm not you just do something you want before breakfast what is in 7 minutes.” “Okay.” Raven sat on their bed and started scrolling on TikTok. After 10 seconds Mathew was still just standing there. “You can sit down you know?” “Oh yeah, I just didn’t want to be weird.” Raven wanted to say that just standing there made him look weirder than if he had sat down but held it in. The boy sat next to Raven on the bed and also went on his phone. Raven was curious and took a look at the boys' phone. They saw he was playing some kind of game. After a few minutes, he put his phone away and stood up. “It’s time for breakfast.” “K.” Raven stood up and followed him to a dining room.
There were already a few kids seated. Raven recognised a few of them. They saw Two of the girls who shared rumours the day before They thought their names were Bridget and Zoë. Ashton was also already seated next to someone who Raven did not know. Raven sat down at the first chair they saw. It was a few chairs apart from Bridget and Zoë. Asthon sat a little bit in the middle of the table and Mathew went to sit at the other end of the table. Slowly more people started coming and sitting down. In the few chairs in between Raven and Zoë and Briget Madie and Lexi sat down. Raven looked towards where Mathew was sitting and saw that there were also sat more kids down there. One of the kids was the boy who asked Raven to join a society last night and suddenly Raven realised it really happened and they were part of a random society for real. Everyone was chatting and Raven just kind of stared in front of them. Right across from them were sitting two girls kind of close together. A few seconds later they got all cuddly and Raven looked away awkwardly. They looked at what Mathew was doing and he was also just looking in front of him like Raven was before.

9-12-2024
Raven thought that the guy probably would have had more friends as he was their guide, but it seemed like he didn’t. When everyone sat down, they began grabbing bread and other stuff on the table. The whole time during breakfast, people were chatting. After breakfast, Raven followed some kids to the first class. The entire day went very quickly, with nothing much happening apart from what seemed to be normal for this school.

After dinner, Raven sat on their bed thinking about the boy from last night. They weren’t sure if the whole thing with the meeting was real or not until they heard a knock at their door. Raven walked to their door not knowing what to expect. The same boy as last night stood in front of it. “You coming to the meeting?” Raven thought for a moment before answering. “Sure I guess.” Together they walked towards the boys' bathroom. “Why is the meeting in the boys’ bathroom?” Raven asked. “The founders are all boys and up until you there weren’t any girls.” “Of course, only boys could think of something this stupid.” The boy slightly offended walked into the bathroom.
“Hello guys the new kid is here.” The boy signalled to Raven to follow him inside. Inside were three boys. Raven was unimpressed by the number of members and how they all looked like geeks. “Is this everyone? Kinda small club, I expected it bigger.” One of the boys looked at Raven. “Oh no this is not everyone. There is one person who couldn’t make it.” “Okay? And uhm, do you guys also have names or are you going to keep that a secret or something?” The boy who was speaking before answered first. “No need to rush we were going to tell it. My name is Theo.” “My name is Brandon and he is Thomas but he doesn’t talk much.” Another one of the 3 boys explained reverencing to the other boy. Finally, the boy who led Raven there answered. “And my name is Aiden.” Aiden stood next to the other boys. Raven decided to stand in front of them and when Raven did that the boys formed a circle to discuss. “So uhm what are you guys going to do now?” Raven asked. “We are going to discuss our plan and then talk about things that can go wrong or that need to be adjusted,” Theo explained.
Brandon began, “Okay so now we have a plan to sneak out at night and follow the road to the city and then ask for phones to call our parents and get them to pick us up and bring us home. Does anyone have something to add or bring up?” Aiden put up his hand, “What if we can’t find phones?” Thomas took a notebook out of his pocket and wrote something on it before showing it. It said, “Then we find somewhere to sleep and try again the next day.” Raven looked if anyone else had something to say and then started talking, “How do we know if there isn’t an alarm at the doors at night? And calling our parents to pick us up is stupid, they brought us here so why would they just miraculously take us away if we escape? I am telling you that’s not going to happen. So we need to think of something else.” Everyone thought about that for a second and then Theo spoke up, “Do you really think they have alarms on the door? And the fact that our parents wouldn’t take us home? They are our parents of course they would take us home again. Why are you so negative?” Raven looked at the boy like he was stupid, “Don’t you want to fix possible loopholes? Isn’t that the point of this?” “Yeah, but we are not going to change a whole plan just because someone is too negative.”
Suddenly the door opened and someone else walked in, “I think Raven is right, we need to think of stuff like alarms and the fact that our parents probably won’t take us home.” The boy was Mathew and he joined the circle. Brandon looked at him, “Hey where were you, dude?” “I was busy.” Theo looked annoyed, “You too Mathew? Can’t you all stop being so negative?” Raven replied, “If you can’t handle it make your own group or something.” “Fine I am going to do that and I bet that we get out of here quicker than you guys.” With that Theo left he looked back if anyone was joining him but nobody did.

