Rights Violate
It was a warm day in the beginning of June. An assortment of colorful flowers lined the streets and filled yards, leaving behind delicate perfumes and aromas from their beautiful peddles. The once frozen streams and puddles were now flowing again, drawing the animals to its edges to drink from its pure water. The dirt roads, hidden by the large green trees were filled with deep pot holes, waiting to surprise the oncoming cars with a bump, sometimes even trapping them. The large trees swayed and laughed at the roads foolish game which seemed to always end with their pot holes being filled with pebbles and gravel.
Jamie Jefferson woke up with a start; her long blond hair flaring about her and her deep blue eyes twinkled with the excitement of the new day. She quickly tossed her colorful blankets off her, and threw a brush through her tangled hair. After changing into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, she ran down stairs, grabbed her purple backpack and raced out the door to meet the bus to her middle school.
The bus ride took only a moment and before she knew it, she was seated in her classroom with her classmates, her friend Matt seated beside her. "Good morning, Jamie." Matt whispered as class began. He wore a pair of ripped jeans and a green hoodie three times larger than his actual size "Good morning" She said back as she searched through her bag for her planner.
Their teacher's substitute, Mrs. Genes walked in and began to write on the chalk board, her white chalk screeching as she wrote. She turned to them with a stern expression, her grey eyes filled with evil. "Take out a piece of paper and a writing device. We are having a Pop quiz." She snarled her short graying hair fell into her face covering her left eye, making her appear half crazy.
The whole class sighed, and the sound of people rummaging through their bags for paper filled the room. "Man, I hate pop quizzes. This is absolutely not fair." Matt said loudly to Jamie. Jamie nodded but before she could give him a proper response, Mrs. Genes turned sharply away from her chalk board and faced them. "Matthew Franklin! You have detention after school." She yelled. Matt's eyes bugged out in shock and no words came out from him mouth in response.
Class ended and the students filtered out and headed to the catch the bus home. "I'll be right back." Jamie told Matt as they headed to Town. "I left my bag in the classroom." "I'll come with you. It's no fun waiting." Matt said smiling. "Hopefully it's not locked." He joked. The classroom wasn't dark and locked like Jamie had thought. The room was filled with light, as if class was still going on. They peered through the window but the room appeared empty. Jamie opened the door and walked in followed by Matt but before they had even stepped into the room Jamie gasped.
Mrs. Gene stood crouched over Jamie's bag, searching through her things. They quickly tiptoed over the trash cans and hid behind them. Matt's eyes grew wide. "What do we do?" He whispered. "I don't know! Our teacher can sure pick substitute teacher, huh!" Jamie shirked quietly. Matt looked down at his hands and bit his lip. "We can't just let her go through your things. That's not right. We also need your snack money, which is in your bag." He said. "But Matt..." Jamie began. "We got to go over there… but how." He interrupted. "I got an idea. I'll distract her and while she's distracted, you go get your bag. I'll meet you in Ras Pharmacy!"
Before Jamie could convince him otherwise, He jumped out from behind the trash can and into plain view of the sub. "Mrs. Gene!" Matt shouted. Mrs. Gene screamed and pulled her hand out from Jamie's bag and turned to Matt. "Matthew, you are not support to be here during lunch! This is my break!" She yelled. "But Mrs. Gene, Principal Erickson told me to come get you as fast as I could! He said it was an emergency!" Matt lied.
Mrs. Gene frowned. "Alright then…" She muttered, eyeing him suspiciously. She headed to the door right beside the trash can Jamie sat crouched behind. Jamie closed her eyes and held her breathe as Mrs. Gene neared her. Mrs. Gene stopped by the trash can and turned to Matt. "Stop dillydallying; come take me to the Principal." She said. Matt's eyes widened and his mouth went dry, his plan wasn't quite going as planned. "Why do you need my help? He's in his office." Matt stammered. He didn't want to be there when Mrs. Gene found out the Principal didn't really need her. "Matt, no arguing, Come now or I'll give you another detention." She yelled. Matt gulped and with a sigh let Mrs. Gene pull Matt by his arm out the door.
Jamie jumped up right as the door closed behind her friend and Mrs. Gene and headed to her bag. She sat down beside it and examined it. It seemed unharmed and none of her things seamed broken or gone. She grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder and glanced at her pink flower watch on her wrist. It was almost time for Jamie to go home and poor Matt wasn't going to get any food thanks to her, only a handful of Detention slips.
