The first day out of quarantine was a great day for Claire. Finally she was out of that stuffy little room and would meet her fellow pupils. They were supposed to be some of the smartest in the world. Even in times like these, it was amazing to her that she'd be studying among the future of the dwindling population of humanity.

Miss Emily was the one to guide her from quarantine and out into the hall for the first time. Claire would have her in her schedule, as there weren't too many teachers here. Just the bare minimum of four core subjects, as well as music and an optional art class.

The hall was as bustling as a post-apocalyptic academic refuge could be. There were students walking around, chatting at open lockers filled with books and a jacket or two. There were occasional posters on the walls, saying things like "Learning is Fun!" and "Follow the Rules!" All of them were quite faded and dull, as they hadn't been replaced in years.

Across the tiled floor Miss Emily and Claire walked until they arrived at what seemed to be a library. There were books on shelves that reached up into a second level, reached by a pair of staircases on either side of the room. Weirdly, there was a hole very inconveniently placed in the middle of the room with railing around it. Very odd.

Among one of the desks scattered around there was a boy sitting, hunched over a few papers that he was writing on. There was another girl next to him, her nonexistent face seemingly framed with floating bubbles. A duck and a toothbrush sat on top of them. When Claire got closer, she saw that the papers included a variety of algebra and geometry problems.

"Engel?" Miss Emily said to get his attention.

Engel looked up from his homework, the two feathers stuck in his hair bobbing a little at the sudden movement. He had his long hair tied in a low ponytail, and wore black overalls with a white, short-sleeved collared shirt underneath. There was a red and blue stripe on the left sleeve, corresponding to the two feathers.

"Yes, Miss Emily?" Engel asked the teacher with a smile. With a black clawed hand he set his pencil down. Claire noticed his eyes flickering to her with curiosity.

"This is Claire. Claire, this is Engel and Bubble," Miss Emily introduced them. "Engel, I would like you to be Claire's tour guide for the day."

Engel smiled and gave Claire a small wave. "Hi. Sure, I'll be her tour guide."

"I'd show her around before school starts," Miss Emily said. "And if she needs any help after that, you or Bubble can help her out. Okay?"

Engel and Bubble both nodded.

Miss Emily smiled. "Good. You kids have a great day!"

"Bye," Claire said with a wave. Miss Emily walked away from the children and out of the library.

"New student, huh?" Engel said. Claire nodded, hand tight on the strap of her backpack. "Cool. We don't get many of those, glad to see there's still other kids out there."

The girl appropriately named Bubble seemed to smile, even with having no mouth. And defying this fact once again, she spoke.

"I'm sure you're gonna love it here. If you stay on the teachers' good sides, that is."

She chuckled a little nervously.

"Anyway," Engel continued. He stuck some of the papers into a folder and stuffed it into his backpack. Bubble did the same, only she gently slid the folder into her bag instead of shoving it in. "Want me to take you on a grand tour of the school?"

Claire smiled. "Sure."

Engel and Bubble led Claire out of the library and into the hallway. There weren't many large crowds of people shoving to get through the hallway like Claire's heard her mother describe, so it was easy for her to keep one eye on her guides as she walked through the corridors. The thought of her mom brought a sad feeling to her heart, but she pushed those feelings away and tried to focus on the right now.

The school was fairly large, but only a few classrooms were apparently in use, as only a few teachers remained here at Paper School. Claire kept a list of the teachers in her head, glancing at the schedule that Miss Emily had given her to see which room coordinated with which name.

Demi, Bloomie, Circle, Emily, Thavel. Okay. Unfortunate that I won't have Miss Emily until the afternoon. She seems really nice. I'm sure her class is great. Is that scary lady from the office one of these teachers? Yeesh. I hope not. She is terrifying.

As Claire glanced around the hallway they were walking down, she pointed to one, out-of-the-ordinary door on the left.

"What does that go to?"

The door was an oddly placed blue door, like the front door of the house, unlike the other doors, which were smooth with a single thin window. This one was blue, wooden, and had no windows. It was innocent looking enough, at least if you ignored the claw marks raked across the bottom. Taped to the top half of the door was a paper that read "Alice's Room."

Bubble looked at the room and shuddered. "You... won't be going in there."

Engel nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It's Alice's door. Miss Grace has told us not to open it."

"Who's Alice, then?" Claire asked him.

"We don't know," Engel said with a shrug.

"I've heard rumors that she used to be a teacher here. Or a student, perhaps," Bubble claimed. "I don't know, though. All I know is that she's apparently dangerous."

"You think she has the virus?" Claire queried.

"An interesting theory," Engel said as he continued to walk. "But I'm not gonna be the one to test it. There's a reason they've kept us locked up here since the pandemic hit."

Claire fell silent for a bit after that. Eventually Bubble seemed to notice this.

"Are you alright, Claire? You're awfully quiet."

Claire exhaled softly.

"Am I... really gonna be here the rest of my life?"

Engel, hearing this, frowned slightly.

"I mean... it's entirely possible."

