Shakespearean - JayTim - Camp NaNoWriMo - July 2017

Chapter 18 - Revelation

For the first time ever, Jason was actually feeling pretty good about journalism class. He wasn't late, and he was pretty confident about the paragraph he wrote. When he arrived, he took his usual seat in the front row and waited for everything to begin. Clark was reading something at his desk, but he looked up when he noticed Jason sit down. "Hey, Jason. You look a lot better this week." Clark gave him a sly, shit-eating grin that Jason hadn't known he was capable of. "That wouldn't have anything to do with Tim, would it?"

Jason's eyes went wide, and his reply was anything but smooth. "Tim?" he asked with a scoff. "Psh, no, why would my good mood have anything to do with Tim? That'd be...," he trailed off when he realized that Clark really wasn't buying it and Jason didn't have anything better up his sleeve. "Shut up, Clark."

Clark laughed loudly, drawing the attention of a few of the students that were already there. "How was roller-skating, Jason?"

Groaning, Jason folded his arms on his desk and dropped his head on them, absolutely refusing to answer. Clark only laughed harder.

A few minutes later, everyone was there and it was time to start. "Alrighty, class, this week, you'll be reading aloud your paragraphs. We'll start with Jimmy, because since he's so comfortable in his chair, he must be really confident." Jason looked over his shoulder to see Jimmy frozen solid with his feet up on his desk. The now-blushing student made his way down to the front and the readings began.

Jason went somewhere around the middle, and he actually wasn't nervous. When it was his turn, he stood up, faced the class, and read his paragraph aloud:

"Once upon a time, there was a fourteen-year-old girl in Columbia named Toha. Her family was poor, so her mother sold her virginity in order to pay for what they needed. The girl was then trafficked to brothel, where she was forced to work as a prostitute. An organization called AIM was able to rescue her in only 22 days. By then, however, she'd been raped by 198 different men. The math equals out to 9 men per day. This fourteen-year-old girl was raped by nine different men a day for 22 days. There are many girls like her all over the world, and most of them are never lucky enough to be rescued. AIM, Agape International Missions, has a saying: 'One girl is too many. One day is too long.'"

(A/N The above is a true story. You can buy bracelets that say '22' on them as a reminder and a way to spread awareness about human trafficking on the AIM website.)

Jason paused for dramatic effect, taking in the stunned, heartbroken, and, in some cases, bewildered expressions on his classmates' faces. He then took his seat, seeing the sad, knowing look in Clark's eyes as they made contact with his. It made him uncomfortable, wondering just how 'knowing' Clark was in that moment.

****

Once everybody had read aloud their paragraphs, Clark stood back up at the podium. "Alright everybody. I have wonderful news for you all. There won't be any more writing assignments actually due until your final. Your midterm will simply be a quiz on a few more videos that I have to show you," he was interrupted by a groan from the entire class, making him chuckle for a second. "Regardless, you will still have plenty to do in the following weeks. I keep the midterm simple and easy because I want you all to focus on your Final.

"Using the topic that you already have, you are all to make a final presentation using one of the methods of journalism that we learned about in the video last week. A written article, a PowerPoint, a documentary, whatever you want. I have three other classes with different topics and the same assignments, and you, class, will be competing against them." Jason's eyebrows rose, as he was sure did those of the rest of the class. "The five best final presentations, whatever the form, will be submitted to a journalism contest that is run and facilitated by myself and over 100 other journalism professors and experts in this half of the country. The winner will receive a cash prize and publication for their presentation, and the two runner ups will also receive cash prizes."