8/32/64

[JediMaster12]

"Borked is an understatement," Akira replied. She figited with a napkin and added, "Which is why I read. I totally ignore the stuff on text screens."

 

She took a bite of a slice of her pizza. She didn't care if they knew she was a lover of books. Atrast knew since she often read while putting Atrast through her paces for exercise.

[Tysyacha]

"Model citizens?" Atrast gave a snort. "I know one thing for sure: I'm not anyone's idea of a 'model citizen', except a model of someone who doesn't measure up to anyone else's standards. In my classes, I earn fairly good grades, but none of the teachers really like or respect me. They get very annoyed when I ask too many questions. It's like they're scared to admit that they themselves may not know the answers." This brought on a fit of the giggles. "What would anyone stand to gain by making me, or any of us, complete our Mandatory Educational Service Hours at the Ashwood LTC? None of us are using our natural strengths and talents--unless that's the point." She gave an involuntary shiver. "Maybe Principal Patton is trying to show us that we're not so high on the pole at Uni-Hi after all, even though we're smart."

 

She took another long sip of her Pepsi. "I wouldn't put it past her, or any of the Undertaker administrators. Ever notice how the more intelligent kids at school get in as much trouble, or more, than the ornery ones who directly act out in class?"

 

Glancing askance at Akira, she asked, "Could this news be just another 'text screen'?"

[JediMaster12]

"If it is, it is starting to bug like flies," Akira replied. "Funny how technology is supposed to make our lives easier yet all it is good for is an instrument of social control. Them so called teachers buy into the party line and then try to make us look like the devil incarnate." Akira continued to munch on her pizza, her body's desire for carbs outweighing her desire to chat.

[Alkonium]

"Frankly, I'd rather be an individual than a 'model citizen', or normal, whatever that is. We're supposed to be able to think what we want, and they're not supposed to push political viewpoints like this. The fact that they don't like us questioning things is just another thing to question. What are they so afraid we'll figure out?" Jeff pointed out, taking another sip of his Pepsi.

[JediMaster12]

"That really our perfect world is a farce and should the younger generations ever get intelligent enough to take over the government, the politicians would be out of a job. Those who gain power hate giving it up." Akira managed to pause in her munching long enough to answer Jeff's question. "I wonder what Aldous Huxley would have to say on the matter."

[Tysyacha]

"Aldous who?" asked Atrast, quickly stuffing her mouth with another gigantic bite of pizza. She knew, or at least she felt, that she was the stupidest out of all eight students in the group. The rest of them read books, actual books, which had never really interested her because the ones she'd had at her house were dusty old biographies of people she'd never even heard of.

 

"Never mind," she said with a muffled sigh, pretending that the pepperoni and double mushrooms were all that engrossed her. She was mediocre at math, terrible at physical exercise, and only halfway decent at the game she loved. Atrast, despite the pressure placed upon her by her Undertaker parents and teachers at Uni-Hi, never really excelled at anything--except losing. That was what she was good at, and Atrast was ashamed of this fact.

 

She did not yet have the wisdom to see her greatest gains came from loss...

 

The stars twinkled in the evening sky. It was early fall, and Andromeda, in her constellation chains, dangled above the eight students at Pizza Hut...

[Tysyacha]

Day Four: T-DAY!

 

Out of all her classes at Uni-Hi, the only one that Atrast Valla actually considered even close to "nine" was Current Events, taught by Miss Yseult. She was the only Undertaker--teacher--that ever let her students call her by her first name. She was named for a mythical queen of legend, an accidental adulteress, the wife of King Mark and lover of the hero Tristan. Miss Yseult was as beautiful and "volted" as her name. She was hyper most of the day.

 

"Oh noes, eleventy-one!" she cried. "We're missing 24/7 Live News!"

 

It was the class's favorite channel. The anchors talked like human beings insted of bureaucrats, and everyone pretty much understood what was going on. This time, however--not even the anchors did. The screen showed shots of school buildings, one after another, standing in a pile of smoking rubble.

 

Miss Yseult slapped her hand over her mouth, stifling a scream. She turned up the volume on the television set, which now read "SCHOOLS TARGETED."

 

"Terrorists from the Asian Commonwealth--juveniles, ages 14 to 18--have today awakened from their 'sleeper cells' and set off bombs in their buildings. Motives for the school bombings have not yet been discovered, although we think this is a series of revenge killings for President Anderson's harsh sanctions against China and other Asian countries. These sanctions have mostly harmed children and ordinary citizens, not the terrorist elite that President Anderson had sought to punish. Schools are being held in lockdown all over the U.S. Any one of them could have a bomb in them at the moment."

 

Atrast felt her bowels turn to liquid. The screen read: THRESHOLD RED ALERT.

[JediMaster12]

Akira smiled and obliged, "Aldous Huxley was a twentieth century writer. He wrote an interesting book called Brave New World. It is basically about a civilization like ours except children are born by the hundreds and conditioned according to their class. I'll lend it to you."

 

Akira said no more but continued to munch on her pizza in silence. She knew that Atrast was going through one of her thinking spells about herself. She inwardly cursed the whole tarking system for making Atrast feel that she was mediocre and stupid. She knew that Atrast was good at things evenif they were not completely the norm at Uni-Hi. Still it made her wonder if Atrast resented her for being able to perform to the standards Uni-Hi wanted, up to the point where she outshown them.

 

**********

 

Day 4:

 

Akira had a book open as she sat through Current Events. It was one subject in which she didn't care two pins for and got less than an A on her assignments. Miss Yseult constantly told her that she was capable of doing better than her and the other teachers. It was a rare compliment coming from a teacher and first to admit the posiibility that they might not know something. She had told Miss Yseult that she didn't see the point in preparing a paper on a topic that was more likely edited for the express purpose of controlling the masses.

 

That earned her a look mixed with frustration and pleading. Akira didn't relent and was content scrapping by in the class. She did watch the news like everyone else though. She wasn't stupid knowing that there was the possibility of some truth in her words. As she watched the screen, her eyes went wide at teh images of the downed school buildings.

 

The newscasters spoke of sleeper cells bombing their schools and that they were representative of the Asian Commonwealth. Inwardly she cringed and looked to see if any dirty looks were being shot her way. It was no secret that she was of Japanese descent. Still that wouldn't stop suspicious sould from inquiring if she intended to bomb the school. She looked at Atrast who was looking pained in her seat. She looked up at the screen and reacted, "Tark!"

[Tysyacha]

((This thread is officially dead. Thanks for making this RP fairly decent, however!))

[Master_Archon]

((Personally I wanted to keep going, but nobody deemed to push it forward. Ah well.))