Control

Beginning

[In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.]

I woke up to the sound of my alarm piercing through my "beauty" sleep, and groaned when I realized that slapping it several times wouldn't make it stop. So I got up and decided that today would be a good day to show up in school, although I don't really have a choice in that, now do I?

Time to wake my brain up, so I got my earbuds out and went to out BTS on, except it wasn't there. I searched BTS and nothing popped up. I went to Google and looked it up and.....it doesn't exist.

Weird. It's a weird day. But I still need to get ready for school. I wasn't fully aware anyway.

I soon hopped into my stepdad's truck and we set off on the way to school. As we approached the carpool line, there was a strange sight. More than a dozen black SUVs were parked in the parking lot. It wasn't like there was police or anything. Just our security guard.

Nevertheless, I didn't say anything and just got out of the car and made my way towards the cafeteria. As I walked in there, another strange sight.

Several Asian men were eating breakfast in the cafeteria. There were a bunch of (I'm assuming) Chinese people, and then over to the side there were seven other men. I think they were Korean. All of them wore black suits, and the Korean men had some wild looking hair. One of them was pink, the other was electric blue, another was a bluish silverish color. Two of them were brown-headed, and the other two had black hair. They just sat there talking and eating biscuits.

I went to get myself a biscuit and turned around to look at the Korean men, and one of them, the one with the ebony hair, was staring at me. I completely froze. He had this stupid smirk on his face that I just wanted to slap him.

The others noticed his stare and promptly turned around to look at me. I started sweating and shaking really badly. I don't know what it was, but they freaked me out. I had this sinister feeling that rung all the way to my bones.

The one with the really blue hair turned to the ebony man and said something in Korean. Suddenly, a shaft of light shot through my soul - and I realized something horrifying.

Those seven Korean men - are BTS.

I scurried as fast as I could away from there, and once I got to the hall, I ran to class. I looked behind me for a split second - and tumbled into Jordan. Just completely ran into him, knocked the both of us over, and sent my breakfast flying.

As I got up to shake the dust off of me - while apologizing profusely - I expected him to yell at me, but instead he was semi calm and offered his hand to help me up. I took it and he pulled me up, even handed my breakfast to me, and gave half a smile. I think he was really tired; he had bags under his eyes.

"Hi," he said in an almost raspy voice.

"Hi," I muttered back.

"You're Alice, right?"

"Yeahh, I'm sorry."

He put on a more convincing smile. "It looks like you fell pretty hard there. Why don't I walk you to class just to make sure you're okay?"

Usually I'd decline because that's weird, but currently I was running from a fake Korean boy band and the random Chinese men that gave nothing more than a foreboding feeling, so I accepted.

As soon as I walked into the classroom, though, I scrambled to my desk and Catherine looked at me with that judgy look she gives.

"What's wrong, Alice?" she sighed.

"Nothing," I muttered quickly.

She sighed again. "Something's wrong."

But when I opened my mouth to speak, the intercom announced, "All students report to the auditorium. I repeat: all students go to the auditorium." That was a strange voice. I wonder if it was one of the Chinese men.

I stood up and plodded down the hallway towards the auditorium wondering what the heck is going on and what obstacle I had to face today.

When I got closer to the auditorium, the Chinese men made us get in a single file line and directed us to specific seats. Luckily, but not for me, I was seated the very front while those Korean men were on the stage.

As I sat down, they saw me and stared at me. Jimin gave me this.....weird look. Like he was an agile hunter and I was a white-tailed deer. I love Jimin, but this isn't the Jimin I know. He was different and scary. I shrank in my seat a little bit, and by a little bit I mean a lot.

Then a few of the Chinese men clapped their hands and the lights turned off except for the ones on the stage. All of them walked on the stage with the Bangtan Boys in the middle.

One Chinese man walked to the front center of the stage with a microphone and said, "Listen up, pupils!"

When they didn't because people at my school are all obnoxious and loud, the man suddenly yelled, "SHUT IT, STUDENTS!"

Finally, all the noise subsided and he began saying, "Now, listen up! I am Mr. Lee, the head of the Children's Union in China and the seven men you see directly behind me are representatives of the Korean Educational Program.

"China and South Korea are both in a deficit of high school students. The precious few we have left are making less-than-perfect grades that will not be tolerated. That is why we have come to the United States to examine American kids and the American education system. Mr. Kim will tell you more about it."

Mr. Lee then hands the microphone to Namjoon and he says, "Hello, I am Kim Namjoon, head of the Korean Educational Program. Don't worry about all these new people entering your school. I assure you, we have just come to measure the learning rate of American students and examine how you are taught, so we can establish proper education patterns in our home countries.

"The several Chinese men you see here will set up an area in the west side of the school in which you will not be allowed to enter. The seven Korean men, including me, will be assigned to a random classroom in order to monitor students and teachers. All sports and other activities will continue as normal. Any questions?"

James Bowen raises his hand.

"Yes?"

"Which way is west?" In which he's more yelling than genuinely asking a question.

Mrs. Samantha rolls up a magazine and smacks him on the back of the head. Mr. Lee looks back at the other men. Then they send us back to class.

Apparently, tomorrow is when they'll show up in the classrooms. I honestly don't know what to think.