Howdy there, kids! So, I got some nice messages and reviews thanking me for continuing this story, and I have to say, this story was a long time coming. It's only fair I continue it.
I will be updating daily (or every other day)
Enjoy!
Chapter 2
"Men, (Pronunciation: Meh-eN) are creatures that reside on the other side of The Wall, where they can do no more damage to our great race. They typically have a smaller brain capacity and take longer to mature; this is a problem that we are not faced with, thankfully. They [men] have the instinct to protect the territory of their own, before The End (see page 325) it was said that men had a higher status is society than we, which is one of the many reasons we no longer associate with them.
Before, both men and women had to associate together in order to reproduce, this is no longer a priority in the continuity of life. At the age of eighteen, one must go to The Care Center to become impregnated to have a daughter in the span of nine months.
Men have a high testosterone level in their systems, which make them instinct driven and unable to make intellectual decisions; they fight for dominance over the group. This goes for animals as well, in the animal kingdom, male dominance still reigns supreme (see page 269)."
Miss Newton finished the passage, with a pleasant smile on her face; we had been reading along with her in the textbook. This passage was awfully long, and I was grateful Miss Newton didn't feel chatty today. I sloppily wrote notes down in my notebook. Miss Newton was brutal when it came to notes, and she never repeated anything twice.
This was how school usually was, full of note-taking and listening. Alice would feign illness at least three times a month just to escape, and she was disturbingly talented at it.
"Would anyone like to read the next paragraph?" I attempted to shrink in my seat, for I dreaded being called upon. Alice raised her hand high up in the air, glowing. I knew she was just doing it because the school had notified Lucinda that her participation was low last week.
"Isabella." She said calmly, everyone gave me death glares for stealing the job; shooting daggers with their eyes.
"Me?" I asked stupidly, hoping she'd change her mind. I knew I was the only Isabella in the class.
"Yes." She answered smugly. I didn't like her when she did this. She purposely called on people who didn't want to be chosen. But it was nothing unusual. I sighed and let my eyes drop to the cursive text.
"The male anatomy is quite different from our own." I started, gulping from stage fright. "Their muscles are typically larger than our own on their arms and legs and sometimes chest; however, they cannot produce milk or give birth to infants." It felt awkward reading this sentence aloud, but I pushed through. "However, we need half of the chromosomes from the male for the female to become pregnant (see page 230) this is considered the only fatal flaw in our system."
"That was superb Isabella, nice job." She praised, and strutted away. I let out a shaky breath. The chiming of the soft bell rang through the room, indicating that class was over. We all stood up, bowed our heads, and curtsied, the practiced way we had to do for each and every teacher.
"Thank you Miss Newton." We all articulated mechanically, Alice and I exchanged a short glance and rolled our eyes.
"You're welcome girls." She dismissed us. I grabbed my bag and marched out of the room next to Alice.
Hollow Wood High School was immense. Sporting a high ceiling made of stained glass in the dining room. It curled up into a dome like room where the stained glass design started and ended, making the room appear larger. The tables were made of heavy, dark wood with intricate designs on the sides (overdone if you ask me). The floors were white tile, and glistened when the sun shone through the ceiling just right. And the worst part was, you were graded. You were graded on manners and knowledge of the many different kinds of silverware.
Hawks stood guard at each corner. I never understood why though. We nicknamed the Armed and Ready Officers' appropriately. They wore all black and a utility belt, filled with many unknown and frightening weapons.
The classrooms were all white and glowed from the fresh polishing they received every night. No decorations were in the classrooms, they were said to distract from the learning and development of a young woman. They contained about five tables in each room; about four girls could face the same way and watch the lesson at each. The tables were, of course, white and resplendent.
The corridors were covered with thick red carpet, and yet they felt the need for rugs. I found it odd, but then again, no one cared what I thought about anything (except for Alice). Windows dotted the walls in a random, yet orderly fashion. The windows were tall and clear, with red velvet curtains sheathing them at night.
A statue of the founder of our colony stood proudly in the courtyard. She was the main person that led the other women to prepare our society for a life without men. The statue was made of wrought iron. Her dress was elaborate, and it was adorned with things I never even knew could be on a dress. Then again, she was on the most powerful woman in this colony. Ours was said to be the best school of all four colonies, which is why Mother insisted I attend here.