Mathew started talking to the others, “Okay so we need a few more members for my plan to fix this. Okay, so my plan is that we break a window escape through there and then run to the nearby city where we gather supplies before we travel towards my parents' summer house a few cities further.” Aiden put up his hand, “Are we going to walk all the way there? And why do you need more people for that plan?” “Yes we are going to walk that way people will get less suspicion and it's easier and we need more people for safety. If we have more people we can take shifts sleeping and holding watch.” Raven nodded, “I think that’s a great plan, but who are we going to ask to join?”
“Great that you ask. I was thinking Estella and Meredith.” Suddenly Brandon spoke up again, “What?! The couple? I don’t want to hear them having sex.” “Too bad but they can work together really well I am sure it's going to be useful.” Thomas showed something he wrote down again. “I think Ashton would be good.” Raven shook their head, “No not him. Asthon will spill the plan 100%” “How about Oscar?” Aiden asked. “No, he won’t work. Lucas maybe?” Mathew suggested. Thomas nodded and so did Aiden. “Ugh fine.” Said, Brandon even though he didn’t fully agree. “Okay Aiden you ask Lucas, Thomas ask Estella and finally Brandon you go ask Meredith. Okay, see you all again in 2 days.” Mathew said and after that, everyone started slowly walking back to their rooms. Raven left too because they were terrified of being seen in the boys' bathroom.

8-1-2025
The next day went by very quickly but one noticeable thing was that Brandon seemed a little less social and the other boys didn’t look like they wanted to talk to him. Raven couldn’t really find their place in the class and was happy that they were planning to escape. At the moment Raven just followed a few kids around the whole time but It didn’t feel like they were a part of the group.
The next day Estella and Meredith seemed a bit nervous around each other like both were hiding something. Lucas was a little more loud than usual, or at least than what Raven was used to in the few days. Mathew has also stopped with “helping” Raven in the morning. Instead Raven now had a printed-out roster to know which books they had to pack in their bag. Raven also looked if Mathew spoke with people in classes or stuff because they now knew he was also in the group. While Raven expected to see him talking with the other members most of the time, he didn’t talk much with others. He only spoke a little when he had to work together with someone or when something happened in the class.
When it was night again Raven went to the boys' bathroom. They were a little terrified that there wasn’t a meeting but luckily there was. However, only Mathew was there. “Where are the others?” Raven asked. “They come later with the newbies.” First Aiden came with who apparently was Lucas. “Now we just wait for Thomas,” Mathew said. Aiden looked confused, “What about Brandon?” “He stopped, last night he refused to ask Meredith so I kicked him out. I don’t think he cares, he didn’t like the plan anyway.” Raven was actually a little happy that he left because he seemed so annoying.
After some time Thomas came with two girls it were the same girls that Raven had earlier seen sitting close together at breakfast the first day. “Nice that you all joined us Lucas, Estella and Meredith.” Lucas looked annoyed, “Why are those two here? You plan on escaping with that couple.” “Do you have a problem with two women in a couple?” Raven asked angrily. “Well, I don’t think they should rub it in our faces every day.” “They don’t, they just act like a regular cringe couple, but you wouldn’t understand that as you never went to a regular school with your rich fancy ass.” “You say it like it’s a bad thing. At least I didn’t get school shootings.” “That’s in America you dumb ass.” “What do you have with ass?” “I don’t know okay.” Mathew looked amused while Aiden just looked annoyed, “Can you please stop arguing?! We need to finish our plan.”

