FORBIDDEN

ONLY THE BEGINNING

ROSE POV:

"out of the night that covers me, black as a pit from pole to pole i thank whatever god may be" i recited the beginning of William Ernest Henley's poem "for my-", "good morning students" my principal said barging into the classroom, and interrupting my poem. the whole classroom rose, welcoming the principal in as usual . i put my notebook down onto my desk and rose along with the other students. "i hope i'm not interrupting anything" she said ironically. everyone took there seats as my bubbly teacher Ms.grisly rushed towards my principal. "oh no, no need to worry. we were just reciting our poems for the winter festival" Ms.grisly exclaimed. "about that...." the principal said looking over the classroom.

"there will be no high school winter festival" our principal announced. everyone gasped, even the quiet kids in the corner. murmurs and whispers weaved through the room. some people even proceeded to crowd around our principal . "quiet down everybody....all your questions will be answered in today's Assembly which will start in about 10 minutes, so don't be late" she said everyone sat back down in their seats. "good day everyone". silence fell through the room as she exited. everyone stared at each other. i mean..the only reason everyone was shocked was because we had a winter festival every year, ever since the school had been built. we never had a winter without the winter festival. even i was sad, even though i thought the poem thing was completely obnoxious.

10 minutes later

our class solemnly walked down the stairs in a perfect single file line. one student after another, we entered our huge assembly room, the staff directed us to our seats. the whole room shushed when our principal and vice principal walked up to the front of the stage. " good morning everyone..." my principal spoke into the microphone. "your vice principal Ms.MacArthur  and i are hear to address the issue concerning this years winter festival."she spoke once more before handing the microphone to Ms.MacArthur. " as you may know... " Ms.MacArthur paused. "the winter fest will not be celebrated this year" she continued "we know there is no right way to explain this... none of the staff including ourselves wanted to tell you this, so we brought in others that will hopefully help you gain an understanding of what is going on" everyone glanced at each other in confusion. including all the other staff the sophomores in the back row booed at the principal. suddenly two soldiers emerged from backstage and walked up beside Ms.MacArthur and our principal.their heavy footsteps rose glances between one another  the whole room rose with confusion, people were murmuring and chatting in each row. "settle down" one of the soldiers spoke. Ms.MacArthur and our principal walked off stage. the whole room grew silent one again. " my name is sergeant Murphy and this other soldier next too me is sergeant boulevard" he said pointing at the stiff soldier beside him. all eyes were only the soldiers, not a sound in the room interrupting them. "we are not going to sugarcoat this, last Saturday as some may know. the capital of opal was under attack by the government of CHRYSALIS. unfortunately  CHRYSALIS has called war on OPAL. long story short, all of our best soldiers are on a separate mission that's off the grid, were gonna need some volunteers. anyone 14 and up. of course the choice is optional" he cleared his throat at the end of his long and boring speech. and silently walked off the stage. the crowd still gave no response. the staff were murmuring, yet the students were not surprised.

Ms.grisly walked up to the front of our row. the whole class formed a straight line in front of her. we all walked up the stairs side by side with all the other classes. i listened closely to the complaining whispers from the other side of the stair well.the older students were not happy with this, especially since they get paid to organize a portion of the winter festival . as soon as we reached the front door of our classroom Ms.grisly dismisses us early along with all the other teachers. the whole school was going home early, even the staff.everyone ran to their locker as fast as they could. i ran up to my locker, twisting in the code and yanking my lock. i grabbed everything form the top shelf of my locker and stuffed it in my roomy bag. on the way to the exit their were staff handing out military volunteer pamphlets to every student, some students tried to avoid the teachers because they didn't want the pamphlet. but eventually the teacher would call the student over convincing them to take the pamphlet .  Mr.robin who's one of are substitute teachers,  handed me the pamphlet as if i didn't have a choice, i grabbed it rudely out of his hand to return the favor and stuffed it in the pocket of my blue uniform skirt.