Mr. Pineda, as far as I can tell, tries to be one of the “cool” teachers. You know, the type who tells you to “keep it casual” in his class. While I can appreciate that attitude to some extent, there’s something kinda cringy about a dude in his forties trying to impress a room full of teens. I’ve never been fond of history as a subject, so at the very least the refresher that took up the rest of the class giving a broad overview of last year’s syllabus was appreciated.

It was a little different from what I remembered. According to the history teacher, last year the class had covered the events of World War Two. That much seemed familiar to me. But as he covered the events after the end of the war and the start of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, things got a little weird. In between the proxy wars and political posturing of Kennedy and Khrushchev, he mentioned something called “The Great Depopulation,” which saw a global drop in birth rates seemingly caused by a mysterious worldwide change in human DNA structure. Luckily, modern science (or rather, what was modern science in the 60s) was able to design a suite of counter agents which were quickly administered all over the globe. Headed by the (apparently) legendary Dr. John Brinkley, the cure was able to reverse the mutations in people’s DNA structure by filling in the missing gaps in their chromosomes. And it worked, in a sense. The upside was that it solved the fertility issues. The downside was that female births increased dramatically while male births became rarer and rarer. It's been theorized this is because a the treatment essentially misidentifies the XY chromosome as damaged. Essentially, the Y on the XY got filled in, creating an XX. And that meant only two generations later, we were looking at a 10 to 1 gender ratio.

Which uh… yeah, pretty sure none of that should have happened. It looks like I had some independent study to do after school if I wanted to have any idea what was going on here. I took a quick flip through the history textbook while he was talking, and sure enough the information matched his recap more or less accurately. In fact, starting from the end of the second World War, it seemed like nothing in the textbook matched what I’d been previously taught. Either I was being gaslit hardcore, or something was seriously wrong here.

By the time class wrapped up, my head was spinning. Lucky for me, the next period was lunch. Unlucky for me, that meant I had an appointment to keep with a nosy mouse girl. Freddie seems to be having the same thought I'm having, because before I get out of my seat she says "Hey, can we talk for a sec?"

I give a quick "Sure," and the two of us make our way out into the hallway. She pulls me off to the side, out of the path of oncoming traffic, and keeps her voice low and conspiratorial.

"You're new here, so I just wanna make sure you know what you're about to get into. Ashley doesn't fuck around." Her brow is furrowed, like she's holding something back.

I'm suddenly very aware of just how close we are, and also, just how nice she smells. It's not a floral scent, like most of the girls here, but something with a hint of citrus. I mentally shake those thoughts free before I say something stupid. "Okay, give it to me. What's so scary about the student journalist?"

She frowns, obviously not happy with my glib remark, but presses onward. "Me and Ash go way back, I know her pretty well. She's..." the towering sheep girl takes a moment to consider her words. "She's a manipulator. She can and will take your words and twist them."

"Sounds like you've got some history."

"Yeah, you could say that." She breaks eye contact with me. "If you want, I can come with you. Provide backup."

I shake my head, suppressing a giddy grin that she's so worried. "It's cool, Freddie. Go grab lunch. I'll be fine."

"Alright," she says, and I don't think either of us believe her. "Just take care of yourself, yeah?"

We check our class schedules against each other again, and unfortunately we won't be sharing third or fourth period. I've got Calculus followed by Biology, and she's got Chem followed by Algebra Two. I say my goodbyes to her, and with a ping of sadness realize she's honestly the closest thing here I have to a friend. For a moment, I seriously consider asking for her number. If I'm being honest with myself, I do kind of want to shadow her all day like a lost puppy, but the last thing I need is to alienate one of the only girls here who doesn't treat me like a sideshow attraction. Maybe I'll ask for her phone number later, if I can work up the courage.

