Hey everyone, this is a short story that I wrote for my english
class.alotta people say its good so I decided to post it.so, here goes.
-Marius' Point Of View- Before I really met her, I had always thought her to be aloof. I thought that she was always thinking herself above us when we were all the same. I didn't know why, until later, that it was because she had no friends that she always sat at the same bench during lunch. No one ever approached her, it was like a law. Leave her alone, or become just like her.
Of course, I wasn't completely ignorant of her charm. She was beautiful. There was something very compelling about her eyes that pulled my curiosity to find out more about her.
My first step was to find out her name. This was difficult, but I knew it would be a beginning. This task, as I soon learned, was harder than I thought it would be. I never really noticed it before, but even though she went to class, she was never called upon. No one ever spoke her name, either in jest and ridicule, or praise and gratitude. It was as if she was a ghost, there, yet insubstantial.
-Cosette's Point Of View-
Although it might seem to anyone who cared that I was deeply engrossed with my book, I was forever watching. Watching, and waiting to see if someone would slip in their little act and notice me instead of always walking past me in the halls, like I was there, yet not there. It was as if I was cursed to be overlooked.
At least, that was what I thought until I saw someone look at me. I had gotten used to the roaming eyes that never settled on my face, like I was one with the wall. When I saw that someone looked at me, I was shocked. I even went through the day in a haze of happiness and a small smile on my face. It was so unreal.
I had to find out who he was. I doubled my attention on him. Of course, ever since he came into the school year later, I had always watched him rather closely. In fact, I watched him more than I watched anyone else. He wasn't aware of it, but I sort of liked him.
Despite the fact that if he had been here at the beginning of the school year when I transferred it would have been different, I didn't begrudge him. In fact, if it wasn't for his coming in during the second quarter, he probably would have ignored me like all the others did. He moved at the beginning of December, and by that time, everyone avoided me like I was a huge slimy fly with a pin sticking through one of my many faceted eyes. Even the teachers ignored me and acted as if I didn't exist. I don't know what I did to deserve this. What I did though, must have been when I first came, because that's when they all started ignoring me and I adopted a bench.
-Marius's Point Of View-
Whenever I heard anything about her, she was always referred to as 'that girl', and was always spoken of in whispers. I was beginning to have a haunting suspicion of who 'that girl' was when I received confirmation about a month after I arrived. I had made a few friends in that month. Likable enough, but not so great of friends that I would feel desolate about leaving them in a great chasm with nothing but a dead cell phone and a water bottle.
They were in the school library with their heads close together as if in a huddle debating a secret move that would overwhelm the opposing team. They welcomed me with a signal to be quiet so I sat down to the better of my friends. His name was Jean Valjean. At the moment, his friend Javert was talking. Javert and his girlfriend, Eponine, were so alike that they fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Eponine and her sister Azelma, Jean's girlfriend, were there, and they were all talking in undertone about 'that girl'.
Jean was saying, 'I feel kind of bad for 'that girl'. It's not her fault she didn't know the rule'. Eponine replied with, ''That girl' never should have done that. I mean, she always sits alone, even at her bench. I cut in before anyone on else could say anything with confusion evident on my features. I asked the simplest question, and in return received very loud gasps from my companions, and a rude and meaningful glare from the librarian. What did I ask? Why simply, "What rule?"
When I received their shocked looks and no answers, I repeated the question. They looked as if they were ready to faint when Jean spoke up asking me, "you mean, no one told you the rule?" I replied as best I could once more with what I thought would best clarify my confusion by saying, "What rule?" There has always been a rule so secret, that no one from the outside of this school knows. The teachers and parent know only because they too went to this school as kids and, as they did for us, their parents passed on the tradition of telling the secret rule to their children, as their parents' parents did for them.
"What's so secret about this rule?"
"We can't tell you, because only your parents can. All of us and all of our parents learned the secret rule from those who spawned us, as they did from those who spawned them, up the chain till it reaches the fore fathers of this school."
"There is only one thing we can do, and that is to give you a hint," put in Azelma.
"Well, here it goes."said Eponine as she drew herself up in a dictating pose. As she recited with perfect grace, the words that I would search through dozens of times for hidden meanings, it seemed that all eyes turned in her direction.
