get a clue | s3d6 ongoing

A school like Salvatore is lucky to exist at all, let alone in a place like District Six, where academia is not only prioritized as the most important thing in a young person's life, but the District's export can most simply be summarized into one word: knowledge. Medicine, history, science, invention: you name it, and there is someone in District Six who has dedicated their entire life to being the very best at it.

But what of those who were not good at medicine, or history, or science, or invention? What became of those people? For decades, they were doomed to live out their lives as lowly factory workers or maintenance people. Or perhaps, if their courage outweighed their need for stable income, they tried to make it by doing what they were good at. Though, if someone had ever done it, they haven't lived long enough to tell about it.

The point is that Salvatore celebrates the types of knowledge that any other school in Six or, perhaps Panem, would discourage. It creates opportunities for growth in fields like music, or drama, or writing, or just about any form of creative expression one can think of. And then, it creates jobs for those people. Sometimes not the best, a lounge singer or a designer of storefront signs, but something steady enough to live on without feeling the need to squash those dreams that they've been so brave to hold onto thus far.

Salvatore is a beacon for the different, the underdog. Many in attendance do not speak to their families, some do not have families to speak to. But it's okay, because at Salvatore, everyone is family in some way. Being around like-minded people has a way of helping a person flourish, after all: be the best version of themselves.

But then, to be fair: for every time you reach the best version of yourself, there's a chance you find out just how bad you can get.

Scarlet Hyde was, admittedly, not the most popular girl in tenth grade. That's to say: she had no friends after a series of embarrassing rumors ruined her social standing the year before. Still, clinging to the hope that people would forget, that people would forgive, that people would be kind, she attended a party the week before summer break. She, of course, had no way of knowing this, but she should have just stayed home.

She went, though: put on her favorite dress, braided her hair, made sure there was nothing stuck in her braces, and she made her way to the location.

It didn't take long for her to realize something was... strange. Off. People either seemed too excited to see her, which was a sad but honest truth, or they seemed too keen on avoiding her. Something was in the works, and she didn't know what. And she should have just left then, but she didn't. Instead, she pretended not to notice and made her way inside.

People were struggling to contain their laughter even before she closed the door behind her; it didn't take her long to see why. There, across the room from her, was a giant banner hanging from the staircase. And on the staircase was a picture of her from that day, with the tiniest spot of red on her shorts, red-faced and embarrassed as she tried to cover it.

She left right then.

But she never made it home that night.

The summer came and went, and now class is about to be back in session. No one mentions Scarlet Hyde. No one talks about missing her. No one talks about taking fault for what happened to her that night on her way home, how the police were searching for some of the missing parts for weeks and how if they had just been nice to her she would've been passing them in the store as she bought her own school supplies. They pretended she didn't exist, and they were all doing a very good job of it until Frankie Stellio, the boy who'd hosted the party, was found murdered in his bedroom.

Too much is at stake. The school is already a fish out of water, the officials are looking for a reason to shut it down. Two killings of students within only a few months, neither solved? Everyone is terrified of what comes next, because they don't know what their future holds. More time at the school they took for granted? Punishment for not stepping up and saving Scarlet all those months ago? Perhaps they'd be lucky to spend their lives working as a maintenance person in a factory somewhere.

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