Jamie pulled her snack money out of her bag and headed to the door. She reached to open the door but it opened before she even laid her hand on it, and there stood Mrs. Gene smirking with Matt struggling to free himself from her strong grip. Jamie gasped and dropped her money on the floor. "I knew it!" Mrs. Gene screeched. "You nosey kids were in here eavesdropping!" She reached out and grabbed Jamie's wrist and Jamie shirked. "No!" Jamie yelled. Mrs. Gene cackled like a witch and pulled them into the classroom.
She pulled them to the large wooden cabinet as they struggled against her. She pulled out her set of keys from her pocket and unlocked it. Its large wooden doors swayed out with a creak and for a moment Jamie and Matt stopped struggling and their eyes widened with fear. "Welcome to your new home!" She laughed wickedly and pushed them with all her strength into the cabinet and shut the doors before Jamie and Matt could have taken a breath. Mrs. Gene quickly locked the doors again with a click and began to walk away leaving them in the cabinet to suffocate. "Hopefully you've learned your lesson and you won't eavesdrop…. in your next life!" She laughed and she flicked the lights out of the classroom and shut the door, locking it.
Jamie began to cry, tears falling down her cheeks in the dark. "It's going be okay, Jamie." Matt reassured her, hugging her. "What are we going to do?" She managed between sobs. "We'll…we'll break the door down. That's what we'll do!" He shouted. "But I need you to be strong, okay? I need you to help me." Jamie sniffled. "Okay, I'll try." She whispered. "Okay, on three." He pronounced.
They threw themselves at the wooden door for about an hour, but it wouldn't budge. Jamie gave up and wrapped her arms around her legs and hid her head in her lap. It was silent for a while as they realized their defeat. "I've been thinking." He began breaking the silence but stopped himself. "About?" Jamie said impatiently. "Well, about the rights we learned in social studies yesterday, the ones from the Constitution of the United States Bill of Rights." He whispered cautiously to Jamie.
Jamie lifted her head and cocked it to the left, and her right eyebrow lifted slightly in confusion. "What in the world are you trying to get at? We're right in the middle of a crisis here! Mrs. Genes…" She shouted under her breath. "…Is violating our rights." Matt interrupted. Jamie's eyes flew open in realization, on her tear stained face. "Matt, you're right!" Jamie whispered. "When Mrs. Gene gave you detention in class, that was freedom of speech! Article I. Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion and Petition of the Constitution of the United States Bill of rights!" "Yeah, and when Mrs. Gene was going through your bag, that was Article IV. Right to search and seizure regulated!" Matt said. "And just now when Mrs. Gene locked us in this cabinet, it was Article VIII. Excessive…." Jamie said trying to remember. "It was excessive bail and cruel punishment." He finished for her.
Jamie was quiet for a while, soaking in all of the information. "But what do we do? No one will know if we end up dying in here!" Jamie cried. "Well, we could try and picklock the doors, like in the movies. Do you have a hair pin or something we could use?" Matt asked. Jamie was quiet for a moment and reached up to touch her earrings. They were blue hearts hanging from a medal wire. "Would the medal ends of my earrings work?" Jamie asked Matt wishfully. "Yeah! That's perfect!" Matt exclaimed.
Jamie quickly slipped her beloved earrings out from her ears and placed them in Matt's hand. As he began to slip them into the medal hole in the door, Jamie willed it to work and not break. They were quiet for a couple minutes as Matt tried to unlock the door. Jamie held her break and closed her eyes, squeezing her hands together wishing with all her heart that her earrings would unlock the door. They concentrated on the tapping of the medal against medal, when all of a sudden a loud click filled the cabinet. "Jamie, thank god you got your ears pierced last year." Matt laughed. "What do you mean? Matt, did it…" Jamie stammered. "It worked!" Matt exclaimed.
Matt pushed the door open and hopped out onto the tile floor. He reached up and helped Jamie down. "We're actually alive!" Jamie laughed. "Yeah! All thanks to you!" Matt smiled surprising her with a bear hug. "Now we have to go get the Police." Matt said, ending the hug then grabbing her hand. "Okay, let's go." Jamie said bravely, squeezing his hand. Matt nodded and they turned and walked over to the door.
Outside it was dark, and the school grounds looked like a deserted rundown town. "We can do this." Jamie said taking in a deep breathe, as they headed out into the chilly night. Above them, outdoor lights washed over them like spotlights on a dark stage, making Jamie and Matt unable to see their audience. All they could hear was the rustling of the wind, their footsteps echoing around them and their hearts pounding. It felt like it took over an hour to walk through town and up the hill to the Police Department for them, but it really only took around 10 minutes but at last they reached it. Jamie and Matt glanced at each other and quickly ran to the door of the Police Department, slamming the door by accident in excitement.
