Battle Royale X

Chapter 3- Daily Life of a highschooler

Our lives are just like any other high school student's lives. Nathan (Boy No.7) thought to himself on the bus. He loved to get lost in his own thoughts and was often referred to as a space cadet for it, both his teachers and peers noted this. If you'd ask the students of East Alvera Union High School they'd probably say they lived rather "ordinary lives". It was one of the biggest high schools in Alvera, located in the Camilo District. Altogether there were about 6 Schools in Alvera, 3 middle schools and 3 High Schools respectively.  It was time for East Alvera Union's dedicated 9th Grade Class 3B Annual end-of-the-year school trip. The trip is conducted at the end of every school year and every student is eligible to go. This year the students were told they would be going to an amusement park, most of which in recent years had been closed down. Nathan continued to reflect on his and his classmates' daily life.

We go to school, hang out, participate in various activities, and spend time with our families. We're pretty much like everyone else, except for a few things. We get released from school whenever we want to, we're allowed to "make the county beautiful" by any means we want, oh and we pretty much have no restrictions. In other words, our everyday lives were filled with excitement and chaos. Of course, everyone has their own lives, I say we, but I don't really care about "rebelling" or whatever act my friends justify it as.

For the typical teenagers here in the small town of Alvera who had "recently" (in terms of history) had become a part of the Greater United States, that's simply how it was. The geographic proportions of Alvera as a whole could be best compared to Cuba. It is a small English-speaking state that is just off the coast of the United States. It was never officially considered a part of it, but around 20 years or so that's what the elders and adults who were around told the kids, it had been taken over, and after a limited war, it was officially made a part of the Greater United States. It was a peaceful county, with a few minor acts of spike crimes here and there, however over the past couple of weeks things have been.. "escalating", cops have started arresting and even using extreme acts of violence as a way to control the teens who are getting out of hand. Similar incidents also began occurring with teens who were misbehaving and acting out in schools and who started receiving "harsher" punishments via suspension, expulsion, beatings, or serving flexible amounts at a juvenile detention center.

Overseas, from what people were hearing they were major issues from the scares of multiple economic shutdowns, unemployment spikes, and trouble controlling the youths. It hadn't gotten that bad granted but multiple instances showed this was the way our country was headed, which I can assume scared many. Unlike other regions, Alvera specifically encouraged migration and the arrival of immigrants from different places. That sounds pretty ok in theory, right? Well no, that was merely a ploy to lure in people of various ethical backgrounds to get them to join the workforce. This is not only done to make the county look more diverse but to also help shield it from potential economic distress. The people aren't properly compensated for the amount of hours they put in (according to my dad) and are often exhausted. Alvera isn't totally terrible, but the bar and standards it's set for itself have lowered drastically in the coming years.

Recently, the government even released a national warning about how they'd be controlling, (oops) I meant "regulating" internet activity and monitoring people's devices more. At least they're honest about it, but another thought for concern were the military troops that began appearing all over neighboring towns and areas for some reason.  Regardless of what that's supposed to mean, either way, it seemed this country was making major changes to the way things were.

For the better or worse, it seemed the youths' unlimited freedom was coming to an end. If not an end, it would certainly be more contained and restricted than ever before. Nathan noticed if others, not just his classmates, but in general realized the change, no matter who noticed it, there would be nothing they could do anyways. {Is absolute freedom worth it? If all freedom does is make the rest of society hate us then does it matter? Doesn't having what some consider "true" freedom actually make you powerless?}

Nathan had many questions but wasn't sure if there would ever be any true answers for them, the world as he knew it simply was, and that was okay to most, but for him he wanted answers, he just didn't know if he would ever truly get them.