Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

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Nicole stepped out of the bus and onto the pavement, looking up at the school that stood ahead. It looked normal by all accounts, certainly no Hopes Peak, but it was still more impressive than the last place she had attended.

An ultimate school, somewhere that’s job is to collect the best and brightest from all around, and here she was standing on the steps in front of one. Nicole was uneasy to say the least. She had never had good experiences in school, and to add to it, this place was going to be full of ultimates. People who stood above the rest. Was she really someone who could stand beside them with her head held high? Did she really deserve that?

Well fuck that of course she deserved it, but could she do it?

She arrived with the full intention of fucking around, but now standing before her was a real opportunity. She had been picked, and despite the fact that she didn’t feel like she belonged AT ALL, she allowed herself to hope, even just a little.

Murmuring to herself she looked down at the acceptance letter clutched in her hand. The paper was crumpled from being furled into a ball for the entire bus-ride over, and her hand was clammy with sweat. But she could still make out the instructions written on it.

It said there’d be a meeting for all incoming students in the main hall at 8AM. After rereading this for what seemed like the millionth time, Nicole returned the crumpled wad of paper to her pocket and took a deep breath. Picking up her luggage, the head of the guitar sticking out. She looked back up determined at the monolithic building before her.

“Alright Nicole. Now or never” Nicole muttered to herself.

Was she really at the stage of muttering assurances to herself? She’d kill herself if anyone overheard that, but whatever. It was time. With that, Nicole took her first step towards the main hall.

Upon entering she looked around. It was empty.

“This was where we’re supposed to meet, right? Am I seriously the first person here?”

Nicole pulled out her sidekick to check the time. 7:10AM. She remembered she had left extra early that morning, half to make sure she wouldn’t be late because of the lousy buses, but also half because she couldn’t stand to hear her mom’s bleating any longer. She glanced around for somewhere to sit while she waited but there weren't any benches she could see, and she wasn’t about to crouch down on the floor like some kid.

“Great, guess I’ll just stand here for the next 50 minutes.”

Nicole held true to this statement for all of the next minute and a half. After this point she glanced ahead through the glass doors that led into the rest of the building. She was a student here now, so surely it would be alright if she looked around a little. If nothing else it would help her kill time, so with that thought she stepped forward towards the doors. She’d be back on time, she only wanted to look around the main floor she was on anyway.

But the instant her hands met with the glass doors ahead of her, she instantly felt her sense of balance betray her. Her vision became warped, twisted, as if she had fallen into a blender. Everything in front of her morphed and changed and she could feel a thick fog descending inside of her brain clouding her thoughts.

And the next moment.

Everything went black.

That’s how it began, how life as Nicole had known it came to an end. This was the beginning of her life at the High School Class of Despair.

#

High School Class of Despair

Prologue:

Intro to Despair

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As Nicole’s consciousness began to return to her, she slowly lifted her head from her arms, groggily rubbing her eyes.

“Where the fuck…?” Nicole managed to croak out as her vision slowly faded back into view.

In front of her was what appeared to be a chalkboard. Simple and blank. She was in a classroom. As she rubbed her eyes, her head banging, she took note of the room around her. A simple classroom with desks lining the back. She was sitting at one of these desks, having woken up with her head in her arms. For a moment Nicole just sat there recollecting her thoughts, before realization shot through her head.

“Shit! I must’ve fallen asleep while looking around!” She got up and rushed towards the classroom door ahead of her, all the while silently cursing her brother for keeping her up last night thanks to the sounds of his loud as fuck video games.

As she reached the door she gripped the handle with her hand and yanked it back, expecting the door to open right up. Instead she felt a seething pain as she almost yanked her arm out of her socket. The door was locked. She tried yanking it twice more to no avail.

“Shit, I’m going to be late. What time is it?”

Nicole fished around in her pockets for her sidekick but returned empty handed. Her sidekick was missing.

“Fuck! Did I get robbed while I was out?”

She turned around to inspect the desk she had woken up at for it, only to make another discovery.

Sitting there, clumped over onto the desk behind her was another student who she hadn't even noticed in her insistence on leaving. He appeared to also be completely out of it, a slight drizzle of drool escaping his mouth onto the desk.

Ew.

She walked over to the desk he was laying at and decided upon her course of action.

“Hey! Wake up.” Nicole commanded.

The greasy kid drooling on the table didn’t seem to respond. His black bowl cut hair and thick round glasses obscuring part of his face.

