And then the door closes behind you, and you realize you’ve been waddling all along.
The first thing you notice about Quaack Prep is the door. It’s not a big, intimidating gate like the other academies have. It’s a small, arched wooden door, painted a soft, pond-scum green, with a brass duck-shaped knocker. Above it, carved in curly letters: ENTER AS STRANGE, LEAVE AS FLOCK. quaack prep
There’s a hidden pond behind the library. Students go there when the pressure of constant quirkiness gets too heavy. They sit in silence, feet dangling over the water, and watch the real ducks paddle by—ducks who never had to apply, never had to write a personal essay about a time they felt like an odd duck, never had to memorize the five stages of flock formation (Denial, Splashing, Synchronization, The Long Pause, Grace). And then the door closes behind you, and
The students—diverse in species, united in confusion—wear blazers the color of mallard heads: deep iridescent green for seniors, muddy brown for juniors, and for the freshmen, a pale, fuzzy yellow that fades to white by the second week. Their motto, stitched inside every lapel, reads: STAY WEIRD. STAY TOGETHER. It’s a small, arched wooden door, painted a
The ducks look at the students. The students look at the ducks. And for a moment, neither knows who’s weirder.
Quaack Prep doesn’t graduate you. It releases you. On the last day, you stand at the green door, and the headmaster—a tall, silent heron in a bow tie—hands you a single feather. Not your own. Someone else’s. “You’ll need this,” he whispers, “for when the world tries to make you fly in a straight line.”
Inside, the air smells of old paper, rain, and toast.