School Spirit
Sarah and Kat are sitting at their table for lunch in the cafeteria. The place is packed with people at various stages of their lunch break. Sarah is clearly paying attention to the students around her, apparently anxious that someone will notice what they're doing. Kat on the other hand has her focus squarely on her phone, busy doing something. She occasionally looks up at Sarah to watch for a reaction of some kind.
"Is it ready?" asks Sarah, clearly anxious for something to happen.
"Just give me a minute." insists Kat, her anxiety focused in the direction of what Sarah has her doing.
Kat taps away on her phone as she tries to finish sending out the message as quickly as possible. While she's doing that, Nina comes into the cafeteria and sits down at the same table.
"Did I miss it? You haven't sent it out yet have you?" Nina asks in a hopeful tone.
"Kat's dragging her feet." Sarah says, annoyed.
"I'm going as fast as I can." responds Kat.
"If she doesn't get to it soon, maybe we'll have to put her on it." threatens Sarah.
That makes Kat look at Sarah for a moment while she keeps tapping away on her phone, "Wait... one more... there."
Suddenly, the phones of everyone in the cafeteria go off and almost all of the students pick their phones up to check out the notification. Sarah, Nina and Kat all watch for a reaction. They don't have to wait long as many in the cafeteria get very upset.
"What the hell?" asks one of them in a way that most of the cafeteria can hear.
"Oh come on!" declares another one, annoyed.
"Seriously?" rhetorically asks one of the others.
Ian, one of David and Sarah's friends, rushes up to Sarah's table clearly upset, "What the hell are you doing Sarah?"
"What's necessary." insists Sarah.
Before Ian can respond, Sarah gets up on the table she is sitting at and raises her voice, "Attention you apathetic weirdos."
This makes everyone in the room look in Sarah's direction.
"This school needs a wake-up call. We've been falling behind on our school spirit and on so many other levels. A few weeks ago, we basically destroyed this school. And we need to do a better job. So as the cheerleaders of this school, we've decided that we get to decide how much school spirit you have and whether or not you really deserve to be a part of this school. If you got a message just now, you're failing and you need to work harder. We'll be keeping an eye on all of you to make sure you measure up." explains Sarah.
"And who the hell put you in charge of school spirit?" Ian asks angrily.
"I'm the head cheerleader. Who else would you put in charge?" responds Sarah before adding, "If you really want to boost your spirit score, there's a game coming up. We suggest you be there."
* * *
The bell rings, signaling the end of Jemma's class. Her and the other students begin packing up so they can get to their next one on time.
"Ms Epimetheus?" Hermes calls out to Jemma from the teacher's desk.
"Yes?" Jemma responds.
"Would you hold back for a moment? There's something I'd like to talk to you about." Hermes requests.
Her other classmates all file out of class as she approaches the teacher's desk.
"Is everything all right? I handed in my assignment." insists Jemma.
"Yes, I saw that. Everything looks fine with your assignment. This is about something else." suggests Hermes, adding "I noticed that you were friends with Ms Jupiter... the principal's daughter."
"What about it?" Jemma asks, both concerned and somewhat suspicious.
"Well, I'm not sure if you're aware, but I'm a friend of the family. It's how I got this job." says Hermes.
"No... I wasn't aware. Is everything okay with Pandora?"
"Yes, it is... for now at least." Hermes says.
"What do you mean?"
"I've known her family a long time, and I just wanted to make sure that you're careful." Hermes says with what appears on the surface to be concern.
"Careful? About what?"
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top