Kate's shoes squealed as she hurried down the marble corridor to her first class. She still had crumbs from a protein bar on her lips, and her hair was in a messy bun with a bug from home still occupying it. She slowed down to sniff herself once discreetly, not too bad, when she caught the disappointed frown of a cleaning lady. Kate blinked, and the woman continued to frown as she shook her head, before continuing to mop; and then, the bell rang.

Ah, fuck it.

Kate ran. 11A. This was it. She stood at the edge of the doorframe, closing her eyes for a second. "I will not get expelled." She told herself, opening her eyes. Not this time. Well, not after she got expelled from her last school, the last school left in Brooklyn. "But I will escape." She nodded to herself before pushing open the door when-

SPLAT!

Cold water slammed into her front, overwhelming her senses for a second. The world seemed to freeze; and all she could feel was her skin crawling and her heart hammering. She opened her eyes, and suddenly, the world amplified. Guys at the back of the auditorium turned cheered savagely, and the girls smirked or disregarded. But Kate wasn't looking at them. She, was looking at the fatass infront of her who bowed and snickered at the class like a proud showman, a blue bucket of water in his hand. "TRADITION!" He announced, and the crowd went wild.

He turned to her, his brown eyes smiling as he took her in like entertainment. "Good job Norman." Someone from the back said, and his grin widened.

Kate's eye twitched. Her fists clenched. She couldn't hear her thoughts. She didn't need to. Tradition, huh? She'd make him meet his ancestors today, he could ask them about fucking tradition. She took a step forward, crossing the threshold, her books at her feet, when the teacher spoke "Miss Ashford. Please go change." The world snapped back into place, and she was small again. Because she remembered the promise she had just made to herself. Pursing her lip, Kate stepped back, still livid. Still half a second away from breaking this boy's pretty smile with her fist. She turned away, and left. 

***

Kate wrung out her wet uniform in the girls washroom. She scowled as a drop from the toilet hit her dry uniform's blue pleat. The washroom door clicked.

Girls laughed outside, she ignored them.

"Nah, she looked like she needed a bath anyway."

A shiver ran down her spine. Two of them guffawed.

"Sinclair will take anyone who can afford to be here at this point."

One of them snorted, a british accent, "Even subway rats." They snickered.

Without a second thought, Kate burst through the door, flapping her uniform so it sprinkled water all over the walls and them. The girls gasped in protest and she threw the uniform onto the counter, before washing her hands at the basin. She could feel their eyes on her. She looked up at her reflection in the mirror. Sharp hazel eyes in sunken bags, faint freckles on her honey tan skin, and a high pony tail with a few squiggly strands that liked to ride in bumps on her head. "Even uptight loudmouths." She said, flicking her hands, before grabbing her clothes and leaving. She lived for the agonized reaction they gave her.

She hung her clothes to dry over the ledge of her window, and was making her way back to class. But, Kate had to admit, their words stung. Because truthfully, even she knew she didn't belong here. It was obvious, that's why her mum had put her here. So that one day she would belong, somewhere. 

Well, that plan was going to go to shit.

Kate sped up. She already knew where she belonged. 

Exploring abandoned warehouses with her friends every weekend. Pulling fire alarms. The Park Slope olympics. Singing a cheesy love song out loud in a metro, and nobody would even bat an eye. Brooklyn.

Paris bustled outside the window in the corridor in protest.

"Miss Ashford!" She stopped at the sound of her name, grimacing. The dean, ugh. She turned as the chubby white woman poked her head past a stack of books rising above her grinning face. Kate stood there, her hands behind her  back, a tight smile when she approached her, and suddenly the books slipped. "Here!" 

Kate caught the stack just before it hit the ground. 

She barely saw the woman's face as she spoke fast, "God bless you, child. Now go put them in the staffroom. Tenth floor. Thankyou." She ruffled her hair and walked past her.

Kate couldn't even see her go because of how high that pile rose. She groaned in frustration as she looked it up. "Yeah, because I love doing free labour." She rolled her eyes, glancing at the clock on the wall in the nearest classroom. Well, some time out wouldn't hurt.

Kate dropped the books with a thud on the table in the staffroom. Her arms shook, but damn, was she impressed. With herself, and, this. Sinclair's was a rich school, but their staffrooms were like old whites gentlemen clubs. Antique as hell. A TV hung on a red velvet wall, and two long tables extended infront of it, stacked with books. Next to the table though was a wall of ivory white lockers with customised knobs, one left weirdly ajar, and an arched window. A few joints heated up under the afternoon sun on the ledge, and was that a-

The pigeon cocked its neck forward, observing. It was all white, with a blue collar around its neck. Its red beady eye looked Kate up and down, and then it took the time to do the same with the other eye, before scuttling right. Kate's stomach flipped. She laughed nervously, stepping back, and it scuttled further right. She stood still. Pigeons as pets was crazy. But all of sinclair's was crazy too. If the principal allowed kids to come up with a tradition on the first day of the year, then why not this.

Kate narrowed its eyes at the pigeon, and it seemed to do the same. Domesticated didn't mean harmless. A tense showdown.

The pigeon won.

"AAAAAAH!" Kate screamed, scrambling out of the staffroom as the bird flew at her. She ducked, and it slammed into the wall infront of her. A gasp left her as she covered her mouth, watching it plummet from near the ceiling in mid air, before it regained flight, flapping aimlessly in circles. 

Kate ran. The pigeon followed.

"HELP! HELP! ITS A FUCKING BIRD!" She screamed. The classrooms were full, anyone could answer her, but no! Class was more fucking imp-!" She bashed into curtains, double doors to a balcony giving way infront of her and she fell forward. The bird emerged out of the amber chandelier light into the afternoon sun, victorious, and she watched it go, breathless. 

Paris honked and hummed loudly below her. Loud with traffic below yet held up by delicate withstanding architecture above, it was like nothing she had ever seen before. Domes and spires of rusted copper, and white stone rooftops crowned the skyline, some more intricately carved.  In the far distance, she could see the eiffel tower, like a resting beast in the afternoon fog. And the facade of the building to the right of the academy looked like it had sprouted out of a book. It had green vines growing up its walls, and darkened wrought iron windows that made Kate wonder about the people on the other side of them. Directly infront of Kate was an office, a glinting blue skyscraper that mirrored the sky and its clouds flawlessly. Kate sighed as the warm intoxicating smell of pain au chocolats and croissants from downstairs made her mouth water.

Yeah, she would want to fly out of this uptight place thats overwrought with perfume too.

And she would.

Soon.

Kate went back to her dorm room soon after, quietly opening the door and shutting it behind her though it was only a few minutes till afternoon break. She got out her phone from her pocket and scrolled to her bestfriend's contact: Nadine. She smiled as she clicked the video call button. 

Unfortunately, she didn't notice her books that she'd forgotten in her first lecture laid out to dry on her desk. Or, maybe she just didn't remember those were her books?