The WRA Draft

Chapter One: The Challenge

(the following Monday)

The warning bell rang loudly, signaling that we had two minutes left to get to class.

I closed my locker and walked into sixth period. I looked around for my group of friends. Out of the seventy-some kids in my grade, it was difficult to tell them all apart. We were a grade of dark clothing. We always wore dark colors, which was ironic seeing how our school colors were blue and yellow.

The "Gray Room," as we called it, buzzed with voices as students spoke about today's event. It was the event that scared everyone:

Challenge Day.

With Frank Shower as our new President(who is a douchebag, mind you), new changes came around. Shower added a new law to the schools of the United States. A law that requires students to enter into a raffle. This was the end of his two terms, thank God, so it would hopefully come to end after this.

Anyways, you don't win anything in this raffle. Here's the watered-down version of The Challenge:

Each grade of every school in the United States is put into a raffle once. If your class is picked, you are given a challenge. Challenges can range from seniors learning their ABC's to kindergartener's creating their own type of government. Overall, it's the stupidest piece of shit in the history of pieces of shit. See? It's enough to cuss it out.

The catch? You have to do it better than the government or you lose your education. There are no exceptions. Eighth graders don't become freshmen, juniors don't become seniors, seniors don't even graduate. You end right then and there so you work on your challenge. The harder tasks have been won by the students before, but it was still rare. I read this old book that my mom gave me titled, The Hunger Games. It made me laugh how similar it was to day's society.

Today was the raffle and every school was at risk. As much as students complain about school, they don't want to lose their education. I can see it in all of them.

Eliza and the other seniors had gone off to their annual senior trip to New York City so if they were picked, I couldn't be there, which hurt. Eliza cared more about her education than she did me. I know her. Joel won't be able to handle it and I was the same. When I was little, I would bite my hands. I would it hard enough to draw blood sometimes. My family would have to hold my hands when I'm scared. Thankfully, I had grown braver and wasn't scared so easily, but there were still times when I was urged to starting chewing on my finger.

"Olivia!" a voice called. I found Taylor, my best friend of eight years(nine this June), waving me over. I sat down next to her in one of the foldable chairs.

"Hey," I greeted. Toby, my best friend of five years, joined us.

"There you guys are," he said. "I had been looking around trying to find you."

"We're the most brightly colored dressed people in this room," I pointed out.

He gestures to my dark blue sweatshirt and Casey's light gray jacket. "And yet you still wear dark clothes."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Whatever. At least I look good."

He gave me a doubtful look. "If you say so."

I rolled my eyes and faced forward, hearing the math teacher, Mrs. Lancaster, speaking. "Alright, quiet down. The raffle is about to begin."

The protector showed on the screen a podium with three bowls behind it. Somewhere in that second bowl was our school. The thought of that made my scowl.

Shower appeared on the screen. He gave the crowd and camera a smile that I despised. Then he began to speak,

"Good afternoon, America!" he greeted excitedly. The students groaned around me. A few laughed.