16-1-2025
Mathew starts talking about the plan: “Okay, so I say we will escape in a few days so we have time to prepare and do the things we still want to do. Then we leave from a window that we throw a rock in during the day.” Some people look a bit sceptical. “Okay, just hear me out. If we throw something through it during the day, pretending it was an accident, we can easily escape through the window at night. There is no way they will have it replaced that quickly. Then we will just travel toward my summer home and live there I guess. To ensure we all make it there and don’t get caught we need to disable locations on phones or just leave them behind entirely and not contact family. Does anyone want to add something?” “Uhm what do we need to pack?” Lucas asked. “I will slip a list under your doors. Okay, that was the only question?” Some people nodded. “The list will come tomorrow and I would say that now is the time to say goodbye and ask people out I guess. Goodnight.”
Some people started leaving and Aiden walked up to Raven. “Hey, Raven… Do you maybe want to help me ask out Ashton before class tomorrow?” “What do you want me to do?” “Uhm I don’t know… Maybe just be there for me I guess.” “Sure.” So like agreed the net morning before class Raven walked up to Aiden. “So are you ready for it?” Raven asked. “I guess so.” Together they walked up to Ashton who strangely enough also walked up to them as soon as he saw them. “Oh hey, Aiden I wanted to ask you something,” Ashton said both excited and nervous. “Really? Me too.” “That’s a funny coincidence. You know what you can ask first.” “Really?” “Yeah, go on.” “Uhm alright…” Aiden took a deep breath trying to gather the courage to ask it. “Do you… want to go out with me sometime?” Ashton looked shocked. “Oh uhm… I was actually planning to ask out Zoë…” “Oh…” “Yeah… I don’t really like boys, never did.” Ashton walked away and left Aiden behind embarrassed. “Hey it could have gone worse,” Raven said. “How? How can I be worse than this?” “If he wanted to ask out me for example.” “That doesn’t make this better.” The rest of the day Aiden was a little sad he almost looked depressed if you would ask Raven. What made Raven giggle a bit was that Ashton also looked sad like Zoë rejected him.
When Raven got to their room there was a little bit of paper that was slipped under the door. On it, it said what Raven needed to take with them. A flashlight, if you have one a map, money, clothes, food, blankets, and your phone with the charger. Raven already packed a few things like money and some clothes. It was said the date and time they would be leaving, it was in 2 days at 1 in the night. That night there were a lot of loud noises in the hallway and outside as well. It was so annoying that Raven couldn’t sleep. Not that much later there also went a loud alarm and even more talking and stuff outside their room.

11-4-2025
Raven opened the door and looked outside to see what was happening. There were kids quickly running to their rooms, and then a staff member from the school came into the hallway. The few kids who weren’t in their rooms got sent to the head of the house. There were around 4 kids. Raven recognised Maddie and Lexi. After everyone was out of the hallway, it started to quiet down. After some time of still being unable to sleep, Raven went to the bathroom. While pretending to be lost, Raven wandered around until she could hear people talking. It was in the living room just outside the office of the head of the house. Raven peeked around the wall to see who it was. It was Maddie, Lexi, Ashton and Oscar. They were talking loud, so Raven could overhear their conversation. Ashton asked something, “Do you guys know if anyone got out?”
Maddie answered, “Yeah, I believe Bridget got out, and Zoë got to her room just in time. Has any of you seen what happened to Brandon? It was his idea, so he better get in trouble.”
“I think he got away to his room, actually,” Oscar replied.
“That’s so unfair!” Maddie said. “He should also get in trouble.”
Ashton looked annoyed “Whatever, we had a chance and busted it.”
Lexi spoke up for the first time “We will make Brandon pay. He didn’t even take responsibility”
Raven didn’t know what they meant by that but also didn’t really care. He deserved it, from what they saw he was really annoying. Raven walked back to their room. The conversation probably wasn’t going to get more interesting.