“I said, Hey, WAKE UP!” With this Nicole kicked the desk with her foot, causing it to stutter and the sleeping boy to fall to the ground with a loud yelp that confirmed to Nicole he had indeed woken up.

“Ah! Where am I? Huh?” Said the greasy boy who shot up behind the desk.

“Classroom.” Nicole reminded him unhelpfully. “Did you follow me here? Where’s my sidekick?” Nicole interrogated, already confident in her assumption this kid would be both stupid enough to rob her, and to fall asleep in the same room as her afterwards.

“What? Me?” said the kid pointing to himself.

“Yeah, see anyone else in this room?” Nicole barked back. “Now where the hell is my sidekick?”

“Well uh, I don’t know, but I could be your sidekick if you needed.” The boy responded, blushing slightly as he seemed to clock he was talking to a girl.

Ugh, great.

“What- no, I mean my phone you fucking pervert.” Nicole crossed her arms, her scowl growing deep enough that the boy seemed to realize he was indeed in danger.

“Uh, I don’t know, I don’t have your phone. I only have mine, see?”

With that the boy reached into his pockets frantically looking for his own phone as if that would prove his innocence, but his expression fell into one of terror. Nicole didn’t need to wait to hear what was wrong.

“You lost yours too? What the hell is going on here?” Nicole turned away from the boy having lost all interest in his existence. As she did she turned to look at the far wall and her expression fell. “What the fuck.”

The boy turned to look at where she was looking and saw what she did. In place of where would normally be windows, instead sat massive metal barriers bolted into the walls. Nicole walked up to them in an attempt to feel around the barriers to no use. They were completely sealed. No natural sunlight was peaking through at all, only the fluorescent glow of the lights overhead.

“Uh, what’s happening?” Said the boy, seeming to expect an answer from Nicole.

“How the fuck should I know? I just woke up here like you.”

“Oh, well, then maybe we should introduce ourselves.”

“Yeah, kinda got a bigger issue going on right now.” Nicole said, making her way back to the main door and attempting to pry it open again.

“Well my name is Jeffery. Good to meet you!” He said, extending a clammy hand to Nicole.

She stopped trying to force the door open for a second to look at the shriveled excuse for a human standing before her, and then back down at his hand.

“I’m not shaking your hand.” Nicole said bluntly before returning to the door.

“Oh, well that’s okay, we wouldn’t want to spread germs now would we?” Jeffery said chuckling at what Nicole figured was his attempt at a joke. “What’s your name?”

Nicole finally gave up on the door taking a moment to catch her breath and rest her arm. “Ugh fine if it’ll shut you up, Nicole. Ultimate debater.”

With this Nicole looked past Jeffery at the chairs slid beneath each desk, and she pushed past him to grab the nearest one.

“Huh? What are you going to do with that?” Jeffery asked.

Ignoring him, she picked up the chair with both hands, testing its weight. Then without hesitation she ran at the door and jammed the chair’s legs directly into the center of it. Nicole expected the door itself to shatter, making a hole big enough for her to climb through to escape or at least to grab the doorknob from the other side. She’d probably be in trouble but if she explained the situation and pinned the blame for the chair on Jeffery she’d probably be alright. Instead what happened was the door’s lock seemed to break clean through, with the door swinging open sending Nicole flying to the ground, the chair whose legs had shattered on impact clattering to the ground ahead of her.

Nicole could hear another annoying yelp from Jeffery behind her but got up dusting herself off and making a mental note to string Jeffery up by his neck if he ever told anyone about that. Inspecting the door she had just rammed open she found it indeed had been dented, with one of the chair legs having even broken off still sticking into the door loosely. She turned the door towards her slightly to see that the lock that had been holding it in place had indeed been broken clean through, despite its earlier resilience to her weight, the combined speed with which the chair had allowed her to run at it protected, seemed to do the trick.

“Agh! You’ve broken down the door! You’re gonna be in big trouble!” Jeffery said, freaking out.

Nicole groaned and turned herself to face the twerp.

“We’re gonna be in trouble, not just me. After all, we were both in the room, so stop whining about the broken door and come with me unless you want to get caught outside of this mess.”

“B-but…”

“Or don’t I really don’t care.” Nicole said, turning to leave.

