No Smart Kids Allowed

Chapter 5: The Atonement

The next morning, I walk outside five minutes before the bus comes. I decide that I would go back to school and get myself expelled. That would be easier than skipping school every day. Sure my mother will get mad, but I don't care. I don't want to waste another day in that place.

The bus comes and I happily take my spot on the bus. Only, no one is laughing, playing, or even talking. They're sitting with their hands firmly on their laps. The bus driver looks at me from his mirror. "Hands on your lap, miss," he says.

I smile at him. "No," I say. "I do whatever I want," I say.

He looks at me for a few seconds then shuts the doors. Everyone on the school bus faces me at the same time. In that very moment, I'm afraid. The bus then moves and as it's going the kids turn away. That was awkward. I began feeling a little freaked out by that. Things only got worse when I got to school.

I skip breakfast and head straight to homeroom when the bell rings. No one says a word when they enter the classroom. Each kid sets an apple on the teacher's desk until her desk is full of them. She thanks each student and watches them take their seat. As they sit, each student has this blank expression on their face as if their hypnotized by something.

The teacher walks in front of the class and smiles at all of us. "Good morning class," she says in a soft voice. "Today I'm going to tell a story. It's called, The Boy Who Cried Wolf." She begins telling the story herself. "A shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a village, brought out the villagers three or four times by crying out, "Wolf! Wolf!" and when his neighbors came to help him, he laughed at them for their pains. The villagers, being the smart educated human beings, took his hand and brought him to the butcher."

I shift in my seat and pay full attention to the wrong version of the story being told by the teacher. She continues. "The villagers announced that the whole village should attend the shepherd boy's punishment for lying. Everyone living in the village crowded the butcher man as he held the boy in his hand. The butcher man forced him to the ground, tied his hands and feet, held out his tongue and grated his tongue to shreds. After that, the boy never lied again."

The class claps and the teacher smiles. "Wonderful story, isn't it?" she says. "I love the technique the villagers use in this story to stop this liar. No one in this village would never lie again." She then points to a kid that sits behind me. "Rodger, remember that time you lied to Mr. Spinks?" she asks.

I turn around and face him. "Yes," he says, however, it sounds like more like he said, "Yeth" and I can see why. He doesn't have a tongue at all.

"And you will never lie again, right Rodger?" she asks him.

"I wheel nava lie again," he says. His words aren't clear as he speaks but I can understand him.

"Cosima," the teacher calls out, making me jump in my seat. "What did you learn from this lesson?"

I look her in the eyes. "Not to lie," I say, now afraid. I want to say something else, state my real opinion but I am now terrified of this place. Getting myself expelled wasn't an option at all anymore. I need to get out of this place. I sat next to a boy who had his tongue grated by one of the teachers. If that's not enough to scare me, I don't know what is.

The teacher and class talk about lying and how important it is to be responsible young adults. I sit there until the bell rings. When it does the teacher tells everyone not to move. She lowers her head to the ground and makes a sad face. "At lunch time make sure you all meet in the gym. There's an atonement for Dexter."

The class smiles and gives each other high fives. "Finally!" someone yells. "He never follows our rules."

The teacher nods. "We all know the punishment for not following school rules right? There is a limit, and he crossed them," she says.

The kids nod their heads, then at the same time, they slide a finger across their necks. My eyes grow wide and I can only stand there in disbelief. The students begin exiting the classroom, talking with excitement about the atonement for Dexter. I slowly follow behind the class, nearly shivering from fear.

***

The gym is full of kids sitting on benches. In the middle of the gym stands three teachers, all of them holding hands. The kids are cheering and yelling for the teachers to bring out Dexter.

The lights dim around us and I can hear crying coming from inside the gym locker room. Two male teachers kick the locker room door open, then throws Dexter onto the ground. Both of them roughly grab him again and brings him forth into the middle of the gym with the three teachers.

My breath is caught in my mouth and I can hardly breathe as I watch the teachers open a box. The two males firmly hold Dexter in place. One of the teachers in the middle takes a long sharpened knife out of the box and raises it in the air for everyone to see. This makes the kids cheer harder. Their screams are too loud for my ears to handle, making me press my hands against them.

The teacher places the knife next to Dexter's neck. "Disrespectful, know it all, rebellious young child. Today you will pay for your mistakes and today everyone here will learn from them!" he yells.

"Please don't," Dexter pleads. "My sister is watching."

"Off with his head!" a little girl yells, making Dexter cry more. I figure that it is his own sister.

The teacher gives her a thumbs up then proceeds with the knife. Before my eyes, the teacher slices a part of Dexter's neck, then hands the knife to the next teacher.

The next teacher repeats the other teacher's words. "Disrespectful, know it all, rebellious young child. Today you will pay for your mistakes and today everyone here will learn from them!" he says, then slides the knife across the same spot making Dexter's head limp to the right. Poor Dexter's head is practically off but Dexter is still alive. I saw his eyes, wide with fear, knowing his life would end in a few seconds.

They hand the knife to the final teacher. "Disrespectful, know it all, rebellious young child. Today you will pay for your mistakes and today everyone here will learn from them!" she says, then breaks the rest of the skin that kept Dexter's neck together. I watch in complete horror as Dexter's head falls onto the floor. Blood stains his severed head and his eyes remain open even though he is dead. Dead as can be.