"It's never spoken of unless in private
And in the private there are always eight
Of that eight stands one who can speak freely
Of the secret that binds us and keeps us kneeling"
"You must figure out the meaning of it before the month is out, Marius, for if you do not, we shall have to report it and the consequences shall be dire." Having said that, Javert and the others left. Long after they left, Marius still sat as he had in the school library. He was clearly disturbed by the allotted time span given to him, but he never quit on a challenge before he even started. He pondered a bit more, remembering the words before he wrote them down on the first page of a clean notebook. After calmly packing up all his stuff, he left the school library to go on a treasure hunt to see where he could find clues.
-Cosette's Point Of View-2 weeks later-
I sat watching him whenever I could. I couldn't help but be worried about him since for the next couple weeks he seemed to be walking around in a daze, always thinking of something other than where to put his foot next. I was walking down the hall one day with everyone's glance sliding over and around me when I saw him coming towards me while muttering to himself. I was burning with curiosity to hear what he was muttering, so I didn't understand what happened until I took a good look around.
I was currently an occupant of the floor with the books that were in my arms scattered around me. The victim, if not me, was none other than he who I had always watched from a distance. I blushed slightly and started apologizing as I started to gather my books. At that moment, he sat up and rubbed his head only to stop and look straight at me. Surprised by this, I looked deeply into his eyes to see him searching for something that I obviously couldn't see. As he took in my appearance, I was faintly surprised to see his eyes widened with a sudden perception.
Upon learning of his insight, he grabbed my arm and started dragging me who knows where after saying something along the lines of, "That's it!" I, having been watching everything since the sight of my being was dismissed from everyone's eyes, did not fail to notice, that ever since the beginning of the incident, every single person stilled their conversation and movements to look at us.
I also realized that when he grabbed my arm and started dragging me, there were ripples of involuntary gasps that traveled like a Lear jet or a maybe even a cheetah. The boy was so busy dragging me, that I do not doubt that he failed to notice anything out of the ordinary.
-Marius' Point Of View-on the course of the 2 weeks earlier-
On the next day, I started in earnest on the problem I had been given. I searched high and low in all the bookshelves in all the libraries within the city. I didn't exactly believe that this would go outside the school, but then, it wasn't exactly inside the school either. On one occasion, I came across some old family yearbooks hidden deep in my attic. I figured, if I go to this school, my parents must have. As it turns out, they did. Not that it was much help since they were dead, but it was what I thought to be a good start.
As the week flew into the next, I decided to start searching on the internet. Many have personal web pages, and any one of them could have what I was looking for. I searched continuously but found nothing that could help me until the middle of next week. It was a web page for, as some may guess, secret rules. When I found the site, I practically jumped for joy, but it wouldn't exactly last as long as I might prefer seeing how the only way it helped was by giving me yet another riddle. All of the little tidbits he picked up went into the notebook and it was filling up pretty fast. The riddle also went in the notebook. It went something like.
'Although the one can speak without hitch
They are encouraged not to and are treated like a witch
They are forcibly hidden though an outsider can plainly see
The one who is the one is the one left alone to be.' Clearly the riddle meant that someone in the school was the one who could speak of the rule freely, but everyone but an outsider was schooled not to see this single person. That was the flaw in the plan of hiding the one, and I was determined to figure out who it was.
The next day at school, I was still trying to figure it out. I was an outsider.kind of, I should be able to see what others of this school could not. I was muttering all this as I walked unthinkingly towards my first class when I was suddenly on the floor. Everything was a bit hazy when I started hearing someone apologizing and picking up books. I sat up only to realize that my head hurt a little and started rubbing it. I looked at my victim to see none other than the one they call 'that girl'. All of a sudden I felt as if I should know something. I didn't know what but when I looked in her eyes, everything became clear. With victory at my door I realized I knew who the one was with a gratifying, "That's it!" I grabbed her arm and started dragging her someplace that I knew we could be alone and have a private chat about the secret rule.