The next day was suspiciously quiet. Nobody said a thing about what happened the last night. It was almost like they had made a silent agreement not to say a word about what happened. During breakfast, everyone just quietly ate their food. There were a few extra staff members around the whole time. They were watching in the hallways and eating hall. During class everyone was silent but it was obvious that nobody was really paying attention.
When something finally happened was during their lunch break. There was a loud sound of glass shattering and a stone falling on tiles. A few staff members ran toward where the sound came from. Some kids looked at each other with confusion but nobody went to look. That was the final straw Raven was done with pretending nothing happened and nothing was happening. Even kids they knew had nothing to do with it didn’t talk about it. Raven hadn’t heard one single word from Mathew or any of the other escapies —that’s what they decided to call themselves. They walked up to the nearest escapie they could find. It was Mathew unfortunately for him enough. “What the hell is going on? Why is nobody reacting or saying a darn thing?”
“They are afraid.” He said it without even looking at them. He stared at the bathroom most of the staff went into.
“Of what? What is there to be afraid of? It isn’t like you are going to die if you talk about it.”
He finally looked at them with a frustrated expression. “You don’t get it. It isn’t a what it’s a who. You want to escape because you can’t stand being sent away somewhere. It's rebellion for you. For us it’s survival. The woman who runs this place may seem nice but she is terror. Once she has it out for you you’re done for.”
“What can be so scary about some random woman that runs this place? How is it survival?”
Mathew hesitates for a second and then takes a deep breath “I’m going to be so dead if I don’t get out tonight. That woman can just take away our food, phones or anything she wants in an instant. That can mean no breakfast, no way of contacting our parents, no free time, no sleep, no room or basically anything. Your basic needs don’t mean anything.”
“Who the fuck would send their kids here?”
“It’s marketed as a school for kids that don’t fit in so parents have to worry less. And it used to be better and actually run well but that was years ago. Now I need to get preparing for tonight, see you at the usual spot.”

While Raven expected this to give them more information they also got a whole lot of questions. How did he know all his because it doesn’t seem like something that’s generally talked about? Why did nobody text their parents about the quite literal neglect some kids were apparently getting?
Raven grabbed their phone and texted their parents. They said how some kids were poorly treated. “Ugh, this wifi is so bad nothing sends.” The message just said sending. Raven sighed and put their phone in their pocket, frustration bubbling as they thought, “Great just what I need right now.”

The next classes Brandon was gone. Maybe this had something to do with what Lexi said: “We will make Brandon pay.” Even though he was a pain in the ass Raven felt a bit scared for him. Sure he was annoying and always negative but he didn’t deserve to be like attacked or murdered. He better isn’t murdered. No, that’s too much even for the kids here. After the classes, Raven finished packing their bags. How were they going to do this after what happened last night? They barely have a plan. When it was the time that stood on the packing list Raven walked towards the boys’ bathroom. There were no other kids from the escapies in the hallways. Maybe they all chickened out. When they arrived only Mathew and Thomas were there. “Are we seriously the only people?”
“No, the rest comes later” Mathew explained.
“Why? And do we even have a plan?”
“Yes we have a plan and this is part of it. Everyone has different times so it isn’t suspicious if we all leave our rooms.”
“What’s the plan?”
“You will see once the others are here.”
It was a bit awkward waiting with nothing to do. Mathew didn’t really seem like he was in the mood for chitchatting and Thomas well… it’s Thomas he doesn’t talk. They just kind of awkwardly looked around. There was a piece of plywood in front of the window. Maybe someone broke it. That could explain the sound from during lunch. Slowly more people came in. Most of them asked the same questions about why not everyone was there or about the plan. Eventually, everyone arrived. When the last person came through the door Mathew grabbed a screwdriver.

