Spiritual Wounds

Chapter 3: Silent, beautiful, and spirited, I will go

"Miss Porlet is requested at the school office, please go there immediately. Thank you."

The English teacher: Well, looks like you're lucky, saved by the bell of the school office. Off you go, Miss, don't keep them waiting.

12:45 PM: An empty corridor to cross. Thirty steps or so to descend to reach the first floor. Turning. A window slightly open on the side. Winter breeze. View of the city through the window. Gray and heavy sky, similar to the color that heralds the night.

I wonder what they want from me. The last time I found myself at the school office was to ban me from accessing the computers in the library. They caught me playing cards online instead of doing research. The time before that was for smoking in the toilets. Come on, that was in my first year... I don't smoke anymore. Last month, I was there for letting a "damn" slip in class... Pfff Prohibitions: what's the point? They make us feel guilty when we've done something they don't like. Smoking at school: forbidden except in the courtyard! Playing on the computer: forbidden in the library! Sending a text in class: forbidden! Writing on the table: forbidden! Wearing different clothes: forbidden! Swearing: forbidden! And the prohibitions are not just in the school rules, they're everywhere! No entry, no left or right turn, no smoking in public places, no dogs in certain parks, no parking, no swimming, movies restricted to under 18s, etc., etc.... We create everything, and they forbid us more than half of it... Rules, punishments, prohibitions, it's human power: they control us while pretending to protect us.

The forbidden fruits from life's vast garden,
Bring forth the truths that often harden.
Limits spark our curiosities' plea,
No use in chasing forbidden desires, let them be.

12.50PM : Ding Ding

"Miss Porlet is requested at the school office, please go there immediately. Thank you."

What's their problem? I'm coming! There are still 2 floors to go down, that's 2 flights of 30 stairs, and then I have to cross 3 buildings to get to the school office. Kudos to the architects, by the way: to avoid crowding the corridors, they had a brilliant idea when they rebuilt this high school. There's one direction to follow for the 1st floor, and another for the 2nd floor. The fire doors that separate each corridor only open in one direction. So basically, if you don't follow the correct direction, you can't open the door; and if you get lost, you might end up walking around the building to find your classroom or going up/down a floor and then down/up a floor since there's no way to turn back. Seriously, as if we had nothing better to do than walk around forever...

The high school has a sort of traffic code; they call it the pedestrian code for students. When I was in first year, it was even worse; their maps of the school were impossible to understand, there was no logic. Now that I'm a senior, it's better. Except that the English class is in building A on the second floor, so I have to walk to the nearest stairwell, go down the stairs, follow the direction for the 1st floor to find the stairs that take me to the ground floor (which makes me cross the same building twice: once on the second floor, once on the first, ugh), and finally, I have to cross the small building D and part of C to get to the administrative offices. Ridiculous, and their system doesn't even work; there are always too many people in the corridors. A sophomore got trampled last month. I bet they built the building this way to force us to exercise. The high school was rebuilt less than 10 years ago, and I'm sure they looked at the statistics and thought, okay, let's force the students to walk more so they lose weight! What a bunch of... total idiots.

Second crossing of building A. Second stairwell reached. Grab the railing. Sprint down the stairs to get to the school office before their third call.

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