-Cosette's Point Of View-
As I was dragged out of the school, I realized the direction of where our destination would be. It could only be one place, a place that was neutral, and a place where they could talk. The only thing I could think of was talking. I hadn't talked to someone in so long that I didn't really care what we talked about. Since I really didn't care for being dragged, I gently pried his hand of my arm while still running with him to show that I would follow. He led me to the place I tended to frequent a lot, my bench. It wasn't quite as far from school as I would have appreciated, but it would have to do seeing as all the other students were in their first period by now and couldn't spy on us. We sat down. For a while, there was an awkward silence, but it had to end sometime. In the end, it broke with him apologizing for grabbing me and dragging me. He said he had a purpose for doing it, and in the process of saying so, pulled out of his backpack a notebook that seemed to be full long hours spent writing in it. He opened it to the first page and passed it to me asking if I had ever read or heard something like it. I scanned it quickly, and recognizing it, said that I did. He asked me how I had come to be familiar with it. "Well," I said hesitantly, "a long time ago, my mother and I were playing with the most beautiful doll. We had been tossing it up into the air when I missed the catching of the doll and it fell. It was a china doll, so it broke on impact. At the breaking of it, my mother started crying. She couldn't buy me another since my father had left us before I was born and money was tight. When I saw this, I went to go and hug her and said that I thought I was getting to be too old for dolls any ways and all she did was smile through her tears. When she stopped crying we got up and I got the broom to sweep up the pieces. When I came back, my mother said that she thought the way I acted was so grown up that I should be treated like a grown up. She then told me the same rhyme you just showed me.
-Marius' Point Of View-
I felt my excitement grow as I heard her say that her mother had told her the hint that was given to me by Eponine and the others. Flipping through the pages looking for the second hint, I asked her if her mother had told her anything else. When she replied yes I showed her the correct page in the notebook and asked if that was what her mother told her. to my disappointment, she said no.
I sat there quietly thinking about the information that had been given to me. Clearly what I needed to find out was-
My thoughts broke off as the girl interrupted my thinking by asking if his questions were meant to mean anything to her. I looked at her and replied as honestly as I could with a simple, "I don't know". She then asked me what the poems meant. For a moment I was puzzled but then it dawned on me that she was talking about the hints and I said that in a way I did, but some parts were extremely confusing.
-Cosette's Point Of View-
I was genuinely puzzled about both poems. I knew the first by heart and could decipher at least a little of it, but the second one baffled her. I was determined to ask for clarification but the answer I got was not what I expected.
-Marius' Point Of View-
I tried as best I could to come up with a suitable answer to her question, but what came out was a full barrage of things that I never knew could apply to the two hints. My reply went something like. "Well, for the first poem, you have the line that says, it is never spoken of unless in private. I assume it refers to the secret rule that I have too find out. I don't really understand the second line, but in the third, it speaks of eight people and only one who can speak of it freely. I think that it means that there were eight original forefathers that knew the true secret rule and that the others know only a garbled version of it. It probably also constitutes to the fact that since they are all schooled not to tell anyone, the one has had no such training and can therefore speak without restriction. The fourth line implies that it is the secret rule that keeps the group from straying and blabbing, and it also rules over them. It is possible they fear the rule as some might fear a monarch, but why would anyone fear a rule?" She then replied saying that all of my speculation was very nice, but what did the second poem mean?
"Well," I said, "in a way it is easier to understand then this than the first because it is talking of only one thing, the one. "
I was then interrupted here to hear her asking who the one was, and why the one was so important. At this I stared at her as if she had grown a second head. I was shocked to hear her ask this because I thought it very likely that she would understand perfectly. I asked her if the circumstances surrounding the one were like anything she had ever known or realized. She looked at me strangely when she heard me ask this, but she just took the poem calmly and started once again to try and figure out if it reminded her of someone she knew. With a jolt, she realized that the last line described what she had basically felt the whole time she had been at this school. I watched her read and reread the second hint, and saw with some satisfaction that a bit of terror flashed through her face as she looked once more at a the last line with some recognition of the hurt feeling loneliness still lingering at the tips of her fingers. She slowly looked up at me with the question plain in her eyes. I decided to wait for her to say it before answering, but I knew that even as I could see the question in hers, she could see the answer in mine. "Am I the one?" she finally asked. -Cosette's Point Of View- I dreaded hearing the answer, but I already knew it to be true. "It all adds up to it." He said. "What do we do now?" "Learn what the secret rule is before the month is out." I looked up with a puzzling glance before he explained the whole situation of how he came to be in this mess, how he found out all about the second poem, and how it all added up that I was the only possible candidate for the position for being the one. He finished off asking me what the other thing me mother had said to me was.