After we split, I make my way outside to the courtyard. Luckily, the academy is essentially a giant box with a hole in the middle, and that hole was none other than the central courtyard; this meant even without a guide, navigating the place isn't much of an issue. As I step out into the warmer late morning air, I can see there’s several metal benches with chairs out here. A few students mill about the area, enjoying their lunches and chatting amicably, but the most notable thing here the massive oak tree in the center of the yard. I don't doubt that the thing is at least a century older than me, and in fact could very well predate this county. Sure enough, leaning against the tree is the intrepid reporter herself, waiting somewhere where she'd be hard to miss. I briefly note that she’s got her bare pink mouse tail wrapped around her leg as she taps away on her phone. I walk over, waving from a decent distance, and call out to her. She looks up, her face flashing that bright cheshire grin, and messes with her phone a little bit more as I approach.

“Hello~! It’s me, Intrepid Reporter Ashley, here with a juicy day one scoop! I’m sure you’ve already heard all about him, but I’ve got an exclusive interview lined up with the newest boy to join the student body! Good to see you Jason!” She’s holding her phone mic to her mouth, obviously recording herself. I’m kind of surprised she’s recording only her voice and not making a video of us. “I’m quite thankful you chose to give me this exclusive interview on the first day at our academy!”

She holds the phone out towards me to respond. “I’m uh… happy to be here, I guess?”

She takes the phone back towards herself before speaking again. “And we’re all happy to have you! Now, I’m just going to ask you a few preliminary questions to establish what kind of guy you are before I dive deeper into what exactly makes you tick. That all sound fun~?”

“Sure. Fire away.”

“You said earlier you had moved out from Los Angeles. How’s the east coast treating you so far?”

“It’s fine, I guess. A little colder than I’m used to.”

“I’m sure it is! I’m sure you’re already missing those warm California beaches!”

I chuckle at that. “I’m not much of a beach guy to begin with, but it’s nice to visit every now and then.”

“Right right! So I’m guessing you’re not much of a surfer then?”

Hey, two questions in. Why am I not surprised? “No, not at all.”

“Aw, that’s a shame! I bet a lot of our listeners would love to see you in board shorts!”

“...What?”

“Anyway, that’s enough of that! First real question: you mentioned earlier that your girlfriend broke up with you, but I can bet that isn't the whole story~! Don’t have any backups waiting in the wings back home? Maybe a childhood friend ready to fill in for her once you were back on the market?”

“What?" Sure, I had a few childhood friends, even one that followed me all the way from kindergarten to high school, but none of them were girls. "No, nothing like that!”

“Oh~!" she exclaims, her eyes lighting up. "So you must be an old fashioned romantic then! Only one girl at a time for you, I bet!”

And now this conversation has gotten completely away from me. I briefly imagine an a air raid siren going off in my mind. I don't know this girl, but something tells me she's trying to lead me to something. “I guess?”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry! If it’s your prerogative to be a little picky, that’s fine! But that does make me wonder, is there perhaps any girl in your new school you’ve got your eyes on?”

Yeah, I'm starting to see what Freddie was trying to warn me about. “It’s only been half a day! I haven’t even met anyone outside of class."

“Oh~? But according to my sources, you were following someone around between first and second period. Have you perhaps already been ensnared by one of our more ambitious students?”

Goddamn rumor mill. How does anyone even find time in the middle of class to spread this stuff around? “I think this is a bit of a misunderstanding. Freddie was just showing me where Mr. Pineda’s room was.”

All of a sudden it’s like everything about her changes. Her cute mouse ears flatten to the sides of her head as her tail unravels and sticks straight out from her. Her voice drops an octave as she scowls, “Hold up, Freddie? You don’t mean Winifred Shawcross, right?”

“Yeah, we met in the hallway after class this morning." Though I didn't know her name was Winifred. I keep my poker face with little trouble, but I can see why she preferred the nickname Freddie. Even if it was a little masculine.