The Policeman on duty was so surprise when the two kids ran in all covered with dirt that he nearly spilled his coffee all down his front. "What are you two kids doing out here at..." He said glancing down at his clock. "2:35 in the morning?" He asked with a questioning expression. He was a heavy man with a brown scraggily mustache under this large pink nose.
Jamie's knees gave way and she fell to the floor. "Please." She bagged; her hands flew into the air in a praying position. "You got to believe us! We're not lying or playing a prank, we need your help!" "Woo, woo! Calm yourself sweetie, now tell me what happened." said the Policeman. "Sir, I know this sounds crazy, but our substitute teacher, Mrs. Gene, locked us in a cabinet in our classroom intending to suffocate us in there. This isn't the only right she has violated, Sir." Matt explained. "She violated our freedom of speech, search and seizure, and cruel punishment as I just told you. We don't know where she is but she has to still be on Orcas, there isn't a ferryboat this early in the morning." "Good lad." The police officer said nodding. "I believe you. Just leave it up to us." He quickly picked up his walkie-talkie and shouted instruction in it. He turned to Jamie and Matt and smiled. "They'll find her, and then we'll lock her away, don't you worry!" He grinned.
An hour or two later a tiny voice interrupted the silence. "Sharif Andrew, we have arrested her, I repeat we have arrested the culprit!" It yelled from the walkie-talkie. Sharif Andrew quickly pulled the walkie-talkie out from his belt and replied sharply with a "Good work men", and turned to Jamie and Matt with a smile. "They got her kids! I'll call you parents down here right away to pick you kids up; I'm sure their terribly worried about you young folk!" He said and turned to his phone on his desk.
Around 20 minutes later two frantic mothers rushed through the doors of the Police Department, wrapping their arms around Jamie and Matt followed by their fathers. "Thank goodness you're alright!" Mrs. Franklin cried. "We were so worried! Thank god you two were together!" Mrs. Jefferson whispered. "Let's go home." Matt and Jamie said together. Everyone nodded and hand in hand, headed to their cars.
She had been dreaming a wonderful dream where she had become a flower, pink with large delicate peddles. She was surrounded by the different aromas of the other beautiful flowers, and way above her, were the huge trees protecting her. Gentle breezes blew by, lifting her heavy peddles slightly, and whispered lovely thinks to her. She had been in the mist of being tickled by a humming bird when a frightening dark gray storm covered the sun casting the bright meadow in darkness. Loud and intimidating crashes of thunder boomed, followed by yellow streaks of lightning which split the black sky in half. A fierce wind shot by her, stealing one of her peddles and loosening her roots from the soft ground. Lightning flashed, striking a tree above her, sending it in hot roaring flames. Another frightening strike of lightning shot through the sky hitting the flaming tree sending it falling down towards her.
Jamie had awoke just before the flaming tree fell atop her. She had jolted awake filled with the fear she had lost her life. Shaken, she had gotten out of her bed and slowly walked to her closet and tossed on a pair of jeans and a purple shirt. Calm now, she grabbed her backpack and headed to her middle school. The car ride to her school took only a moment and before she knew it she was seated in her class room with her classmates, her friend Matt seated beside her. "Good morning, Jamie." Matt whispered as class began. "Good morning" She said back.
Their teacher, Mrs. Genes began to write on the chalk board, her white chalk screeching as she wrote. She turned to them with a stern expression. "Take out a piece of paper and a writing device. We are having a Pop quiz." She barked. The whole class sighed. "Man, I hate pop quizzes. This sucks." Matt said to Jamie, she nodded. Mrs. Genes turned sharply away from her chalk board. "Matt Franklin! You have detention after school." She yelled.
Matt's eyes bugged out in shock and no words came out from him mouth in response. "No way….That's totally a violation of the Constitution of the United States Bill of Rights." He whispered to Jamie while Mrs. Gene wasn't looking. "Really? Which one was violated?" Jamie whispered back, their eyes following Mrs. Genes every move. " I think its Article I. Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion and Petition." He said. "That's no fair." Jamie nodded.
Class ended and the students filtered out and headed to the Cafeteria for lunch. "I'll be right back." Jamie told Matt as they headed to the Cafeteria. "I left my Lunch money in my bag." "I'll come with you. It's no fun waiting in line by yourself." Matt smiled. "Hopefully it's not locked." The classroom wasn't dark and locked like Jamie had thought. The room was filled with light, as if class was still going on. They peered through the window but the room appeared empty. Jamie opened the door and walked in followed by Matt. Before they had even stepped into the room Jamie gasped.
Mrs. Gene stood crouched over Jamie's bag, searching through her things. Matt's eyes grew wide. "Jamie, that's another right violated. Article IV. Right to search and seizure regulated." He whispered. Jamie turned to matt speechless. "What do we do?" Matt whispered.