Claire's eyes dropped to the ground.

"We're not allowed to go outside or... anything?"

"Nope. Strictly prohibited."

"Oh..."

Claire wasn't quite sure she wanted to stay here anymore. Sure, she was safe, but there was no possibility of even seeing the sun in the sky... maybe ever again.

"I'm gonna miss being outside..." Claire sighed.

Engel and Bubble exchanged glances before Engel spoke up again.

"If you don't mind... wanna tell us a little bit about outside? None of us really... have been out there since we were kids."

Claire thought about that for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll tell you about it."

So she told them about one of her favorite places. The old park in her hometown. She hadn't been there in years, but she remembered it as if she were looking at it at that very moment. The grass, swaying in the breeze, the trees, lush with leaves that soaked up the bright, warm sunlight, the lake in the middle, bright blue with willows dipping their long branches tenderly into the still water. Claire would go swimming there during the summers, she recalled. The last time she did so was around two years ago, for her birthday, when her mother and father had managed to get her back there one last time on their way to a new place to live. The grass had been taller than she'd ever seen it, with no one to mow it, but it was worth the itchiness she got from running through the tall blades. With some work, the place had the possibility of being returned to its former glory. But there was no one who would. Not with the world in ruin.

Engel and Bubble listened to Claire's words intently. When she seemed finished, a sad smile on her face, Engel smiled at her.

"It sounds wonderful. Maybe we could all go there someday."

Bubble nodded, seeming to smile with her mouthless, floating expression.

"You think?" Claire seemed uplifted by this, even knowing it wasn't likely to be true.

"Yeah!" Engel said with a grin. But slowly it faded away. "But, with the virus and all, I'm not sure we could do it without dying..."

"I'm sure we could," Claire brought up. "I mean, viral activity is really the most active in metropolitan areas. And it's fairly far from any cities."

"Really?" Engel seemed surprised by this.

"Yeah."

"Huh..."

Engel proceeded to show me around the school. Now having given me a basic layout of where the teachers' classrooms were, he began to show me other places: the pool, where most kids spend their free time and lunch break, the cafeteria, where they'd get their meals at lunchtime, the library (which she already knew about, considering it was where Miss Emily had introduced her to Engel, but it was nice to see it in relation to everything else), the daycare for younger kids staying at Paper School, and the art room, where Claire met the teacher she wouldn't have unless she chose to take the art class.

The teacher turned around from her painting - a beautiful painting of a pink flower - and smiled at the kids as they came in. A brown beret sat atop black hair that was tied back with a pastel rainbow ribbon, pushed out of the way by a green book that was oddly covering the right half of her face. She wore a white and grey striped collared shirt with a black jacket over it, zipped up to around the middle of her torso. Her black shorts met the top of tall white socks, and she wore black boots.

"Hello, Engel! Hey, Bubble!" The teacher said with a smile. She looked at Claire with curiosity, and smiled at her as well. "Ah, you must be the new student I've been hearing about! Claire, yes?"

Claire nodded.

"I'm Miss Sasha. Welcome to Paper School!"

Miss Sasha stood up from the stool she was sitting on as she spoke and walked over to where the kids were standing, holding out her hand to Claire in a greeting. Claire took it, shaking it with a friendly yet nervous smile.

"You know about me?"

"Of course!" Miss Sasha said. "Miss Grace told us about you when you first arrived. I know art isn't in your schedule right now, but I'd love to have you in one of my after-school classes if you wanted to take it!"

Claire had taken art class before, though it'd been a while since she's drawn or painted anything. Maybe she'd be good at it - she really didn't have many hobbies these days.

"Maybe I will take it. Probably won't for a little bit, though, I wanna see what my other classes are like first."

Miss Sasha gave her a pat on the shoulder. "And that's perfectly fine. You take your time settling in, okay?"

Claire nodded.

Miss Sasha glanced at the clock on the wall. "Looks like class is gonna start soon. If you ever need me, I'm usually in the daycare, and after school you'll find me here in the studio, alright?"

"Alright!"

"See you kids later!" Miss Sasha waved with a smile as the three left the room.

"Everyone seems really nice here," Claire remarked. Her anxiousness was eased by the friendliness of both Miss Emily and Miss Sasha.

Engel and Bubble exchanged slightly worried glances.

"Just... pay attention in class," Engel said. "It'll be better for you if you don't fail."

Claire felt that it was odd he had to clarify that she shouldn't fail, but she shrugged it off.

The bell rang over the intercom.

"You know where you're going?" Bubble asked Claire.

Claire nodded. "Yup. Thank you, guys."

"No problem!" Engel said with a smile. "If you ever need anything, come find us or Miss Emily. See ya!"

"Bye!" Claire waved as her friends left, and she turned down the hall, recalling where Mister Demi's classroom was as she walked down the corridor.

-

2039 words

I felt like I didn't give Miss Sasha any scenes in my original plans for a while and I needed to make this chapter longer so take the art teacher/child caretaker in this AU <3