Raven looked at him a little confused. “Seriously? Is a screwdriver your plan? What are you going to do with it? Threaten the staff?”
Mathew got annoyed “Just shush and wait.”
He began screwing all the screws out of the plywood covering where the window once was. He threw his bag through the window and then Thomas helped him get through it. Thomas held up a little piece of paper that said “Give me your bags.” Everyone gave their bags and Thomas held them up to the window where Mathew grabbed them. When they got all of their bags out it was time for themselves. They began with Aiden, then Lucas, then Raven, followed by Estella, Meredith, and finally, it was Thomas's turn. Mathew got on Aiden his shoulders and helped Thomas climb out of the window. Mathew looked at the group. “Time to survive and get to my summer house.”

5-8-2026
They all navigated through the dark school grounds until they reached the forest next to the school. There was a high fence stopping people from leaving the school grounds and going into the forest. They stopped in front of the fence, and Thomas threw his jacket over the spikes on top of the fence. Mathew spoke: “This should make the spikes less spikey, but still watch out. Thomas is going to sit on top of the fence and help you all get over it.” They all helped Thomas get on top of the fence. First, he helped get all the bags to the other side of the fence, and after that, they started working on getting each other over the fence. Mathew gave everyone a leg-up, and then Thomas grabbed them to get them higher over the fence. When everyone except Mathew was over the fence, he took a run-up and jumped as high over the fence as he could, and Thomas helped him get over it. Thomas jumped off, taking the jacket with him.

“Okay we are in the forest, so now what?” Raven asked.
“We should probably get food because I didn’t have food to take with me,” Estelle said. “With what money? I don’t know about you, but I barely had any cash to take with me, so we should be careful with the money that we do have,” Lucas argued.
“We have card of course. Did you seriously leave that behind?”
“Why would I take my card? My parents will hundred precent block it as soon as they find out we are gone.”
“That’s why we need to use them now before they find out. Did you really not think about that?” Meredith joined in.
They were only gone a few minutes, and there was already an argument. Raven knew this was going to take a long time before they got to the summer house. It would be surprising if everyone made it.
“Guys, let's just stop the arguing,” Mathew said in hopes of saving whatever was left of the unity. “I think it’s a good idea to get a lot of food that lasts long; we need to get as much use as possible from our cards as long as we can still use them.”
Surprisingly, the arguing actually died down a bit. So Mathew did have some control over this group; Raven would have never thought that. How could this quiet kid, almost a nerd, get control of a group full of unhinged rich kids? Maybe it was the fact that he was different from the rest, Raven didn’t know how yet, but he was different.

The chain of thought was interrupted by Aiden. “We also need fire starters or heaters and flashlights. We should split up, some people for food, others for stuff for heat and light.”
“Good idea,” Mathew agreed. “Let's travel towards the nearby town and find somewhere to wait until the shops are open.”
Everyone kind of mumbled that they agreed, and they got walking. Apparently, Thomas had printed out a map of the area already a week ago. They really planned this stuff. Using the map, they found their way to the small town. Raven had gone through it quickly when their Mother dropped them off at that hell school. It didn’t have much; it had a grocery store, a barber, a small café, and a camping store for tourists. Kind of stupid that they have a camping store here, knowing it's near a school where kids probably try to escape regularly. Maybe with how many kids escape, they make more than the school could pay them to leave. They decided to wait at the back of the café, where they had some dumpsters.
Meredith did not like that they wanted to sit for multiple hours next to dumpsters. “Just know I’m not going dumpster diving.”
“Nobody needs to go dumpster diving. We should just rest and maybe organise the stuff that we have, but rest is a priority.”
Some people didn’t need to get told that twice. Meredith, Estella, and Lucas all lay down in an attempt to sleep.

“Why aren’t you sleeping, Raven?” Aiden asked as if he wasn’t staying awake as well.
“Why aren’t you guys sleeping? What a stupid question.” Raven was a bit annoyed.
"We have to plan; we are the leaders." Mathew came in.
"Who even picked you guys? Did you have like a voting or something?" Raven felt like it was an odd choice of people.
Aiden came in excitedly, "It was just an agreement without talking. I mean, everyone knows that Mathew knows pretty much everything about this school. I got in with my amazing people skills, and Thomas is smart as fuck."
"I don't know if I would call it great people skills", Raven mumbled.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing. How does Mathew know so much about the school anyway?"