I floated into Miss Garratt's classroom, lost in my own thoughts, taking my seat at table number one, seat number one.
Miss Garratt sat crumpled on her desk with her eyes staring at something she held in her hand, she held it so tenderly, as if it were her very life. I strained my neck, curiosity getting the better of me; I saw it was a small calendar.
Miss Garratt was a free-spirited woman (something I admired) and I found she was like me in many ways. If I didn't understand something, she knew the exact way to teach it so I understood it. Usually the other teachers, don't bother helping you period, let alone contemplate your learning patterns. "Sink or swim", was what they said.
I watched inquisitively as Miss Garratt stared forlornly at the calendar. I absently opened up my folder, writing something down from the board. The chime of the bell rang and all the other girls filed it, standing very erect. This was the one class I didn't have with Alice, but it was still my favorite classes.
Miss Garratt kept in her own little world.
"Good morning class." She said tiredly, completely out of character for her. She stood up, slumped, and dragged herself to the front of the class. It seemed as if she had aged a hundred years before my eyes, like she was just….tired. Not necessarily in the literal sense.
Something was obviously wrong with her, so I raised my hand. She saw my hand and sighed, putting her head into her hand.
"Yes Isabella?" Her voice came out like a frustrated whisper, as if she had expected such from me.
"Are you feeling alright, ma'am?" I asked carefully, judging from most others' faces, they were thinking precisely the same thing. I felt better having a team of supporters behind me.
"Yes." She answered curtly, indicating she was just the opposite. "Let's just…start with our lesson." Her eyes quite obviously avoided the calendar, after that and I saw why; my heart tugged in agony.
Today was her son's birthday; though it was labeled very carefully. You had to be very cautious when labeling things. However, she had let it slip a few times over the past year, leaving clues to what her calendar signified. He lived on the other side of The Wall (shockingly).
She must be in such pain, I reflected, feeling helpless. Though I couldn't understand it, I would never have a son. The hopeless look in her eyes made me want to shrink into myself. Her pained gaze only gave me a glimpse at what she was feeling.
She turned and started writing on the board with chalk; it was a sentence we had to edit for Warm Up. Everyone watched in confusion as she wrote a sentence that shattered any kind of illusion that today would be a normal day.
The Wall must die, was what was flaunting itself up on the board.
A silence fell over the room as she finished, turning to us. Something heavier than silence, for it was already quiet; a tension engulfed us all.
"You know what to do." She walked back to her desk, and plopped down in her chair her head falling into her hands.
I couldn't write the sentence, nobody could. We all just exchanged a bewildered glance to one another. Were we supposed to write this sentence? We couldn't write it, let alone edit it. We could all be sent to jail for writing a sentence like this. I understood her pain but she wasn't being rational.
I had the urge to jump up there and erase it—to save her hide. To save our hides.
"Miss Garratt—" A girl in the back asked timidly; Miss Garratt's head snapped up like the girl had just thrown a rock at her head.
"What?" She spat, her eyes blazing. The girl shrank into her seat, I gawked fearfully.
"Miss Garratt, look what you wrote!" The girl sitting next to me pointed to the board.
Miss Garratt did a double take at the board, her eyes widened in astonishment, as if she was really seeing what she wrote for the first time. She hastily picked up the eraser, and erased the incriminating phrase, a little harder than necessary.
"I'm sorry!" She apologized frantically, analyzing the board, to make sure no traces of the previous phrase still lingered.
Her eyes suddenly blazing with passion as she placed the eraser back down. She looked off into space, seeming to be deep in thought. Her eyes trailed to the date on the calendar.
There was an infinite silence before she spoke once more, and when she did, it seemed like she was really talking for the first time in a million years.
"I can't do this anymore, this is all wrong…" She muttered to herself quietly. After a long breath, she suddenly became animated in her speech. Her voice had held the essence of defeat, like the broken exhalation of a fighter, after the hardest battle of her life.
"Listen to me girls, men are not bad; this…this,"— she motioned to the building around us (or maybe it was broader than that)—"is fake, this whole system is fake. This fantasy that we are able to live on our own, without them is just that—a fantasy." She spoke louder and more boisterously. "This might work, now, but after awhile, this system will collapse in on itself, like a cottage without wooden beams to hold it together. It's going to fail, but by that time, things will be too different. A whole new generation of brainwashed kids like this will be born. No one will remember the glory of our former race."
