Boarding school was usually a place to discover more about yourself, grow up without the constant eye of an adult, be an idiot.
But of course, that wasn't the case for Kaitlynn Holt, AKA Pidge Gunderson. Her father and brother worked at Garrison Academy, only to have disappeared alongside another teacher, Takashi Shirogane. They were on one of the school's camping trips, when they were nowhere to be found the next morning. Most would say they were killed by bears, but if you asked their daughter, there was more to the story.
For starters, they were geniuses. They wouldn't just get killed by a bear, they would of closed the tent, and would have known how to not to anger the beast.
Secondly, bodies were never found. Bears do not eat bones, and there's no way to explain what happened. That, leads Katie to believe they're alive.
So, being the young computer genius she was, broke into the Garrison's teacher center and hacked into Headmaster Iverson's computer. What she found was shocking, but she was only able to download a small percentage before she was caught by Iverson himself. From then on, she was banned and threatened to be arrested for treason.
But of course, that didn't stop her. Katie decided nothing could stand in the way of her finding her family. Her mother had been checked into a mental health hospital after attempting suicide, which did set Katie back by a few weeks. Though, once all was well, she cut her hair. Took Matt's old glasses, and hacked into the Garrison's enrollment.
And that, was when Pidge Gunderson was born. Katie, the fourteen year old girl, no longer existed. In her place, was a seventeen year old tech savvy boy. Days later, with no surprise she received her acceptance letter. She packed up everything she'd need, and set off to the bus stop.
After waiting for minutes, the bus pulled up. She walked up the short flight of stairs and down the aisle to the back of the bus. Though, instead of a single seat in the back corner, there was a long one that went from both sides of the back. She sat down silently next to the window, and put her suitcase under the seat.
"Oh.. uhm.. hey." A girl said as she sat down next to her. She had long blonde hair pulled back in two pigtails, the loose bangs pulled back into a braided crown around the back of her head. Katie— Pidge awkwardly smiles and pushes herself farther into the wall.
"Sorry," she apologizes. Nobody would ever talk to her unless she was in their way, that was how things seemingly worked around her.
"No! You were fine where you were, I'm just going to the Garrison, and I'm just.. worried. First time away from home, y'know? My brother got in a car crash, and nobody's doing too well 'round home, so they're sending me away so I can have a better life. But, well— oh Alfor, I'm rambling. My point is, I'm just kinda looking for someone to talk to." She goes on. Pidge recognizes 'Alfor' as the king of said religion, Altean. It was an older religion, and people of it were humble and kind. Pidge immediately resented thinking that this girl only wanted to push her aside.
"It's fine, I'm Pidge, by the way." She introduces. The alias felt foreign on her tongue, even though Matt had called her it multiple times after failing to pronounce her middle name when she was younger.
"I'm Romelle." The girl smiles. Romelle leaned back against her seat and exhaled deeply. "So.. are you nervous about the school year?" She asks, trying to spark up a conversation between them. The bus paused as more people came on. It appeared they were two best friends, one holding three suitcases, the other holding none.
"Oh! Eh, yeah.. I guess you could say that." She replies, latching her hand onto her backpack, and taking out her laptop to work. She sighed, she wasn't here to make friends, and she felt terrible about that, but she could open up, or become a weak target. She couldn't get others involved, in fear that bad things would happen to them, if they discovered her secret.
"Ah.." Romelle replies, looking at Pidge's computer. "So, what are you doing?" She asks curiously. Pidge jumped and fixed the glasses, but they still remained crooked on her pale and freckled face.
"I'm just coding and programming." She replies, and that did it. Romelle had no seeming interest in technology the same way Pidge did. Romelle wasn't completely ignoring her, though. She was too sweet. Periodically she would check in to ask if Pidge needed any help with anything, and every time Pidge would reply 'no'.
The busride was endless, it was only seven hours long, but it felt more like days. Pidge accomplished building a database where she could download any files she'd manage to receive from the Garrison's own database. It was protected by multiple firewalls and viruses programmed to destroy any systems that attempted to break through.
But, all things must come to an end. Just as Pidge finished installing the last firewall, it was her and Romelle's stop. She put away her laptop, and picked up her suitcase. Slinging her backpack over her shoulder, she walked off of the bus. Moments later Romelle walked next to her.
"Do you happen to know what we're supposed to do?" She asks, and Pidge checks her watch,
"We head to the academic center and check in, we'll get info about our dorms and schedules and then go move in." She explains expressionlessly. Romelle nods and tags along with Pidge to the academic center. Upon entering it wasn't so bad, but within minutes the building was crowded. Luckily, Pidge was next in line.
"Next." A bored woman sighed. She had her hair in a short mullet, dyed purple with a strand of pink. She was in a black tank top, with a name tag that said 'Krolia'.
"Gunderson." Pidge stated, and she traced her finger over a list. She hands Pidge a paper with her dorm info and schedule, and gestures towards a station with laundry bags. Pidge picks up her bag and heads off. She looks over her paper, and sighs.
Gunderson, Pidge
Gender: Male
Dorm: Terras
She walks to the direction of Terras. That was the dorm her brother had lived in during his four years at Garrison Academy. The door was propped open for people to move into. She walked down the hallway until she spotted her name on a door, strangely, she was in a triple. She opened the door to find the two boys from the bus. They had taken over the bunk bed, which was fine by her.
"Hey!" Said the tall one, hanging upside down from the top bunk. After his friend shunned him and told him that it was dangerous, he turned to her s well.
"Hey, man. I'm Hunk, and this is Lance," he warmly introduces. Pidge looks at them both and turns her back to them. Putting her suitcase on the floor, she removes her clothing and puts them into her dresser. She carelessly tossed her bedsheets onto the bed, and gently rested her laptop onto the desk.