The scowl on her face is quickly replaced with a look of deep concern. “Listen Jason, your little banter with her back in homeroom was cute, but you really should be careful around Winnie Shawcross. You weren’t here last year, obviously, but... Well, the last time a boy transferred in, she ended up putting him in the hospital. The poor kid was just trying to be nice and... well, you know how some girls get.” She looks up at me with what seems like genuine worry in her eyes. “I know it’s not any of my business…”

I cross my arms. With the warning from Freddie to guide me, I start to piece together all my little observations so far. She swaps between moods like a professional actress, and it's obvious she's not giving me the whole story here. Then it hits me. The siren in the back of my mind isn't coming from nowhere. This mouse reminds me of someone.

She reminds me of Lilly. 

Lillian Anderson was just about as perfect as a first love could be. She was sweet, she was pretty, she was friendly, even bubbly. We shared a lot of the same interests. We met in an art class, and one of the first things we bonded over was when I asked her about her drawings. I liked to draw still life and animals, things I could directly observe. She liked to draw fantastical creatures and landscapes, so she could let her imagination run wild. By the end of that semester, she had gotten used to running ideas for original characters past me all the time, to the point we were having lunch together every day and pouring over our sketchbooks together. When she first asked me out, it came as a total surprise, but of course by that point I had been crushing on her pretty hardcore.

And it was great… for a while. Then in the last semester of the year, she said she needed to get ready for college, and she started spending more time with her friends and less time with her junior boyfriend. I was worried, of course. I could feel her pushing me away, bit by bit. But every time I tried to raise my concerns with her, she'd brush me off or accuse me of being clingy. So I believed her, as I tried desperately to hold onto my love for her, while her affection towards me crumbled away. By the last week of the school year, all of our friends could see the writing on the wall. Some part of me had known it was coming, but… it still hurt. She tried to let me down easy. She said we could still be friends. And, the lovesick idiot I was, I almost believed her.

And then the next day I found out she blocked me on everything. She even blocked my old art account that I'd barely touched since middle school. She’d already graduated a couple weeks before the rest of us got let out for the summer, so I never even got a chance to see her at school again. I did consider trying to bother her at her house, but my friends convinced me it would probably just make things worse. I never got a decent resolution. She just vanished from my life.

Then the rumor mill started. I never found out who told everyone the details of our break up. But by the time the rumors got back to me, it was too late. I was a bad boyfriend. I was trying to manipulate her. I was controlling. She disappeared off social media because she had to get away from me. The accusations never rose to the level of accusing me of any real abuse, of course, and everything was vague enough to allow plausible deniability. But it was more than enough to drag my name through the mud. I spent the end of the semester watching all my friends abandon me, just like Lilly did.

And back in the present, I’m here giving a bullshit interview to another Lilly with mouse ears. I’ve been ruined by a cute girl just like her before, but I'm not the naive idiot I was a few months ago.

“You’re right. It’s not your business.”

She reacts badly to the shut down, her face cracking in shock like a shattered mirror. For a moment, I almost feel guilty, before she returns to her previous ugly scowl. I don’t give her the time to get off the back foot. “Was there anything else, or can we just end this interview now?”

“Well,” she says, tucking her phone back into her blazer pocket, “fuck me for trying to do you a favor. I’m just trying to put your name out there, y’know? Almost every girl in this school wants to know what’s up with the new guy. Do you have any idea how many of us would kill to be your new girlfriend?”

“I don’t want a new girlfriend!” I exclaim a little too loudly. The sudden intensity of my voice actually comes as a shock. Feeling acutely aware of myself, I look around and find there’s a small crowd of girls gathered around us, and they’ve all got their fucking phones out. You know what actually? Fuck this. Fuck all this.

"What, you want me to dance for you too?" I shout to the crowd, who immediately start to scatter like cockroaches.

With a groan of frustration and a muttered curse, I stomp off before Ashley can recover. As I’m walking away, I can hear her yelling something at one of the other girls, but I'm too goddamn pissed to care at this point.

Jesus fucking Christ, this day. Let’s just hope the second half goes a little bit better.