I was vague with my answer for my memories of the words were vague. He asked me if we could possibly go to my house and ask my mom what the secret rule was. My only reply could be negative, for my mother was dead, and that it what I told him. He stated his apologies and we once again fell into a lapse of silence.
I was about to ask him why we should care about a silly secret rule when I felt a presence behind us. I turned to look and then wished I hadn't for behind us stood six people. Since I was forever watching, I recognized them. There were three boys, Jean, Javert, and Mr. Thenardier (a teacher), and three girls, Eponine, Azelma, and Mrs. Thenardier (also a teacher, and Mr. Thenardier's wife).
I quickly put my hand upon the boys shoulder and beckoned him to look behind him. He did so and then quietly stood up after putting his notebook back in his back pack. I did not want to be left alone on the horrid bench I had called my own any longer so I too stood up.
We stood there until one of the he, the boy besides me, spoke. He inquired them why they were here, and got only the reply that they were to go someplace private. Seeing as how they outnumbered us three to one, we both agreed to go along as docile as lambs.
We were led back to the school but, instead of going inside like I thought we would, to say, a conference room, we went around the school to a door that I had never noticed before in my life. I thought that someone must have put the door in by accident, but when I saw the tunnel leading down from it, I realized that it had been put there for a purpose.
-Marius' Point Of View-
As we started down the pitch black tunnel, the six produced eight flashlights. There was no chance of a getaway because in front, and in behind were both three to lead, and to protect. I looked beside me to see the girl. I had never caught her name, and it did not look that I would likely do so in the near future. However, since we were in a dark tunnel with menacing looking figures before and behind us, I felt that I should at least offer some comfort to her.
I moved closer to her and put my arm around her shoulders. She flinched at first, but then she relaxed saying that she still wasn't used to all the acknowledgment that she was there. I murmured to her that it wasn't because of her personality, it was because she was the one that drove them away.
When I really got down to thinking about it, I realized that she held the power of speech. She could destroy the school we went to simply because she had not been trained to act like a mind slave to a rule. I too was not trained so, partly because they thought I would not go to the school, which is the same as to why I was never told, so, I to could be the one if I were as ignored as she was.
Then, a moment of enlightenment came to me as I realized how many were in our group. There were eight of us all together, and that is what the hint said. It also said that the rule could be spoken of only in private, and when we asked where our destination was, they said it was someplace private. It is too ironic to be false, but maybe it was a kind of prophecy. We have, in the meanwhile come to another door.
-Cosette's Point Of View-
We went through the second door into a room filled with a light that was a shade above dim light. Upon entering, the boy reclaimed his arm, and I am a bit desolate to say that I took great comfort from that arm and wished it to be where it previously was. We walked across the room to another door and entered a well-lit room that was very circular in shape.
At this time, the six went to little pedestals situated in a circle and directed us to go to the middle. We did so quietly and waited patiently for them to ask us, or command us, to do whatever they wish. It was perhaps a minutes wait when one of the six, Mrs. Thenardier, asked us what we knew of the secret rule.
I replied with all truth in saying, that though he did not know it in the first place, I had forgotten what the secret rule was, and therefore that we should be let go because of it. We were under no obligation to stay at their school, and we should not be prosecuted just because we caused a bit of ruckus on school campus.
-Marius' Point Of View-
Just as I knew she was the one, I knew she would know how to speak. I admired her abilities and her beauty equally well, and I should think to believe that I was coming to like her very much. I could see the faces of the six were debated whether to let us go, but in the meantime, I could spend my time quietly with the unknown girl.
-Cosette's Point Of View-
I sighed with relief when the six announced that my argument was sound. I turned to the boy and with an unspoken agreement, left together with his arm once more upon my shoulder. We did not speak in the first room, nor the tunnel, but only when we came once more into broad daylight. He turned to me only to find that I had turned at the same moment and that our lips met in a kiss.
I personally thought it was very nice and when we broke it, was very saddened to do so. I thought he might reject me, but instead he asked me only for my name and not my absence of his presence. "Cosette," I replied and then asked, "and you?" he replied only with "Marius", and I came to think as we shared another kiss that our relationship would turn out to be very lasting.