Meanwhile, Mathew was busy reorganising his bags, not really paying attention to the conversation anymore.

"Oh you don't know? One of his parents used to work at the school, and he has gone here since he was allowed to."
"Why the heck did his parents still decide to send him there if they knew what stuff was going on? And a better question: how do we know he isn't going to rat us out to his parents and the school?"
"I don't really know why his parents sent him here. I always just assumed his parents hated him." Aiden looked like he never really thought that deeply about this before.
"Well then, why don't we ask him? Hey-" Before Raven could finish what they were saying, they were cut off by Aiden.
"No, don't ask him and especially not while he is busy in his own world. He tends to get quite upset or quiet when you ask him about it, and his mind is kind of his safe space, so we should just leave him be."

Oh, great, now we have a mentally unstable dude here as well. We could just practically give up now; no way we are going to make this, Raven thought.

"Why do you think that sounds like someone who should take the lead in something like this?"
"It's just useful okay. Just stop being so negative. If it works, it works. I used to think you were a great addition to our group, but now I'm doubting it." Aiden sounded really annoyed.
Finally, Mathew paid attention to the whole conversation. Took him long enough.
"Aiden, you are the person being negative here. Don't just go around taking the morale of our group down."
"What the hell, Mathew? I thought you were on my side. This kid, you barely know for a week, was saying you are a bad leader, and you still pick her side."
"What she says is true; everything you just said doesn't sound like I would be a good and stable leader for our group. And it's true your people skills aren't the best."

Raven was surprised by the sudden discussion going on because of them.
"Whatever, dude, you’re probably just drunk on the stuff you stole again."
“Come on, I said that was in the past.”

Realising Raven was probably invading some private shit, they left the 2 arguing and walked away.
It was late, and they were tired, but they decided to just wander around the town. While wandering around, they noticed that the barber shop didn’t have any kind of security. They were probably in trouble for breaking out of the school anyway, so they might as well break into the shop. A few more crimes can’t do any harm.
They found a stone and threw it at the window of the door. It made a loud crashing sound as the stone and glass fell to the ground. Before they opened the door and went in, they quickly looked around to see if anyone noticed and was coming. When they saw the coast was clear and no one was coming, they went inside.

Once inside, they looked around the drawers in the shop for scissors or razors, just anything to cut their hair. They had been begging their parents to let them cut their hair short for ages, but their parents never let them, because “It's not ladylike to have your hair that short and it makes you look homeless.” Well, now they basically were, so what did it matter? Taking the scissors, they found they cut their hair shorter from over their shoulders to barely touching them; it looked like a messed-up wolfcut because they had no experience cutting hair at all. They grabbed the scissors and a razor and put them in their pocket in case anyone else wanted to cut their hair. Or if one of the boys decided to grow a moustache, because in no way would Raven let that happen.