Kids? What phrase was that? I contemplated the meaning, and concluded that it be some kind of slang for children.
She continued to explain, slowly and carefully to us tales of once upon a dream; at first I was guarded and careful with my exuberance and enthusiasm. But slowly, I let that down and openly grinned and sat on the edge of my seat. She moved her hands about her like she was telling the greatest story of all. But, I had deliberately ignored the fact that such a good thing, could not last.
"All, lies—!" The door burst open and slammed against the wall behind with a bang, and a swarm of at least five hawks charged in, taking Miss Garratt by the forearms, and dragging her. My heart raced in surprise and despair. Their threat of coldhearted authority kept me immobilized and silent in my seat, though I wished to help Miss Garratt…or sob. Sobbing sounded more plausible than any form of help.
I couldn't stand up to the Hawks. Nobody could.
"You can't hide this from them forever! They will know the truth!" She screamed, being taken from the room. I watched as the only person who seemed to be on the same page as I was taken away to a horrible fate.
A blanket of complete silence covered us all, we didn't even look at each other, and I stared at where Miss Garratt stood not only a minute ago. The air was heavy, electricity coursed through the stagnant air, the tension rising. I felt my hands begin to shake furiously, my gaze traveled down to watch them have their own seizure; I could do nothing to stop the shivering, and I did not attempt to.
And right then and there, for the first time, I felt my heart really shatter.
I wanted to cry. I really did— I wanted to wail, to sob, to express my loss. But I stayed frozen in my seat. The tears stayed locked up in some place in my mind, behind a door to which I didn't have the key to.
Before we had a chance to even register what happened, an unfamiliar woman suddenly came in the door with a happy smile plastered on her face, seeming to not notice the tension at all. She turned us, her eyes glassy and empty.
"Good morning students," the stranger turned to the board. "I am Miss Merryweather; today we will be working on complex, and compound sentences." She began to write sentences on the board, ones that had to do with rainbows and happiness. It took me a few minutes to get my arm moving again.
Miss Garratt was going to jail; the thought of it almost made me break down. I wished to be alone, to drown myself in sorrow. I treasured that speech so much, it was the truth. I felt it in my soul. Now this…Miss Merryweather came in and acted like nothing had occurred at all. I dearly wished to turn back time, back to that speech, back to when things finally made sense to me.
I could only stare and try to figure out our new teacher. My heart rose to my throat, I prayed she wouldn't call on me for anything, because I wouldn't have been able to speak. She seemed like she wasn't even alive. Programmed. Fake. A small squeak escaped from me as I remembered the word.
I felt my hand rise as a reaction to my thoughts, going against my previous one.
"Yes Isabella?" She asked warmly. I sat momentarily flabbergasted, unable to speak, my brain tried to work through it. She knew my name. How? How could she possibly know my name?
"Um…what happened to Miss Garratt?" Ignoring the disturbing thought; speaking felt wrong, it felt eerie talking in such a laid back tone, when we had a stranger harboring our classroom, I got wide eyed looks from my classmates. Her perfectly composed façade didn't falter a bit.
"They are going to help Miss Garratt, she'll be alright soon, she will be moving to the Icy Rose colony." She concluded with an absent look in her clear, shallow eyes. I nodded vaguely, not really absorbing what she had said, I knew it was a lie.
I had to believe she would be fine, she had to be. With her swiftly being taken away like that, I'd never felt more alone in the world. Throughout my time with her, I'd gathered enough about her to know she didn't quit and wasn't easily broken. The hideous image of what lay in the future for the closest thing to a role model, brought me closer to the tears I so badly wanted to let out.
Going through the rest of the day as a lifeless ghost wasn't a challenge; however, trying to do it with Alice on my case was… well, I might as well have tried to sprout wings and fly to the moon.
"I heard about Miss Garratt, what happened?" Alice asked, excitedly. Rumors spread faster than wildfires in this school. She leapt in front of me, halting my advance, grabbing hold on the top of my shoulders, leaning forward to listen.
We stood, solitary in her mothers' shop, the strain thick in the air as she waited for a wonderful tale to just jump out of my mouth.