-Marius' Point Of View- Before I really met her, I had always thought her to be aloof. I thought that she was always thinking herself above us when we were all the same. I didn't know why, until later, that it was because she had no friends that she always sat at the same bench during lunch. No one ever approached her, it was like a law. Leave her alone, or become just like her.
Of course, I wasn't completely ignorant of her charm. She was beautiful. There was something very compelling about her eyes that pulled my curiosity to find out more about her.
My first step was to find out her name. This was difficult, but I knew it would be a beginning. This task, as I soon learned, was harder than I thought it would be. I never really noticed it before, but even though she went to class, she was never called upon. No one ever spoke her name, either in jest and ridicule, or praise and gratitude. It was as if she was a ghost, there, yet insubstantial.
-Cosette's Point Of View-
Although it might seem to anyone who cared that I was deeply engrossed with my book, I was forever watching. Watching, and waiting to see if someone would slip in their little act and notice me instead of always walking past me in the halls, like I was there, yet not there. It was as if I was cursed to be overlooked.
At least, that was what I thought until I saw someone look at me. I had gotten used to the roaming eyes that never settled on my face, like I was one with the wall. When I saw that someone looked at me, I was shocked. I even went through the day in a haze of happiness and a small smile on my face. It was so unreal.
I had to find out who he was. I doubled my attention on him. Of course, ever since he came into the school year later, I had always watched him rather closely. In fact, I watched him more than I watched anyone else. He wasn't aware of it, but I sort of liked him.
Despite the fact that if he had been here at the beginning of the school year when I transferred it would have been different, I didn't begrudge him. In fact, if it wasn't for his coming in during the second quarter, he probably would have ignored me like all the others did. He moved at the beginning of December, and by that time, everyone avoided me like I was a huge slimy fly with a pin sticking through one of my many faceted eyes. Even the teachers ignored me and acted as if I didn't exist. I don't know what I did to deserve this. What I did though, must have been when I first came, because that's when they all started ignoring me and I adopted a bench.
-Marius's Point Of View-
Whenever I heard anything about her, she was always referred to as 'that girl', and was always spoken of in whispers. I was beginning to have a haunting suspicion of who 'that girl' was when I received confirmation about a month after I arrived. I had made a few friends in that month. Likable enough, but not so great of friends that I would feel desolate about leaving them in a great chasm with nothing but a dead cell phone and a water bottle.
They were in the school library with their heads close together as if in a huddle debating a secret move that would overwhelm the opposing team. They welcomed me with a signal to be quiet so I sat down to the better of my friends. His name was Jean Valjean. At the moment, his friend Javert was talking. Javert and his girlfriend, Eponine, were so alike that they fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Eponine and her sister Azelma, Jean's girlfriend, were there, and they were all talking in undertone about 'that girl'.
Jean was saying, 'I feel kind of bad for 'that girl'. It's not her fault she didn't know the rule'. Eponine replied with, ''That girl' never should have done that. I mean, she always sits alone, even at her bench. I cut in before anyone on else could say anything with confusion evident on my features. I asked the simplest question, and in return received very loud gasps from my companions, and a rude and meaningful glare from the librarian. What did I ask? Why simply, "What rule?"
When I received their shocked looks and no answers, I repeated the question. They looked as if they were ready to faint when Jean spoke up asking me, "you mean, no one told you the rule?" I replied as best I could once more with what I thought would best clarify my confusion by saying, "What rule?" There has always been a rule so secret, that no one from the outside of this school knows. The teachers and parent know only because they too went to this school as kids and, as they did for us, their parents passed on the tradition of telling the secret rule to their children, as their parents' parents did for them.
"What's so secret about this rule?"
"We can't tell you, because only your parents can. All of us and all of our parents learned the secret rule from those who spawned us, as they did from those who spawned them, up the chain till it reaches the fore fathers of this school."
"There is only one thing we can do, and that is to give you a hint," put in Azelma.
"Well, here it goes."said Eponine as she drew herself up in a dictating pose. As she recited with perfect grace, the words that I would search through dozens of times for hidden meanings, it seemed that all eyes turned in her direction.