Though just as they were putting it in their pocket, Thomas came into the barbershop. He held up a notepad with a message already written on it: “What are you doing?”
“I’m taking supplies with me, don’t you see?”
Thomas looked annoyed because of that and got a bit frustrated before writing on his notepad, “Why would you randomly break into here?”
“Uhm, well, we are on the run already, and this place barely had security. We should change our appearances anyway.”
He thought about that for a bit and wrote under his previous message: “We need to keep a low profile; if we steal things, they will see us as a threat.”
“Yeah, I know, I promise this is the only place I'll break in and steal stuff.”
Thomas nodded to show he accepted the promise.
“You are probably the most chill person in this group; you should get more credit.” Raven sat down on the ground, the tiredness getting to them.
Thomas signed thank you. Raven never knew Thomas could sign. They thought he didn’t know how to because he never did with any of the other kids or teachers.
“Wait a second, you know sign language?” Raven was quite intrigued by this because they themselves once tried learning sign language out of boredom but gave up.
Thomas took out his notepad again “No, I don’t, it has no use if nobody knows it, but I know a few of the basics most people know.”
Surprisingly, it was quite nice talking to Thomas because he was actually kind of smart and chill compared to the others. He never got worked up or into a lot of arguments; he was just there and helped when he should. Well, he didn’t talk much anyway, probably has to do with the fact that he has to write every time he wants to say something.
“Have you actually been mute all the time since your birth, or like what is it?”
Thomas came and sat next to them while writing: “I have selective mutism, but this school made it so bad I’m mute almost all the time.”
“Oh... that sucks” Raven was quiet for a moment, thinking about what to say next. “What is selective mutism?”
As if he was already prepared for this question, Thomas flipped to a page in his notepad that read, “Selective mutism is a severe anxiety disorder that causes people to be unable to speak in some situations while they can speak in others. This can be due to fear of judgement, fear of voice and other things, as it isn’t fully confirmed yet what causes it” It became pretty clear to Raven that he probably wrote this down from what it says on Google because so many people ask the question.
“So basically, the anxiety makes it so you can’t talk in some spaces”
Thomas nodded.
“That’s neat. Well, not that you can’t speak most of the time, but that you can speak sometimes and that it isn’t permanent.”
And suddenly he spoke, pretty quiet and with not that strong of a voice, but he spoke. “Yeah, it’s nice to talk to friends occasionally.”
Raven was shocked by the fact that he spoke, but they didn’t want to make a big deal out of it in case he would get anxiety again. “How many people do you usually talk with?”
“About 3 people, Aiden, Mathew and Brandon. And now you, I guess. I used to talk with my parents at home, but not as often in public.”
“And I’m guessing this school didn’t give you a lot of accommodations for it?”
“No, they just asked teachers not to ask me questions, and that’s it. It’s pretty nice at first until you realise all the teachers forget about you. I got this notepad myself once after a month of waiting for them to give me better accommodations.”
“Fuck dude, an entire month not being able to communicate with most people, I could never.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t that easy” He was silent for a bit as if he was thinking about how that time was.
Raven thought about how it would have been hard for him to make friends. While thinking about that, their thought moved towards the other kids at the school and how they all seemed reasonably normal for a school like this.
“Are all the kids at that school for some stupid reason or something? Like, from what I heard, this school is pretty messed up, but it seems like a lot of normal kids go here.”
“That’s because part of the school is for troubled teens, but they branched out to kids who just don’t fit in or who need extra help. For more information you should talk to Mathew tho, he knows the most.”
“I got told not to ask him about the school and why he’s here.”
“Just don’t ask him about his parents or why he’s in the school, and you’ll be good. He can answer questions about the school in general.”

Raven stood up and started walking to the door. “We should head back to camp and rest.”
Thomas nodded in agreement. Together, they walked back to the dumpsters in silence. While walking back, Raven thought about the school; it was constantly on their mind how a school like this could possibly exist. They got it that troubled kids should get more rules and harsher treatment, but not kids like this. It’s not like they would really lash out otherwise. Well, Aiden and Mathew did say something about stealing alcohol. What was that about, actually?
“Hey, do you know anything about alcohol in the school, or like kids stealing alcohol?” Raven asked Thomas.
He took out his notepad again to write something: “A few years ago, Mathew stole alcohol from the teachers' quarters; nobody really knows why, and it’s a sensitive topic for him and his friends.”
“Why also his friends? And aren’t you his friend as well?”
“They said his friends were also involved, so they all got consequences from the school, but Mathew got the most of it. They didn’t blame me because, in their eyes, I can’t do anything because I’m mute.”
Raven did not like the idea of his friends getting consequences for his actions at all, and what would that even mean in a school like this?
Thames noticed their worry and wrote quickly: “Don’t worry about it too much, they just lost their phones for a week up to a month, depending on how much the people higher up liked them. But that’s practically their only way of contact outside the school.”

They got back to the dumpsters, and the argument that was there before had died down. Aiden was asleep, and Mathew was still reorganising his bag. He was taking the same things in and out of his bag multiple times, as if he wanted to double-check it each time. That made a lot of sense because if they messed up and got caught, they would be in a lot of trouble. Raven ignored it and decided to sleep while trying to settle all thoughts.

