The Boarding School

The Program

Thomas Ponde

There were a dozen boys total, including the ones from Thomas' dorm. No one spoke when they were loaded into the bus. No one spoke on the six hour drive. No one spoke when they were yelled off again. Thomas was the only one who dared let his eyes wonder as they stood in four lines, three with three boys and one with four. He was careful not to get caught. There were five guards. They marched up and down the lines, each with black batons in their hands. Their faces were different than the juvenile guards. These men looked more dangerous; a fact Thomas could hardly believe. Before juvenile camp, Thomas didn't think anyone looked more frightening than the guards at the juvenile jail in Charlotte. Before now, he didn't think anyone looked more intimidating than the guards at the juvenile camp. Now, he realized that there were probably hundreds of more levels of intimidating he still hadn't seen, and that terrified him, as just the side glare from any of these guards made him want to shrink into the ground. 

"Welcome to J.A.P.," Vaughn stood in front of the lines with a self-righteous smile. He was very pleased with himself, Thomas could tell that much. "You will notice the batons in the guards hands." They were held out. "You should know that they will not hesitate to use them - " at that moment, one of the guards struck a boy from another line with a loud thwack! that turned their stomachs. The boy groaned and the guard shouted at him to remain in attention. "You should also know," Vaughn continued after the disruption quieted, "You have no rights here. No one will miss you. And I have absolute, government given sovereignty over all of you. You may proceed." 

The guards marched the young men into dormitories where they were each assigned a bed. There were two dozen beds in the room, all except twelve were taken spread across the room. After dumping their bags on the bed, they were marched out to the yard and given shovels. "Dig!" they were told. With discreet glances at each other, they did as they were told. As the hours passed, the hole they dug got deeper and deeper, but no one told them stop. The sun was high in the sky at this point and they were all soaking with sweat, but glares from the guards kept them digging. So far no one had been beaten and none of them wanted to be the first.

Around mid-afternoon they were sent inside for a meal of dried vegetables and potatoes. "Fifteen minutes!" the guards shouted. One of the young men caught the eye of another guard, who got up in his face. The juvenile was so uncomfortable and startled, he fell, spilling his food all over the guard. Furiously, the guard yelled at everyone to get out of the cafeteria. The newer boys hesitated, not thinking he was serious. They hadn't had a chance to shove more than one mouthful into their mouths. The older camp members immediately stood and got in line, so the newer boys hurried to follow, realizing that they were in fact serious. They now understood why the older boys had rushed to eat as much as they could the moment they sat down.

For the remainder of the fifteen minutes, the guards ordered them to do push-ups. Thomas collapsed after only five minutes. The guards shouted and screamed at him and he managed to put in a few more, but he was not strong enough to keep up. Burney, Ansel, and two others also failed to keep up. The guards scowled at them, but did nothing. Thomas sighed in relief. After the fifteen minutes were up, they were given shovels again and told to dig.

At the end of the day, they were hungry, dehydrated, and stood in a huge hole with no idea of it's purpose. "Line up!" the head guard, whose name tag said 'Tomb', shouted, "Attention!" They obeyed. "Burney, Ponde, Lasky," a guard said to Tomb. Tomb nodded.

"Burney! Ponde! Lasky!" the guard shouted. The three boys looked at each other. The guard shouted the names again. One of the boys next to Thomas shoved him out of line. "Ponde?" the guard demanded. Thomas nodded. He noticed the name on the man's uniform was 'Noyes'. The man brought his baton down on the young man's shoulder. Thomas winced. Burney and Ansel stepped forward now, afraid of what would happen if they didn't. Another guard came and addressed the other two who failed.