High School is Bad Enough the First Time Around

Forged Series: Owyhee High School, Owyhee Zone, UPT

Today’s location profile is about high school.¹ (Sorry if your memories of high school rank up there with getting your fingernails pulled out by pliers… but the FORGED Series is about teens, so they spend a LOT of time in school at this stage in their lives. I attempted to capture the bad AND the good in Shattered, book one of the FORGED Series.)

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Owyhee High School

The FORGED Series follows fourteen-year-old Tessa Wright. After her family dies in a gruesome accident, she is forced to leave her quiet life as a homeschooled teen in the Wilds and create a new life in the urban center of the Owyhee Zone. Tessa moves in with her aunt and uncle and attends public school for the first time.

Owhyee High School is modeled after Boise Senior High School. Though the building is different from the one I attended for high school, the layout is very similar. (Write what you know, you know?)

Current Photo of Boise High School

Here is a current view of the front of Boise High School, as seen on Street View from Google Maps. (The IA building has been replaced with the Frank Church Building of Technology—on the right—and the trees are bigger than I remember when I attended at the end of the 1980s.) SOURCE: Google Maps

In 2024

Boise Senior High School, or BHS, is the home of the Brave (their mascot).² Located on four and a half city blocks near the downtown business core of Boise, it is the oldest of five public high schools in the school district. Construction of the main building happened in three stages: the east wing (1908), the west wing (1912), and the central wing (1921), which added a 1,800-seat auditorium.³ An auxiliary building, the Industrial Arts Building (1919), was replaced with the Frank Church Building of Technology in 1997. Current enrollment is approximately 1,560 students across the three grades. What you cannot see from the street is that the east wing has a floor completely below ground—we called the lowest level the bomb shelter.⁴

I had Calculus in the classroom on the first-floor front side of the east wing, seen here on the left of the image. PHOTO CREDIT: CB Mason

In 2134

The high school that Tessa attends is not the same school that I attended. It’s not even in the same location—the downtown core is underwater in 2134 because another dam has been constructed across the valley floor from Crescent Rim to the Foothills. However, the Neo-Classical design of Owyhee High School is modeled after the old school; the columns, light-colored brickwork, and general floor plan all mimic the original building.

The three sections of the main building were like Cerberus with its trio of heads staring down on me. The immensity of each of the wings was intimidating despite the façade’s light stonework.

To the east was a separate building, distinctive by its russet brick walls that contrasted with the main building … similar to how Aunt Clari’s skin contrasted with Uncle Finn’s paleness. I stood awkwardly between the two disparate buildings.

~Excerpt from Shattered, book one of the FORGED Series, coming in late 2024 from Provender Press

The cafeteria, located in the partially submerged basement level of East Hall, serves lunch for the entire population. School lunches, consisting of SynProtein and hydroponically grown produce, are precisely portioned for each person based on their nutritional needs as monitored on each person’s SynFlex Omnibands. That is to say, the school lunches are not much better than what’s provided in 2024.

Narrow, tinted windows spaced along the walls hugged the low ceiling of the cafeteria, revealing the feet of students walking on the sidewalk outside. The room took up the bottom level of the entire east wing of the building. Rows of long tables reached from the stairs to the back wall. Students carrying trays crossed my path from the food line in semi-ordered chaos.

The entire student body had lunch this period, which meant over four hundred students and staff were crammed into the space. Eyes wide and unblinking, I followed Isaiah through the crowd. The volume was probably in excess of one hundred decibels, and my ears were instantly ringing—the clamor in the room was louder than waves crashing against a rocky shore.

The air was warm and dense with the stench of body odor, chemicals, and food—overpowering my olfactory senses as well. I’d never been in a room with so many people. My stomach twisted as my adrenal glands churned out fight, flight, or freeze adrenaline, making me nauseous.

~Excerpt from Shattered, book one of the FORGED Series, coming in late 2024 from Provender Press

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This post is public, so feel free to share it. (Someone in your community might be interested too!)

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Location Profile

For those of you who like side-by-side comparisons, I give you this handy chart. And for those who enjoy visualizing layouts, I’ve included the first floor of each main building.⁵

The first floor of the main building of current-day Boise High School. I wonder if the students follow the traffic flow arrows… SOURCE: boise.boiseschools.org

The first floor of the main building of Owyhee High School, as drawn by me. I even figured out which teachers were in which classrooms for Tessa’s schedule (yellow boxes). SOURCE: CB Mason

Location Inspiration and Role

The inspiration for the high school of the future is obviously pulled from the high school I attended. Writing about Tessa walking the halls and climbing the stairs was like reliving my own experiences. The fact that I avoided the cafeteria at all costs might come across by my bleak description of the space.

