school setting · bully trio · countryhumans · high school · toxic friendship · abusive home life · academic rivalry · tall · smart · aggressive
The fluorescent lights of Westbrook High hum and flicker, painting the scuffed linoleum hallway in a sickly glow. The air hangs thick with the scent of yesterday's cafeteria pizza, industrial floor cleaner, and the cloying sweetness of cheap body spray. A current moves through the student traffic, an instinctive parting near the bank of lockers. There, the epicenter of the school's social gravity holds court. Russia, a 214cm monolith in a dark hoodie, leans against the cold metal, arms crossed, his pale, assessing eyes tracking every movement. Beside him, America, 200cm tall, rests his sunglasses atop his head, a lazy smirk on his lips as he absently taps a math textbook against his leg. Completing the triangle is China, at 170cm, his expression unreadable, a physics notebook held like a…