Y/N AND HAILEE walk defiantly towards the school, holding hands. Nearby, a few students are playing Feel So Close by Calvin Harris on their Bluetooth speaker, ironically painting a picture of how the couple strolling by are feeling.
I feel so close to you right now, it's a force field I wear my heart upon my sleeve, like a big deal Your love pours down on me, surrounds me like a waterfall And there's no stopping us right now I feel so close to you right now
Laura is standing with Matthew and Casey when she notices them. The two boys direct their attention to Y/N and Hailee, and Matthew gives Y/N a bitter, pissed-off look as the two lovebirds walk past them.
Krystal and Andres walk on over to the other three. Krystal looks back at the couple and gives a shocked and almost jealous look. Well...not almost. Matthew shakes his head as he looks ahead, gritting his teeth as he does.
The seventeen-year-old boy is in his history class. He is standing in front of the class by the whiteboard as the projector displays his PowerPoint presentation. He holds his tablet and continues to speak.
"Fighting on Iwo Jima lasted 36 days, but it took the Marines only five days to reach the top of the eight-square-mile island's highest point, Mount Suribachi. The fighting was brutal. Japan had a year to reinforce the island with tunnels carved into the mountainside, hidden artillery positions, and a network of reinforced bunkers."
The boy goes to the next slide. He glances at the text he had on there but immediately brings his eyes to the rest of the class.
"Allied bombing and naval barrages could do nothing to soften the island's defenses for the attacking Marines. When they landed, they were facing the full force of its Japanese defenders, who were willing to fight to the death for every inch of volcanic rock. So when the Marines topped Suribachi and planted the first flag on February 23, 1945, it was a massive boon to the Marines fighting below and the sailors offshore. The ships blew their horns when they saw the flag. Gunfire and cheers erupted from the sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen fighting below."
Y/N goes to the next slide.
"The reaction was otherworldly. It was so amazing and moral-boosting that Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Chandler Johnson ordered a new, larger flag to be raised over the battlefield. The 96×56-inch flag would be one that could be seen across the island."
The boy goes to the next slide and shows the famous picture of the second flag raising.
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"Rosenthal sent the photo to be processed on Guam, where it was quickly sent out to The Associated Press in New York. Within 17 hours of the flag raising, the photo was on the newswires and on the desk of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Rosenthal's photograph won a Pulitzer Prize for photography in 1945 and became a symbol of the enduring spirit of United States Marines. In 1951, a former petty officer and sculptor named Felix de Weldon was commissioned to design a national memorial for the Marine Corps to be built in the Washington, D.C., area. He chose a sculpture of the image of the Marines on Mount Suribachi. It took three years to build the 78-foot-tall United States Marine Corps War Memorial, which was dedicated in 1954."