"It's never spoken of unless in private
And in the private there are always eight
Of that eight stands one who can speak freely
Of the secret that binds us and keeps us kneeling"
"You must figure out the meaning of it before the month is out, Marius, for if you do not, we shall have to report it and the consequences shall be dire." Having said that, Javert and the others left. Long after they left, Marius still sat as he had in the school library. He was clearly disturbed by the allotted time span given to him, but he never quit on a challenge before he even started. He pondered a bit more, remembering the words before he wrote them down on the first page of a clean notebook. After calmly packing up all his stuff, he left the school library to go on a treasure hunt to see where he could find clues.
-Cosette's Point Of View-2 weeks later-
I sat watching him whenever I could. I couldn't help but be worried about him since for the next couple weeks he seemed to be walking around in a daze, always thinking of something other than where to put his foot next. I was walking down the hall one day with everyone's glance sliding over and around me when I saw him coming towards me while muttering to himself. I was burning with curiosity to hear what he was muttering, so I didn't understand what happened until I took a good look around.
I was currently an occupant of the floor with the books that were in my arms scattered around me. The victim, if not me, was none other than he who I had always watched from a distance. I blushed slightly and started apologizing as I started to gather my books. At that moment, he sat up and rubbed his head only to stop and look straight at me. Surprised by this, I looked deeply into his eyes to see him searching for something that I obviously couldn't see. As he took in my appearance, I was faintly surprised to see his eyes widened with a sudden perception.
Upon learning of his insight, he grabbed my arm and started dragging me who knows where after saying something along the lines of, "That's it!" I, having been watching everything since the sight of my being was dismissed from everyone's eyes, did not fail to notice, that ever since the beginning of the incident, every single person stilled their conversation and movements to look at us.
I also realized that when he grabbed my arm and started dragging me, there were ripples of involuntary gasps that traveled like a Lear jet or a maybe even a cheetah. The boy was so busy dragging me, that I do not doubt that he failed to notice anything out of the ordinary.
-Marius' Point Of View-on the course of the 2 weeks earlier-
On the next day, I started in earnest on the problem I had been given. I searched high and low in all the bookshelves in all the libraries within the city. I didn't exactly believe that this would go outside the school, but then, it wasn't exactly inside the school either. On one occasion, I came across some old family yearbooks hidden deep in my attic. I figured, if I go to this school, my parents must have. As it turns out, they did. Not that it was much help since they were dead, but it was what I thought to be a good start.
As the week flew into the next, I decided to start searching on the internet. Many have personal web pages, and any one of them could have what I was looking for. I searched continuously but found nothing that could help me until the middle of next week. It was a web page for, as some may guess, secret rules. When I found the site, I practically jumped for joy, but it wouldn't exactly last as long as I might prefer seeing how the only way it helped was by giving me yet another riddle. All of the little tidbits he picked up went into the notebook and it was filling up pretty fast. The riddle also went in the notebook. It went something like.
'Although the one can speak without hitch
They are encouraged not to and are treated like a witch
They are forcibly hidden though an outsider can plainly see
The one who is the one is the one left alone to be.' Clearly the riddle meant that someone in the school was the one who could speak of the rule freely, but everyone but an outsider was schooled not to see this single person. That was the flaw in the plan of hiding the one, and I was determined to figure out who it was.
The next day at school, I was still trying to figure it out. I was an outsider.kind of, I should be able to see what others of this school could not. I was muttering all this as I walked unthinkingly towards my first class when I was suddenly on the floor. Everything was a bit hazy when I started hearing someone apologizing and picking up books. I sat up only to realize that my head hurt a little and started rubbing it. I looked at my victim to see none other than the one they call 'that girl'. All of a sudden I felt as if I should know something. I didn't know what but when I looked in her eyes, everything became clear. With victory at my door I realized I knew who the one was with a gratifying, "That's it!" I grabbed her arm and started dragging her someplace that I knew we could be alone and have a private chat about the secret rule.
