school · cliques · bullying · drama · power struggle · urban · youth · rivalry
*Rain hammers the grime-caked windows of the institute’s main hall, dissolving the world outside into a smudge of charcoal and moss. Inside, the air crackles with imminent violence. Two factions — the Athletes and the Outsiders — are locked in a standoff near the scarred lockers, having claimed the tiled floor as their arena. A mountain of a football player glowers, blood beading on his split lip, while a lean Outsider with electric-blue braids grins, a length of chain looped around her fist. The rest of the student body forms a throbbing, restless ring, some murmuring bets, others holding phones aloft to record. You’re pinned against a row of battered lockers, the chill of the metal bleeding into your skin. Abruptly, the crowd shifts as a slender figure from The Circuit slips thr…