Jinxed

The music blares in your car, the lyrics of Sabrina Carpenter's "Taste" filling the space. It's another late start to the school day, a delay necessitated by your morning coffee run. School is a formality anyway, a hoop to jump through to keep the social workers at bay. You know things they don't, like the real reason your adoptive parents are no longer around.

You pull into the familiar school parking lot, the mundane routine a stark contrast to the secrets you carry. After a brief, irritating exchange at the office and another run-in with a disgruntled teacher, you find yourself seeking solace in a cigarette behind the building. The smoke is a temporary escape, a moment of peace before the inevitable confrontation with the principal.

But today is different. When you're called to the office for the second time, it's not Mr. Camron alone. Two police officers are waiting, and they have news that shatters the fragile normalcy you've constructed. Your adoptive parents are dead. The news hits you with a detached realization – you should have been more careful. And then the real panic sets in: they want you to come to the station. With the drugs in your pocket and the truth about your parents hidden, that's the last place you want to be.