-Cosette's Point Of View-
As I was dragged out of the school, I realized the direction of where our destination would be. It could only be one place, a place that was neutral, and a place where they could talk. The only thing I could think of was talking. I hadn't talked to someone in so long that I didn't really care what we talked about. Since I really didn't care for being dragged, I gently pried his hand of my arm while still running with him to show that I would follow. He led me to the place I tended to frequent a lot, my bench. It wasn't quite as far from school as I would have appreciated, but it would have to do seeing as all the other students were in their first period by now and couldn't spy on us. We sat down. For a while, there was an awkward silence, but it had to end sometime. In the end, it broke with him apologizing for grabbing me and dragging me. He said he had a purpose for doing it, and in the process of saying so, pulled out of his backpack a notebook that seemed to be full long hours spent writing in it. He opened it to the first page and passed it to me asking if I had ever read or heard something like it. I scanned it quickly, and recognizing it, said that I did. He asked me how I had come to be familiar with it. "Well," I said hesitantly, "a long time ago, my mother and I were playing with the most beautiful doll. We had been tossing it up into the air when I missed the catching of the doll and it fell. It was a china doll, so it broke on impact. At the breaking of it, my mother started crying. She couldn't buy me another since my father had left us before I was born and money was tight. When I saw this, I went to go and hug her and said that I thought I was getting to be too old for dolls any ways and all she did was smile through her tears. When she stopped crying we got up and I got the broom to sweep up the pieces. When I came back, my mother said that she thought the way I acted was so grown up that I should be treated like a grown up. She then told me the same rhyme you just showed me.
-Marius' Point Of View-
I felt my excitement grow as I heard her say that her mother had told her the hint that was given to me by Eponine and the others. Flipping through the pages looking for the second hint, I asked her if her mother had told her anything else. When she replied yes I showed her the correct page in the notebook and asked if that was what her mother told her. to my disappointment, she said no.
I sat there quietly thinking about the information that had been given to me. Clearly what I needed to find out was-
My thoughts broke off as the girl interrupted my thinking by asking if his questions were meant to mean anything to her. I looked at her and replied as honestly as I could with a simple, "I don't know". She then asked me what the poems meant. For a moment I was puzzled but then it dawned on me that she was talking about the hints and I said that in a way I did, but some parts were extremely confusing.
-Cosette's Point Of View-
I was genuinely puzzled about both poems. I knew the first by heart and could decipher at least a little of it, but the second one baffled her. I was determined to ask for clarification but the answer I got was not what I expected.
-Marius' Point Of View-
I tried as best I could to come up with a suitable answer to her question, but what came out was a full barrage of things that I never knew could apply to the two hints. My reply went something like. "Well, for the first poem, you have the line that says, it is never spoken of unless in private. I assume it refers to the secret rule that I have too find out. I don't really understand the second line, but in the third, it speaks of eight people and only one who can speak of it freely. I think that it means that there were eight original forefathers that knew the true secret rule and that the others know only a garbled version of it. It probably also constitutes to the fact that since they are all schooled not to tell anyone, the one has had no such training and can therefore speak without restriction. The fourth line implies that it is the secret rule that keeps the group from straying and blabbing, and it also rules over them. It is possible they fear the rule as some might fear a monarch, but why would anyone fear a rule?" She then replied saying that all of my speculation was very nice, but what did the second poem mean?
"Well," I said, "in a way it is easier to understand then this than the first because it is talking of only one thing, the one. "
I was then interrupted here to hear her asking who the one was, and why the one was so important. At this I stared at her as if she had grown a second head. I was shocked to hear her ask this because I thought it very likely that she would understand perfectly. I asked her if the circumstances surrounding the one were like anything she had ever known or realized. She looked at me strangely when she heard me ask this, but she just took the poem calmly and started once again to try and figure out if it reminded her of someone she knew. With a jolt, she realized that the last line described what she had basically felt the whole time she had been at this school. I watched her read and reread the second hint, and saw with some satisfaction that a bit of terror flashed through her face as she looked once more at a the last line with some recognition of the hurt feeling loneliness still lingering at the tips of her fingers. She slowly looked up at me with the question plain in her eyes. I decided to wait for her to say it before answering, but I knew that even as I could see the question in hers, she could see the answer in mine. "Am I the one?" she finally asked. -Cosette's Point Of View- I dreaded hearing the answer, but I already knew it to be true. "It all adds up to it." He said. "What do we do now?" "Learn what the secret rule is before the month is out." I looked up with a puzzling glance before he explained the whole situation of how he came to be in this mess, how he found out all about the second poem, and how it all added up that I was the only possible candidate for the position for being the one. He finished off asking me what the other thing me mother had said to me was.