Sure enough after a moment of thought, Jeffery seemed to think better of trying to stay behind and tattle and walked up beside Nicole. She didn’t really want him to follow her, but if she ran into any teachers she could probably pin the crime on him if they got mad. For now though her attention was on returning to the main lobby and to where the entrance was. As she walked she noticed what appeared to be several digital clocks lining the walls, all of which were infuriatingly blank. Had there been a power outage? Was that somehow linked to why she couldn’t remember anything between getting dizzy in the entrance and waking up in the classroom? With so many thoughts swirling through her head she barely heard Jeffery squeaking beside her.

“So, you're the ultimate debater huh, Nicole? What does that entail?”

“Uh, debating?”

“Oh.”

“What about you, ultimate… What was it again?”

“Oh right, I’m the ultimate fanfiction writer!” Jeffery said, puffing out his chest.

Nicole didn’t know whether to laugh or to run away.

“Fanfiction writing?” she said, trying to understand.

“Yup, it’s a hard craft to master, but I’ve done it!”

“Uh-huh.”

“I write all kinds of fanfictions, but my favorite are ones that involve the cute girls in my anime and manga.”

“Oh god.”

“What's wrong Nicole?”

“Oh nothing much, just me realizing how meaningless everything that’s happened to me since I moved here is.”

“Oh, well that’s not good.”

As Nicole was preparing some kind of comeback to Jeffery, she heard a sound of rattling ahead of her. Against one of the walls, another classroom door appeared to be rattling as if someone on the other side was attempting to open it.

“Agh! There’s somebody in there!” Jeffery said, jumping back in a comical and exaggerated way that he had definitely practiced in the mirror.

Ignoring him Nicole noticed the continued struggle to get the door open from whoever was on the other side.

“They’re locked in too?” Nicole thought out loud to herself. Before she could do anything else though, the door made a loud clicking noise and swung open, revealing a figure standing behind it. Around Nicole’s height and with a head flowing with gorgeous blonde hair stood another girl staring at Nicole holding a hair pin. She wore a bright pink top with a surprisingly stylish black jacket overtop. Her skin had a slight tan and she was undeniably gorgeous.

After an awkward silence the blonde girl spoke up first as she expertly placed the hair pin back in its rightful spot, holding up a small bun of golden hair on her head.

“Uh, hello.”

“Hi.” Nicole responded back awkwardly.

“So. Why did you lock us in here?” The blonde girl said accusingly.

“Bitch I didn’t lock shit, I only just got here. Wait, we?”

Behind the blonde stood another boy, this one with bushy brown hair that spiked over his eyes and parted in the middle.

“Uh hi, I’m Kyle.” said Kyle.

“Right. Who are you?” Nicole said, immediately shifting the conversation back to the blonde girl.

“Jecka, what’s yours?”

“Nicole. Why’d your parents name you Jecka?”

“Well no they called me Jessica, but I started doing Jecka for short. Also Jessica’s a name that just screams married at 20.”

“Oh yeah Marriage sucks, never doing it.”

“Totally.”

As Nicole and Jecka’s conversation continued, Jeffery cut in to ask a question of his own.

“Wait, are you two ultimates too?”

“Oh yeah!” Kyle said, also butting in. “I’m the ultimate Lucky student.”

“And you’re proud of that?” Jecka asked, causing Nicole to snicker.

“Well then what’s your talent?” Kyle asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Ultimate fashionista.” Jecka said, a slight flicker of shame spreading across her face.

“Fashionista? Guess that explains why you dress so…

“Preppy? Yeah, blame my mom. She works corporate for department stores so I get all this expensive stuff for free, and ended up getting the ultimate title too. But trust me, I don’t give a fuck.”

“Cool yeah same.” Nicole responded. For the first time this morning she was finally speaking to someone who didn’t make her want to gauge her eyes out with a rusty spoon. Of course fate being fate, had to ruin this.

“I’m Jeffery, the ultimate fanfiction writer. And this is Nicole, the ultimate debater.”

“You’re a debater? What does that entail?” Kyle asked.

Nicole groaned, and clearly growing equally as annoyed Jecka sprung into action.

“Hey so what happened to you guys? Cause we just woke up in there with the door locked.”

“Alas, it is the same for us.” Jeffery said in a weird voice. “We woke up down the hall, but Nicole managed to- … open the locked door.” Noticing Nicole’s death glare, Jeffery made sure to alter the last part of his story.

“So then whatever’s going on we’re all victims in this.” Kyle said, putting a hand to his chin as if he was some kind of detective in a movie.

“We should split up to… I don’t know… Look for clues.” Nicole said, trying to find an excuse to ditch the boys.

