Noah

By the time I stepped onto campus that morning, it felt like Ridgeville had decided to wake up loud.

Not literally—no alarms or sirens—but the looks were louder. The glances. The pauses in conversation that didn’t quite stop, just dipped low enough for me to notice. It wasn’t hostile. It wasn’t even mean, most of the time.

It was curious.

Evaluating.

Like everyone had woken up and decided today was the day they were going to take stock of things.

And somehow, I ...