As I worked past the block of pain and denial in my mind, I began to form the words to describe the events that went on today. I scanned for anyone who would be watching, though knowing we were alone.
"She snapped," I whispered into her small ear. "She started rambling about how men aren't bad and the school is lying."Her eyes grew wide and horrible realization changed her face entirely. The fun loving, hyper active best friend I knew turned into someone I didn't know. She then opened her mouth to speak, but I wouldn't let her. "And the worst part is…" I looked around once more. "I loved it." I whimpered pathetically.
I loved it, but it was illegal. I felt like the only one who agreed with my teacher.
And, to my deep shock, Alice only proved me right.
Her gasp echoed through the store, her eyes held sudden antipathy and disbelief, taking an involuntary step back, sending the knife of betrayal twisting up my insides. Her eyebrows knit together, grabbing hold of my wrists, boring into my eyes.
"Bella, I love you, you know that, but you can't talk like that. I agree," She only said that to make me feel better. "But it's about survival. I bet Miss Garratt is in jail right now, who knows what she's going through?" The dire truth of her words sent a surge of pure heat through my bones.
"I know." I said softly, trying to work through this wall she put up between us. "But I can't help it, it invigorated me, I felt so many things I never felt before, had so many thoughts. I'm telling you I see a lot clearer now." I beamed to space, reliving Miss Garratt's speech, and the way she spoke as if she were breathing for the first time. That was certainly what I felt.
"And that's great." Alice bartered worriedly, her eyes harboring an inferno so bright, that the seriousness she had silenced me. "But getting yourself thrown in jail won't do you any good, if anything you'll come off looking insane." She lowered her voice so only I could hear, although there was nobody else around. I forced my eyes away from her penetrating gaze, down to the wood paneled floor.
As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. I could do nothing to get myself heard, well at least, nothing beneficial. I despised the reality of her words. In a way, I reminded myself of the Crazies that sat on the corner, the ones I'd listened to dogmatically. I was just like them.
That's who I was in her eyes; I was just a Crazy to her. The idea brought on incriminating tears pouring over my lids, and I shook my head, trying to deny it. I wasn't crazy. I didn't deserve to be lowered to such a level.
"And what if you were in my place? Would you listen to me?" I challenged, knowing she wouldn't listen to me if it's something she desperately wanted. I had to prove it to her.
"That's different." She murmured with a pleading gaze.
"How?" I pushed. She stared up at me, staring right at me, with the expression of someone in agony.
"Do you think I can tell my secrets to any of these other girls, to my mother? Do you think I would be able to tell them anything? Do you think they care about me?" She pushed, the emotion leaking into her voice started to scare me.
I threw my hands up. "So? What does that have to with anything?" I shouted, growing more furious and confused by the second. Thankfully Lucinda was with my mother were at their knitting club.
Her face grew red and her teeth clenched, her grip on my wrists tightened possessively, "If I get put away, that's bad." Tears formed in her eyes, "But if you get put away…" Her voice shook and didn't continue.
For the first time in our lives, she revealed her weakness. All this time I thought she had no weakness, nothing could get to her; I never would have guessed that I was her weakness. It seemed so impossible.
All our lives, Alice was always the invincible one, the go getter, the poster child for confidence and self assurance. This was unnerving. I was overwhelmed with flatter, but also with sorrow. Although she was trying to keep me safe, she was stifling me at the same time.
Her begging eyes made guilt washed over me like a crashing wave, dragging me under.
"Oh Alice… I…" I didn't know what to say, I was thunderstruck. Even so, she shushed me.
"Just promise me you won't speak of this again, maybe in a day or two you'll be back to normal." Her voice broke, as she raised the back of her hand to wipe the stray tear.
"But please," I took a significant step closer and pulled her close, I stared into her eyes, trying to transfer my thoughts straight into them. "Alice…I'm not crazy. I'm okay." I muttered, my strength crumbling as my desperation grew. I saw the impact of my words on her, they seemed to weather her a thousand years.
"Please." She begged; her broken and helpless expression made my heart break even more.
"I promise." I breathed, though in the back of my mind, behind a door I was struggling to keep from bursting open, I knew it was a promise that I could never keep.
Yes? No? Maybe so?
