You are standing between two mirrors. Your reflection smiles, so you smile. Your reflection moves its hand, so you move yours. It takes a very long while for you to realise that this is the wrong way round.
My usual approach to storytelling is to just throw a bunch of stuff at the screen and later decide what of it is important. That's why I liked 'the third school that's surely not operational anymore'. I don't have plans for it, but it seems like it could be important. Eventually. If we want it to be.