“Good thinking. Jecka you can stay with me and I’ll protect you if anything happens!” Kyle said confidently.

“Oh wow, so kind. But I think you and Jeffery should stick together.” Jecka said, trying to hide the disgust in her voice.

“Huh? Why us?” Jeffery asked.

“Well y’know… guys with guys and girls with girls… so that you can like I don’t know… Sync your interests?” Nicole added.

“Exactly,” Jecka said, nodding her head. “So you two go that way, and me and Nicole will explore this way.”

Jecka had clearly had the same idea as Nicole as she motioned towards the entrance area for her and Nicole, meanwhile sending the boys off deeper into the school.

“Oh, okay! Come on Kyle, I can tell you about the fanfiction I’m writing!” Jeffery said, completely convinced by this idea.

“Oh uh okay, but uh Jecka if anything happens just uh, let me know.”

“Yeah I’ll be sure to yell your name through the halls.” Jecka said sarcastically.

“Okay good. See you!” Kyle said, taking this entirely at face value.

As the boys wandered off down the opposite end of the hall, Jecka let out a sigh.

“God finally, I was about this close to doing something he’d regret.” Nicole said.

“Don’t you mean you’d regret?” Jecka asked.

“No, cause I really wouldn’t have regretted it.” Nicole said, to which Jecka giggled.

###

“So you also remember nothing between entering the building and waking up in a classroom?” Jecka asked, piecing together both of their stories.

“Yeah, and they took my phone. That fanfic kid’s too.”

“Oh yeah no they took ours as well. Nicole, you don’t think we’ve been kidnapped do you?”

“I mean we’re still in the school aren’t we?”

“I guess, but then what about the windows?”

“Oh yeah I saw those, completely boarded up. Who the fuck does that?”

“Lake Braddock apparently. Maybe it’s all some weird orientation?”

“Pretty fucked up orientation if so.”

“I mean yeah I didn’t say it wasn't, but like what other explanation do we have right now?”

As the duo walked towards where the entrance should be, they rounded a corner that should have led them right to it. Instead, they were met by a massive vault door with what looked like two giant turrets mounted from the ceiling pointing down at them.

“Jesus fucking christ!” Nicole said, immediately jumping back around the corner, pulling Jecka with her.

“What the fuck was that?” Jecka asked.

“I don’t know, I just saw two massive guns sticking out from the ceiling.” Nicole said, peeking around the corner. The two guns in question appeared to be hanging there limply. Nicole hesitantly waved her arm out around the corner, and nothing happened.

As she was building up the courage to step out from around the corner, Jecka pushed past her and stepped out in front of them looking back at Nicole.

“They’re deactivated, see?” She said, much too calmly.

“Jesus, you were quick to trust that. If we have been kidnapped, how do you know they wouldn’t set up a bunch of traps to kill us?”

“Because this isn’t a movie Nicole, and if they wanted us dead, why not just kill us?”

“Well, alright yeah but still, why the fuck would a school have those?”

Jecka glanced back at the guns uneasily.

“Uh… security?” Jecka said. It sounded more like a question than conviction. “I mean the style matches the security cameras that are all over the place.”

“What cameras?” Nicole asked surprised.

“You didn’t notice them? Look.” Jecka pointed at a nearby wall corner.

Sure enough, slotted into the wall and staring directly at them was a high tech security camera. A sleek black design with a red streak running down the side. Nicole testing it out took a couple steps to the side, and the camera followed her movements.

“What the fuck.”

“Yeah, they’ve been staring at us this whole time, they were in the classrooms too, I thought you noticed them.” Jecka said, walking over to where Nicole was standing.

“I mean hallways make sense but classrooms too? Talk about doubling down on security.” Nicole said, turning to look back at the guns.

“But those, that’s not just security, that’s overkill.” Nicole added, pointing back at the guns.

The two girls walked up to the massive vault door beneath the inactive guns.

“The guns aren’t reassuring, sure, but I’m more worried about the vault doors.” Jecka said tracing a hand along the cold metal surface.

“They really want to keep something out.” Nicole said standing just too close for her liking to the massive weapons overhead.

“Or like they want to keep something in.” Said a new voice, echoing from the halls behind the girls. Both of them jumped and turned around to see another girl standing at the end near the opposite hallway from the one they had entered from.

The girl in question had dirtied blonde hair hanging down over her shoulders, and scars lining her skin up her arms.

“Sup, the name’s Emily.” said the girl. “Ultimate cook since I know you’re gonna ask.”