Creative Writing
"Sorry," William said sincerely when Margot got out of the closet. He was extremely regretful about what he did.
"N-no you're n-not!" Margot cried, then collapsed in a heap on the ground, sobbing.
"What, in Heaven's name, is going on here?" the teacher, Mrs. Richardson asked. She had come into the hall to make sure that the kids wouldn't get in any trouble. Too late for that, though, she thought. "Well?" she asked again.
Everyone was quiet. The only sound was Margot sobbing and the steady drumming of the rain.
Then Margot spoke up. "T-they locked me in the cl-closet."
Mrs. Richardson's eyes widened. She hadn't expected it to be that bad. "Okay, Margot, come with me. The rest of you, well, I will have to call your parents and the local authorities. Hope that you won't have to go to. . . Them.
"It's that serious?" someone asked as Mrs. Richardson led Margot out of the hall and into the classroom.
"Thanks a lot, William!" someone else exclaimed.
"Kids, you shouldn't just blame William, though he is blame-worthy. You need to learn to take responsibility for your own actions." Mrs. Richardson sternly threw over her shoulder as she opened the door to help Margot inside.
"Margot? I'm going to call your parents to come and pick you up. Is that all right?" Mrs. Richardson asked once they got inside the class.
Margot nodded, and Mrs. Richardson got the school directory and dialed her number.
"Hello? This is Margot's teacher, Alison Richardson. Can you come pick her up? Yes. I hope so. The kids locked her in a closet while the sun was out. Yes, I understand. 15 minutes? Okay. Yes, she'll stay with me. Thank you. Good bye." Mrs. Richardson hung up and turned to Margot. "Your mother is coming to pick you up in 15 minutes."
"Okay," Margot sniffled.
"Do you want a glass of water?" Margot's teacher asked her.
"Yes, please," Margot answered.
Mrs. Richardson walked over to her desk, grabbed a cup, and walked over to the water fountain to fill it. She handed the cup to Margot.
"While we are waiting for your mom, I need you to tell me what happened, okay, Margot?" Mrs. Richardson asked gently.
"Well, I was telling them about what the sun was like, and then they called me a liar, and then William said that the scientists were wrong, and he told everyone to put me in the closet before you came, and then they grabbed me and took me to the closet, and locked me in." Margot rambled. "And it isn't fair! I didn't get to see the sun!"
Mrs. Richardson berated herself. She should have done a head count before everyone left to go outside. This entire fiasco could have been avoided if she had just done a head count. She was also appalled. She had never thought that her students would ever do that to another student, especially if they were just jealous.
Just then, Margot's mother walked in.
"Oh, hello," Mrs. Richardson said. "Well, Margot. You can go home now. Actually, can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked Margot's mother.
"Of course," she said, perplexed.
Mrs. Richardson led Margot's mother to a corner of the room.
Margot strained her ears to hear, but she couldn't catch the entire conversation, thanks to the steady roaring of the rain. All Margot heard was:
"Homesick… I'm… recommended for the… they might have to... Them…"
The last part interested Margot the most. What on Earth - or Venus, actually, are they talking about? She thought.
Margot shifted in her seat, trying to hear better.
"I can't believe… just because… jealous… though, in the… stories… killed… brother… unintentional… forgot? Probably… Ask?"
Old stories? Oh yeah… Those… Margot thought.
Margot's mother and Mrs. Richardson walked over to her.
"Margot? Do you want to go home now?" her mother asked.
"Yes, please," Margot answered.
Margot got up, and her mother and Mrs. Richardson walked her to the door.
"When are you going to tell them?" Margot's mother asked Mrs. Richardson.
"I know it'll be soon, and after I call the parents, but I don't know exactly when."
They both looked worriedly at Margot. Her face was even paler than usual, and her hands trembled ever so slightly. Her face fell in lanky strands around her face, and there were red blotches on her cheeks, which were red from crying, with tear marks running down them.
"Come on, Margot, let's go." Her mother said.
They walked to the automated transport vehicle that pulled up outside of Margot's school.
"What did Mrs. Richardson say, Mom?" Margot asked.
"About the punishments that your classmates will face," her mother replied, looking at Margot carefully.
"Oh," Margot replied, not really wanting to know; they had whatever it was coming to them. However, Margot was curious about what her mom and teacher talked about, but she didn't push it.
The rest of the ride was silent, and Margot stared out the window, thinking of the sun she had missed. She started crying again, silently. Her mother just pulled her close and hugged her. She knew how much seeing the sun meant to Margot.
When they got home, Margot's mother made her hot chocolate and told her to get some rest, and she was going to call her father and tell him what happened.
In the evening, just when Margot's father got home, the phone rang. He picked it up with a puzzled expression, because no one called their house, and he hadn't made any friends at work. Then, figuring that it was about his daughter and what had transpired at school, he gave it to his wife.
"Hello?" she asked, sending him a questioning look.
He shrugged.
"Oh, hello." Covering the mouthpiece, she said, "It's Margot's teacher." Then she went back to the conversation. "Yes. Alright. Thank you. Good bye." She went to Margot's room and softly opened the yellow door. "Margot?" she asked.
"Yes?" Margot turned from where she was sitting.
"You won't be going to school for about a month. It has to do with your classmates… punishment." She said carefully, trying to gauge her daughter's reaction, but Margot showed no emotion.
"Okay," Margot said simply.
~*~*~*One Month Later*~*~*~
"Hi, Margot," her teacher greeted her.
"Hi, Margot," the class echoed.
"Hello," Margot replied, beyond surprised. The class usually never talked to her, and when they did, they usually teased her or were cruel to her.
She walked over to her seat and took out her things.
The day went by normally, except for the fact that everyone was actually being nice to her for a change. That was weird.
Margot wondered about it, and asked her teacher where the kids had gone for the month, figuring that it had to do with the punishment for what they had done. She felt a pang of sorrow just thinking about it. But her teacher didn't know where the kids had gone or what the punishment for the month had been, just that they had to go to the local authorities and Them. she was about to ask what – or who, 'Them' was, but she was interrupted by one of the other kids in her class, who needed help with his work.
Margot desperately hoped she could go back to Earth soon.
The bell rang, and Margot jumped. She had to go to Exercise Period.
While her neighbor was changing, she noticed a bead with a number on it embedded in her shoulders. She looked around, and noticed it on other peoples' shoulders too. The teacher called for everyone to line up in numerical order, and Margot resolved to ask someone about it.
After Exercise Period was over, Margot asked a girl in her class about the bead in her shoulder.
"N-nothing," the girl said quickly, and hurried away, leaving a mystified Margot behind.
Then Margot went up to another girl in her class and asked her the same question.
"We had to go to a rehabilitation center," she replied simply.
"What!?" Margot asked, astonished.
The girl merely nodded.
"What happened to you guys over there, and why do you need to wear beads in your shoulders, and why do they have numbers on them?" Margot asked in one breath.
"You definitely don't want to know what happened to us there. Trust me. Oh, and the beads track us, so we don't get in any more trouble, and the numbers are our… inmate numbers, to put it simply."
"Thanks for telling me," Margot said.
"No problem," the girl replied, and walked away.
When Margot got home that day, her parents hugged her (her father had gotten off early).
"Good news! We're going back to Earth in a few weeks!"
Margot smiled. Everything was going to be alright.