The old projector keeps humming, clicking into the next file.Static. Then chaos.
A video of Section E's sports day flashes across the wall — half of them running, the rest arguing mid-race.Adam's on the ground, yelling at the referee.
Michael's laughing so hard he can barely breathe. "Bro, you literally fought with a whistle!"
Adam grumbles, "It disrespected me first."
Sam sips his drink. "You've got beef with oxygen, man."
Jay's giggling, shaking her head. "Peak athleticism — fighting gravity."
The next clip jumps to a blurry dance rehearsal.
Fourteen-year-old Jay's trying to teach Sam choreography while he keeps tripping."
Left foot, Sam. The other left!" she yells.
Michael shouts from behind the camera, "He's inventing new directions at this point!"
The room roars. Drew's half-choking on popcorn. Even Keifer's trying not to laugh too loudly.
Then the projector whirs again — flickers — showing a classroom prank gone wrong.
Young Michael's chair breaks mid-joke. He lands flat on his back.Section E loses it.
"Man down!" Sam wheezes.
"Man flattened," Adam adds.
Jay covers her mouth, laughing — but the sound fades faster than the others'.
Her gaze lingers on the glowing screen — her past, frozen in pixels.
Keifer notices. "You okay?"
She exhales, quiet. "Yeah… it's just weird seeing all this again."
A beat passes.
"You asked earlier why we call Greenwood haunted, right?"
Sam sets his drink aside. "You were about to tell them about Greenwood, right?"
Jay exhales, the humor draining from her tone
."Yeah. You ever wonder why we call it haunted?"
Adam's smirk fades.
Michael looks between them, uneasy.
Even Section E straightens up.
Jay's eyes stay fixed on the projector's flickering light.
"It's not haunted by ghosts," she says quietly. "It's haunted by what we left behind."
Flashback
Jay's voice softens as she begins.
"When I was six, I joined Greenwood. That's where her — Serina Watson."
Keifer stiffens at the name.
Michael smiles faintly. "She used to call me her chaos gremlin."
Sam nods. "And she always brought snacks to detention."
Jay laughs lightly. "Yeah. She called herself our unofficial babysitter. But she was more than that."
Her expression changes — nostalgia turning into ache.
"She was like the sun. And we orbited around her."
"Then she left."
Jay's voice cracks. "We used to meet her every night but one night she never came . the thing that came was a letter to not look for her ."
A heavy silence hits the room.
Keifer's hands curl into fists — his expression unreadable.
Jay continues, her tone trembling but steady."We didn't even know how. One day she was there, the next… gone. No one told us the truth. ."
Sam looks down. "That's when everything changed."
Jay nods. "We started fighting more. Then one night, during an fight, someone hit me from behind."
aries looked worried like he knew what happened
She looks away. "When I woke up, I wasn't… the same. I had these blackouts. I'd lose control, lash out, and not remember it later. My friends — they covered for me every time."
Michael swallows. "We didn't want anyone to expel her. Or lock her up."
Jay's voice drops lower. "But Angelo found out. He saw me break down once, saw the blood. He pulled me out of Greenwood. Said if I stayed, it'd destroy me."
The room is silent except for the faint hum of the projector
"You know the rest of Greenwood's story," she began. "But you don't know what happened after Angelo pulled me out."
Leaving Greenwood
She looked toward the far wall — as if seeing the past there."I didn't want to leave. Greenwood was home. Messy, painful, loud… but it was mine."Her lips curved faintly. "But Angelo saw me… losing it. after the fights — he said I was starting to look like him when he was my age. And that scared him."
Michael's tone softened. "So he sent you away."
Jay nodded. "Straight to Holy shi.... sry saint Academy. New uniforms. New rules. New faces. Same broken mind."
She laughed once, without humor."I'd wake up some nights thinking I was still in Greenwood. Sometimes I'd hear tita Serina's voice. Or Sam yelling at me for skipping class."
Sam winced. "I mean… you did skip class."She shot him a playful glare. "Trauma, Samuel. Not truancy."
The gang laughed weakly. But the smile faded fast.
Jay's tone dropped again.
"Hamilton was… quiet. Too quiet. Everyone was polite — fake polite. I didn't fit in. Not with my scars, not with my silence. I kept to myself. Didn't talk, didn't trust."
Keifer leaned closer. "And that's when you met him?"
"Yeah," Jay whispered. "Cyrus."