Benriesan Socialis

10

    "Tell me what you have reflected or you will not pass GEP." Mr Fan began with one of his favorite phrases, that being, "... or you will not pass GEP." It was really annoying, really, but Mr Fan was in a position of authority. Had Mr Fan ever failed anyone before? Eleanor wondered to herself, rather worried. Vera, still showing close to no remorse, thought "This is complete shit, why would Mr Fan actually do that, my reflections have nothing to do with the GEP." Yep, her moral compass had gone haywire.
    "It is my-" Henrietta started to say but was quickly cut off by Rebecca. "See!? They even admit all this drama is their fault!"
    "Let them... speak." Mr Fan instructed quietly. "They must justify their actions without interruption."
    "It's my fault," Henrietta continued carefully. "Last year, I formed this group and when we began to play pranks, we began to lie to the teachers." Netanya inhaled sharply. She needed Henrietta to say something. Just as she was about to whisper under her breath, hoping that Hen would hear her, Hen said, "I regret lying to teachers about our pranks but I do not regret what I have done in order to reveal the truth about Lynn and the... ah, words written on the teacher's table."
        "So I should punish you!" Mr Fan exclaimed, one of the rare times his voice had any emotion.
     "Hell no!" Eleanor shouted.
    "Eh?" Mr Fan  said, " I do not allow swearing in my office."
    "Sorry, Mr Fan. I am going to claim responsibility for this whole mess." Ely tried to say, as politely as possible.
      "I am going to claim the responsibility." Netanya said, emphasizing each word.
      Our rather screwed friend Vera here had just found a loophole to what Mr Fan had told them to do. "I have reflected that I still have a complete body after looking in Ms Goo's mirror." Mr Fan shot her a dirty look.
      Mr Fan thought for a few moments before staring in confusion. "Regardless, all of you shall be punished, Lynn excluded."
    "WHY?"
"Lynn has enough punishment and we will be clearing this incident up on the PA system later. Rebecca, Faith and Caila will get the same things that Lynn received originally. Kai-Xuan will be lectured lightly for the use of cameras and handphones in the classroom. The rest of you have 5 minutes to explain or you will be stripped of any rank that you currently have and your 'master plan' revealed to the principal."
"What now?" Ann hissed to Henrietta. The Socialis usually turned to their founder for solutions.
"What to say, Isabel?" Henrietta asked Isabel desperately.
"Why me!?"
"Just answer the damn question."
"Time's ticking," Mr Fan prompted casually.
"We've already told you, we find our actions completely necessary and are willing to pay any price for them. We feel no remorse for doing what we did. Punish us in any way you see fit but we stand by our actions and what we did to reveal the truth. We knew that a sacrifice had to be made when the truth was brought into the light but we continued with our actions as we knew that they were for the greater good. Is one of our school values not integrity? These girls have not shown any integrity or responsibility for their actions? Everything we have told you today is the absolute truth. We don't care that we are going to get punished." Someone said, Mr Fan wasn't exactly sure who because he was busy messaging some other parent as someone said that.
"Even though this is not related to our current events, yes, we did lose track of our moral compassess earlier this year and last year..." Someone else, maybe Ely, added in a more formal tone than any of them would usually use. To be fair, the girls did have a point.
"Continue," he prompted, not bothering to look up. Rule breakers were rule breakers, nothing changes that, he thought to himself.
"So as I said, punish us however you like, because we understand that what we did was wrong"
"The point is, punish us." the first someone said, trying to be as respectful as she could.
Mr Fan finally looked up at them. Everyone stared at him expectantly, waiting for his decision.
"Fine. So you understand that you have broken the rules. And I have decided on your punishments. This incident will go into your report books." All of them exchanged the same looks. It would not look pretty when they tried for DSA next year.
"Also, you will all write a reflection at least 2 pages long and hand it in to me within a week. Henrietta, you will stay back during recess for the rest of the week as you have been the mastermind of all this. Vera, you will do the same as her. However, this is because you have talked back to me and used numerous vulgarities within the school compound. You also have to write 'I will not talk inappropriately in school' 250 times." Vera tried hard not to roll her eyes. (Nope, said compass still going wild. It's probably the magnet.)
"No, don't give each other that look. You two will be in separate rooms and will be unable to plan any more pranks."
"Is that all?" Kaitlyn asked timidly.
"Yes, that is all. You are dismissed."
"Back to square one. Commence plan #14: Revenge." Someone whispered once they were out of Mr Fan's office.
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Vera's POV
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I do not feel guilty.
I do not feel guilty.
I do not feel guilty.
Fine. I feel guilty.
At first, I had gone along with this whole plot, thinking that avenging Lynn would be the right thing to do. And it was. But the methods we had used to do so were just plain wrong. Why had I spouted such nonsense in front of Mr Fan? I could have sabotaged the whole Socialis.