Control

Change

I had several things to do today.

First, I went to Mrs. Samantha's room for break. Seokjin was there, albeit a little beat up. He had a black eye and what looked to be a broken nose. He plopped in his chair as soon as he saw me. I slowly trudged up to him and sat down in front of him.

I looked down at my feet so I didn't have to make eye contact with him and muttered, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry for taking your glasses. I'm sorry for disrespecting you and your brothers. I'm sorry for causing a fight. I'm sorry for making your life worse, not better. I accept that you might not want to see me ever again, but please forgive me."

He rose from his chair and I expected him to leave the room, but he bent down and put his arms around me. I leaned into him and he whispered, "I forgive you."

And that's all he said.

Fifth period came around and Jimin started the exact same crap he's always been doing. Staring at me as I was walking by, sitting right next to me for no reason, leaning over my chair to make sure I was actually doing my work. I could feel his hot breath on my neck, and it made me feel violated.

When we finally got to the cafeteria to grab lunch, Seokjin was standing there in line. I tapped on his shoulder, and he turned around and smiled at me.

I offered a small wave and he said, "Would you like to eat lunch with me?"

"I would, but I don't think Jimin will let me."

Jin winked at me and said, "I'll talk to him."

After I got my food, I sat down at the teacher's table with Jin and my class went back to the classroom. It was just us in there.

He broke the silence by saying something that almost made me choke on my spaghetti, "I'm not mad at you whatsoever. Namjoon told me everything."

"Oh," is all I said.

"It wasn't your fault. Yoongi should not have done that, and I should not have let my anger get the best of me. We were both in the wrong."

I nodded. "Thanks."

"And I also heard," he giggled, "that you caused a scene in the restricted area."

I scoffed, "I didn't do anything. Taehyung and Jungkook pinned me down on the table!" I quickly cleared my throat and corrected myself, "I mean - Mr. Kim and Mr. J-"

"It's fine," he interrupted, "None of us really care. But you shouldn't have run out of the room and gone where you weren't supposed to go."

"It's not my fault I was kidnapped and put in a dark room." I smiled brightly as Jin's windshield wiper laugh came out.

The rest of lunch went by in cheerful conversation and I went back to class with a smile on my face. I think we're alright, and I also think I have a new friend now.

The next thing I had to do today: I stared Mrs. Brooks in the face as she gaped at me in pure shock. I told her everything. I told her how I got in trouble. I told her how the fight transpired. I told her every detail about the restricted area. She couldn't believe it.

But she did say this, "Listen, so this is what I heard," dropping down to a whisper, "All this talk about 'educational unions and programs' is absolutely a lie. What happened, now this is what I heard, is that the 'one kid' rule in China went too far and they ran out of kids. So they're going to kidnap some of ours and ship them off to China."

I gasped. "Of course!" My eyebrows lifted up into my forehead, "Mrs. Brooks, where is Mr. Min Yoongi?"

She looked around the room cautiously. "I don't know. He didn't show up this morning. I'm telling you, if they start trying to control us, I'm not just going to let them walk all over me, you hear me?"

"Yes, ma'am," I replied in agreement.

The very next day, first period was insufferable as usual (because Geometry is the epitome of suffering), until Namjoon walked in out of the blue and dumped a huge stack of papers on Mrs. Heather's desk.

Jungkook looked up in surprise and Namjoon simply said, "This is the new curriculum. It's called Average Center."

[A/N: In case you haven't picked it up yet: Average=Common; Center=Core. It's Common Core.]

Jeon Jungkook passed out the papers to the whole class, and even he realized that this isn't Geometry. Mrs. Heather plucked a piece of paper from his hand and began to read. The further down she got the more her face contorted in confusion.

"Mr. Jeon," she spoke, "This isn't Geometry; this is Advanced Trigonometry."

She started towards the door before Jungkook latched onto her forearm and cautioned her, "It's only temporary. Just start teaching."

"I am not qualified to teach Advanced Trigonometry," she said, trying to rip her arm out of his grasp, but he was too strong.

"If you cannot teach the subject," he spat, "Then you shouldn't be a teacher." He pushed her away from the door.

It was clear to the entire congregation that her blood was boiling, but she started teaching. Nobody understood, not ever her, but by the host of heaven she taught what was on those pages. To this day, I still commend her.

I thought that was insane, until I entered third period Mrs. Samantha's class, and the it seemed like a breeze.

Namjoon dumped the same stack of papers onto Mrs. Samantha's desk and promptly walked out. Seokjin was confused as well, so he went to Mrs. Gray's room to sort it out. Unfortunately, he walked right back and told Mrs. Samantha just to teach it anyway.

Apparently, it was part of Average Center [i.e. Common Core] to learn Traditional Chinese instead of English. Freaking Chinese.

I was mind boggled, and Jin sat in front of me and whispered, "Don't worry; I'll help you with it."

And he did. Even though I felt like the dumbest person on the planet because I couldn't understand, much less write, any of the letters AND we were expected to write a five-page essay by Friday. He was very patient with me, and I had the idea that he had nothing to do with this.

Fourth period Algebra turned into Differential Calculus. Namjoon taught us because supposedly he's a genius. Mrs. Gray tried to fight him over it, but nobody overrules Namjoon.

Fifth period, not only did I have to deal with creepy Jimin, Anatomy and Physiology turned into Astrophysics. No.

Sixth period World History turned into Chinese History. They were completely indoctrinating us, because all our lesson talked about is how great China is and how the only reason China ever does bad things is for 'the good of the people.'

Seventh period Debate stayed the same, but when Yoongi comes back that's all going to change.

A word for the wise, everything is about to change.