Everett: Revised edition

Chapter 7

"Do we get to visit our parents at all? On Holidays?" I asked.

"No."

"So have you ever met your parents?" I was curious to get to know Greg as best I could. So far, he was the only person that I could have considered a friend. "Does that ever bother you? I miss my family and it's only been a few weeks since I've been here. You've been apart from them forever," I said.

"I was taken from them. 'Apart' makes it sound like I will see them again," Greg said.

"So, none of us will?" I asked.

Greg seemed uncomfortable shifting in his seat before he responded, "Maybe you will once you graduate into society," Greg said.

That was the best I could hope for. In five years, I might be reunited with my parents.

"Let's go. It's time for us to go do The Chant".

Every morning we stood for the Allegiance Alliance Song. Greg referred to it as The Chant.

"I believe in the glory of the state, I accept the authority of the state as absolute and unquestionable. I believe in the principles of strength, conformity, and loyalty. I pledge myself to do all I can to further the glory of the state and promise to never do anything that could bring harm or shame to its glory."

We gathered in the School Yard courtyard, the holding place for all mass assemblies. Here we did The Chant, received our punishments, and avoided when new students were dropped off. There were occasions when I looked out a window and saw everything from cars to caravans dropping off somebody new. On the first occasion, I was heading back to my dorm and wanted to walk by to see but was quickly ushered on to my original destination. It was one of the unspoken rules of the School Yard to avoid the courtyard during initiations. All new students came into a barren yard, where they were overwhelmed by the looming front door and the silence. Sometimes, I couldn't figure out who was new and who had been around for ages, since the hallways were filled with students who kept their heads down and their nose out of everyone else's business. And since I was surrounded only by children of my own year in the dorm and classrooms, and with students of my age or older at meals, I didn't get to see many of the new students. Each dorm room, class, and table only had so many seats available. The school never filled any of these beyond capacity, so who you were set with was who you were stuck with. There were some exceptions, like Greg, who will graduate before I do by a couple of years, and someone will have the chance to fill his place if they are removed from the Community for reeducation.

This was my first month in the institution. Time flew by without it feeling like it moved at all. The repetitive nature of the SchoolYard made me forget quickly about the life I had before. That is, until the days leading up to Greg's graduation.

I had known Greg since the beginning, but we never developed a friendship. I had acquaintances like Greg and Lovel. It was an unspoken rule of the SchoolYard to avoid making friends. The teachers discouraged talking in class, the halls, and the dorms. The more talk, the more noise there was, and more fear that gossip would spread. I'd found out later that gossip was the reason we were publicly punished within my first week of attending the school. Someone had decided to spread a rumor. Greg said that, in his time at the school, there had been an average of one punishment a year, usually started by some middle-level student who learned more about the world than their undeveloped brain could handle. Although being taught year after year to keep to yourself, someone would try it and we would all suffer the consequences.

Greg had seen an increase in enrollment in recent years. So much so that he noticed some students started disappearing before their graduation to make room for the new ones. Of course, we couldn't spread rumors of where they had gone, so everyone remained frightened when an acquaintance was replaced. Yet, no one would say a word.