I pulled other memories—more fond ones—from my life at BHS to include, too. Tessa’s creative writing teacher does a mediation session with the class; my first mediation experience was in drama class. I still remember the feeling of floating and sinking, and I rejoice whenever I can recreate that sensation now.

High school is a time of learning and growth, and not just in the classroom. For Tessa, fitting into the unfamiliar social structures of public school for the first time isn’t making her adjustment to life in the urban center any easier. She has to process the loss of her family and way of life while navigating the subtle and dynamic nature of teenage drama. Oh, and P.E. classes.⁶*Shutter*

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Shattered

In the remnants of the Pacific Northwest, 110 years from now, fourteen-year-old Tessa Wright's idyllic life in the Wilds is disrupted by the death of her family.

Haunted by mysterious memories and thrust into an urban society, Tessa struggles with grief while navigating high school among the privileged Elites and attempting to understand her true identity. She is drawn into the plot to uncover the truth behind a devastating terrorist attack and the sinister plans of the Ryker administration.

As Tessa unravels her past, she must fight for her newfound friends and dwindling freedoms. The lines between loyalty, love, and the cost of rebellion are blurred. Can she reclaim her true self before it's too late?

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What I’m reading

Here are some other dystopian and Sci-Fi fiction pieces available on Substack that you might enjoy. Plus, some thought-provoking pieces.

1. khakis - I came across this in-the-back-catalog piece from

   Clancy Steadwell
   and had a good snicker.

2. Ice -

   Claudia Befu
   does it again. Her immersive world through yet another’s eyes. Check it out!

3. The Fair Folk (Part One of Two) - If you’ve read any of

   S.E. Reid
   Ferris Island pieces, then read this piece, full of suspense and spookiness (perfect for October). Will Dr. Strand get what he deserves???

4. The Memory of My Shadow - I finally started

   Ben Wakeman
   ’s “exploration of consciousness and technology, the origins of violence, and the price it exacts from those in its wake.” A haunting piece.

5. Glass Heart - I’ve found more time travel fiction! This one from

   svndavn
   is about a young psychologist with a dark past who travels back to aid a king yearning to regain the power to protect his kingdom. The episodes have wrapped up, so you can binge it all at once!

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Questions

1. Share a fond memory of you in high school.

2. Did you avoid the cafeteria, too? What was your experience with P.E.?

3. How many newsletters do you subscribe to? If you enjoy learning about the world of the FORGED Series, make sure you are subscribed! What does this button say? ⤵️ If it doesn’t say “✔️ Subscribed” click the button!

1. One of the main characters, Zeke, is the son of the country’s highest-ranking official, so he has a protective detail of “goons” that follow him around the school. The title of this newsletter refers to Tessa’s observation about their job of sitting through class every day:

What a crappy assignment. High school was bad enough the first time around.

2. To this day, I struggle with the urge to thrust my fist high in the air and shout at the top of my lungs, “BRAVE!” at the end of the national anthem. That’s what we did as Boise Braves at every school sporting event. It’s like the national anthem was written for us. And we wanted the students of the other schools to know. Okay, now I only shout it in my head so I don’t embarrass my hubby or kids. But it is really tough not to do it. Like, I have to literally bite my tongue. Every. Single. Time.

3. The BHS auditorium was dubbed the “Boise Opera House” as it was used by local music productions, orchestras, and politicians, including Al Gore, whose campaign trail for the Democratic nomination included a stop in 1988. All I remember about the assembly was that a fight in the upper balcony disrupted his speech. Memorable, right?

4. I had a class in the bomb shelter. I can’t imagine this would be an acceptable classroom by today’s egress standards. Also, it was creepy having a classroom with absolutely no windows. In comparison, I also had a class on the third floor “attic” of the central wing—no air conditioning, mind you, so it was HOT!

5. In high school, I took a drafting class because I thought I might like to be an interior designer or maybe even an architect. That career aspiration faded away, although I did draw up the initial plans for two different homes that were built—I’m still living in one of these homes. Call me “Frank Lloyd Wright”…okay, maybe not.

6. I actually liked P.E. (for the most part). But remind me sometime to tell you about the chest press bar debacle…