"Aren't you going to tell us your name?" Lance asks, jumping off the ladder, causing Hunk to gasp and verify he was okay. Pidge looked at them as she was putting her books onto the shelf part of her desk.
"I'm Pidge." She replies, taking the last book from her bag and sitting down on her bed to read it. Leaning against the wall, she felt weight on her bed. Lance sat down on it. She pulled down her book and looked him in the eye.
"Can you not?" She asks, and he quickly scurried over to his bed, muttering a quick 'sorry'
Hunk asses the situation and sits down in the center of the floor. Pidge puts down her book to look at him.
"What?" She asks, and he sits up, along with Lance. She looks at them puzzledly, and they share a glance. "What?" She repeated.
"Why don't we go down town, get some food, and flirt with some babes!" Lance suggests. Pidge rubs her temples, and places a bookmark into her book.
"I don't have time, I have much more important things to do." She states, crossing her arms. Lance groans loudly, and Hunk looks crestfallen.
"But the school year hasn't even started!" He whines, and Hunk nods in agreement.
"I need to get settled, I also need to finish up double modulating some programs." She replies, and Lance sighs.
"Loosen up, Pidge. Sounds like you're boring…" he grunts, and Pidge throws her book at him. He screeched, and she laughed with Hunk.
"Lance, he doesn't want to come. C'mon, let's just go together." Hunk suggested. Defeated, Lance got up and dropped the book onto the floor. He and Hunk exited the room, and Pidge let out a sigh. She got down and picked up her book, shelving it carefully with her others. She grabbed a flash drive, and left the room. Next stop: Iverson's office
"I just can't believe he can be so rude!" Lance complains to Hunk, and his friend only shook his head.
"We're all freshman, Lance. He could just be homesick." Hunk reasoned, and Lance nodded. Hunk opened the door to the pizzaria for Lance, and let the door close behind them as they entered.
"Yeah, but it's only been like an hour, I just feel like he's just not a nice guy…" Lance sighs as he and Hunk take a seat.
"Look man, that's a possibility, but we can't be so sure yet. Maybe Pidge is just an introvert?" He suggests. A blonde girl at the table next to them looks up.
"Pidge? I sat with him on the bus. He doesn't really talk much, but he seems nice, though I have a hunch he may have been bullied.. I said hi and he moved over like he was scared I'd hurt him." She says, before returning to her conversation with a tanned girl with platinum hair.
"Well, that changes perspective." Hunk tells Lance, and the lanky teen nods. Minutes later they've ordered their pizza, and the two girls left.
"Like, I just don't want to be rooming with some jerk." Lance adds, sipping his soda. Hunk looked at him and sighed. A cart wheeled up to their table and the pizza was placed on an elevated tray in the center. The waiter left, and the two boys began taking slices of the pizza.
"I'm sure he'll open up eventually." Hunk states, and begins sipping his own sods as well. "I'm sure be hasn't like, pulled a felony at all." He adds after a few sips of his drink.
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
Hunk couldn't have been more wrong. Now, Pidge wasn't robbing anyone or murdering anyone. She had good reason, she was going to find and rescue her family. When she found them, she was positive charges would be dropped against her, and pressed onto the Garrison for lying about disappearing people.
"And lefty loosey.." she whispers to herself as she unscrews the grate into the air vent. Gently, she rests it against the wall. Climbing in, she puts it back without screwing it in. Softly crawling through the vents, she exited them into Headmaster Iverson's office. Softly walking towards the windows facing the hallway, she closes the blinds and walks over to the computer. She typed in his password, but was flashed with 'Incorrect Password'
"Quiznak, he changed his password." She mutters under her breath. She hears the lock click and she dives under the desk, and pulled herself into a sideways box, enclosing herself into the tight space.
"Hold on, I just need to send out an email. I'll call you back later," Iverson said, and Pidge held her breath. Please, don't let her get caught on her first day, not even. "MrB0$$m@n" he says, and Pidge felt her lips curl into a smile. She had the password. After a few minutes, the computer shut off and Iverson left his office, turning off the lights and locking the door behind him.
Pidge climbed out of the box and out from under the desk. She turns on the computer and types in the password. The screen saver pops up and she smiles to herself. She plugs in the flash drive, and looks through the files. She dropped things that looked promising that she could look at into the drive, and ejects it. Shutting out of all the tabs and computer, she climbs back into the vent, screwing it shut. She ran back to her dorm and plugged the flash drive into her laptop. Files began popping up, and she dropped them into the database she had built earlier.
She had sorted through most of the files, dividing them by useless, promising, and important. As of now, the only file in 'Important' was her dad's check-in from the night he disappeared. Nothing was wrong with it, it was normal. He wasn't nervous, just talking about the organisms. She pulled her headphones out of her ears and groans.
"There's gotta be something else…" she mutters to herself before she gets an idea. She drops the video into an editing software. She drowns down her father's voice, and ups the background. There was interference, but there shouldn't have been. She downloaded the interference and listened closely. Faintly, between the static she heard a faint sequence of beeps. Pulling them up more, she translates them into morse code.
'Help, the Garrison is lying. They're abducting the smartest in order to build a super weapon strong enough to destroy humanity. If anybody finds this message, we need help. We're making our last stand.'
A/N welp, I've been writing this for hours! It's gonna probably be my main fanfiction. It will only have platonic ships, and a lot of angst not just for Pidge. This is mainly Pide-Centric but there will be special chapters revolving around other characters towars the end. I hope you guys enjoy! I'll update Wednesdays!
-Pidgee