The next morning, they got woken up by the bright morning sun shining in their eyes. It seemed that Mathew also got woken up, as he was sitting up, if he had ever even gone to sleep, Raven thought. He always looked like he hadn’t slept in 3 days, so they couldn’t tell.
“What did you do with your hair?”
Of course, that were the first words to come out of his mouth, not anything about the plan, but their hair.
“I cut it so they won’t recognise me; it won’t be long before there are missing posters looking for us everywhere.”
“It suits you nicely, I think it also really fits with your black hair. Really makes you stand out.”
“Thanks? I guess.” Raven didn’t really know what to do with that compliment. “We should wake the others up before the café opens, and they see us.”

Mathew agreed, and they woke everyone up and assigned the tasks. Aiden wanted to go with Raven, so they went together to the camping store to buy supplies. Meredith and Estella went to the grocery store, buying canned food and other long-lasting food to eat. Thomas, Mathew, and Lucas stayed behind to study the map they had, make a route and find places to set up camps.

While walking to the camping store, Raven decided to ask why Aiden wanted to go with them.
“Yesterday you were arguing with Mathew about how you disliked me, and now you asked to go with me to the store. What the heck is that about?”
“I just want to keep my enemies close.” He said it as if he made it up in the moment, and there was definitely more to it.
“Yeah, sure, dude, real convincing.” Raven decided not to bother themselves with figuring it out further.

Once in the camping store, they looked around for some matches, fire starters and flashlights. They decided to get 3 boxes of matches just in case; you never know how many you need. Aiden already wanted to go to the checkout, but Raven went to the tents instead.

“Raven, what are you doing? We got everything we needed to get, and we should leave as soon as possible.”
“Yeah, I know, but maybe something like a tent would be handy if the weather decides to turn around.”
“Don’t you know how heavy it would be to also carry a tent around everywhere?”
“Yeah, that’s true, but what if we just get one of these tarps because it protects us from most of the rain, but it doesn’t take up too much space?”
Raven grabbed a lightweight tarp from the shelves and showed it to Aiden.
“Yes, okay, but we use your card to buy it because I don’t have the money for this. Oh, and don’t forget rope to attach it to stuff.”
And with that, they walked out of the store not only with matches, fire starters and flashlights but also rope and a tarp against the rain and wind.

They walked back to the back of the café, but when they got there, nobody was there anymore. Raven thought that made sense; after all, it wouldn’t have been too long until the café workers saw them at the back. After a quick discussion, Raven and Aiden decided to look around the town for the others. While looking around, they came across the barber. There was police lint around the door, and now Raven knew they had to get away as soon as possible.
Aiden also noticed the lint, “Why would someone break into a barber? I sure as hell hope it’s not one of us that did it without telling anyone.” He nodded to Raven's new haircut.
“We would have needed to get out of this town anyway, and besides, I told Thomas and Mathew.”
“Of course you did.” Aiden sighed

After walking around for not too long, they found the others in front of the grocery store. There seemed to be a lot of arguing and other stuff going on. Everyone was there, except Estella, Meredith and Mathew. When Lucas saw them, he explained what happened. Apparently, Meredith's card was already blocked, and they couldn’t buy the food, so they had to wait inside the store until the others came to check on them to see how it was going. When they saw them in the store, they went out to ask people for money because, apparently, almost everyone was broke or didn’t want to use their money for that. However, when they came back to pay, Estella and Meredith were being questioned by the staff. When they were finally about to be let free, the staff said they would contact the police to see if they ran away. Oh, and Mathew was just lost or something again. Lucas probably said more about it, but Raven only thought about making a plan. Having their parents called was one of the worst things that could probably happen.

Aiden decided to give a quick recap as if they didn’t all already know how much trouble they were in, “So just to make sure I all got this right. First of all, we got the police on our ass because someone decided to break into a barber, and then secondly we were being questioned and suspected of running away.” “Because we are,” Lucas added.
“Yeah, but not everyone needs to know, and apparently everyone is really bad at hiding it”
Raven chimed in before anyone could respond to Aiden “We all have a lack of sleep already, so let's try and not take stuff personally and keep our eyes on the goal. I got an idea to get them out of there without calling their parents.”