I was vague with my answer for my memories of the words were vague. He asked me if we could possibly go to my house and ask my mom what the secret rule was. My only reply could be negative, for my mother was dead, and that it what I told him. He stated his apologies and we once again fell into a lapse of silence.
I was about to ask him why we should care about a silly secret rule when I felt a presence behind us. I turned to look and then wished I hadn't for behind us stood six people. Since I was forever watching, I recognized them. There were three boys, Jean, Javert, and Mr. Thenardier (a teacher), and three girls, Eponine, Azelma, and Mrs. Thenardier (also a teacher, and Mr. Thenardier's wife).
I quickly put my hand upon the boys shoulder and beckoned him to look behind him. He did so and then quietly stood up after putting his notebook back in his back pack. I did not want to be left alone on the horrid bench I had called my own any longer so I too stood up.
We stood there until one of the he, the boy besides me, spoke. He inquired them why they were here, and got only the reply that they were to go someplace private. Seeing as how they outnumbered us three to one, we both agreed to go along as docile as lambs.
We were led back to the school but, instead of going inside like I thought we would, to say, a conference room, we went around the school to a door that I had never noticed before in my life. I thought that someone must have put the door in by accident, but when I saw the tunnel leading down from it, I realized that it had been put there for a purpose.
-Marius' Point Of View-
As we started down the pitch black tunnel, the six produced eight flashlights. There was no chance of a getaway because in front, and in behind were both three to lead, and to protect. I looked beside me to see the girl. I had never caught her name, and it did not look that I would likely do so in the near future. However, since we were in a dark tunnel with menacing looking figures before and behind us, I felt that I should at least offer some comfort to her.
I moved closer to her and put my arm around her shoulders. She flinched at first, but then she relaxed saying that she still wasn't used to all the acknowledgment that she was there. I murmured to her that it wasn't because of her personality, it was because she was the one that drove them away.
When I really got down to thinking about it, I realized that she held the power of speech. She could destroy the school we went to simply because she had not been trained to act like a mind slave to a rule. I too was not trained so, partly because they thought I would not go to the school, which is the same as to why I was never told, so, I to could be the one if I were as ignored as she was.
Then, a moment of enlightenment came to me as I realized how many were in our group. There were eight of us all together, and that is what the hint said. It also said that the rule could be spoken of only in private, and when we asked where our destination was, they said it was someplace private. It is too ironic to be false, but maybe it was a kind of prophecy. We have, in the meanwhile come to another door.
-Cosette's Point Of View-
We went through the second door into a room filled with a light that was a shade above dim light. Upon entering, the boy reclaimed his arm, and I am a bit desolate to say that I took great comfort from that arm and wished it to be where it previously was. We walked across the room to another door and entered a well-lit room that was very circular in shape.
At this time, the six went to little pedestals situated in a circle and directed us to go to the middle. We did so quietly and waited patiently for them to ask us, or command us, to do whatever they wish. It was perhaps a minutes wait when one of the six, Mrs. Thenardier, asked us what we knew of the secret rule.
I replied with all truth in saying, that though he did not know it in the first place, I had forgotten what the secret rule was, and therefore that we should be let go because of it. We were under no obligation to stay at their school, and we should not be prosecuted just because we caused a bit of ruckus on school campus.
-Marius' Point Of View-
Just as I knew she was the one, I knew she would know how to speak. I admired her abilities and her beauty equally well, and I should think to believe that I was coming to like her very much. I could see the faces of the six were debated whether to let us go, but in the meantime, I could spend my time quietly with the unknown girl.
-Cosette's Point Of View-
I sighed with relief when the six announced that my argument was sound. I turned to the boy and with an unspoken agreement, left together with his arm once more upon my shoulder. We did not speak in the first room, nor the tunnel, but only when we came once more into broad daylight. He turned to me only to find that I had turned at the same moment and that our lips met in a kiss.
I personally thought it was very nice and when we broke it, was very saddened to do so. I thought he might reject me, but instead he asked me only for my name and not my absence of his presence. "Cosette," I replied and then asked, "and you?" he replied only with "Marius", and I came to think as we shared another kiss that our relationship would turn out to be very lasting.