Separate

Chapter 4 - Rules and Etiquette

One day during first session, Miss Delilah didn't seem to be in the best of moods. She was teaching us about the prophecy for the fifth time that year, something that I knew like the back of my hand. She didn't seem to care much for it this time. Eventually she stopped cold in her tracks. She began to breathe heavily, then paced to the far end of the room to turn off the screen that contained her presentation. She stood silent for a moment against the dark screen as the dim lights slowly brightened up the room back to normal. She let out a deep sigh and continued her presentation by memory, or at least I thought it was.

"Boys and girls, what you are about to hear is something you cannot tell your family, your friends, or anyone else." She announced. Her hands were shaking, and the remote she was holding eventually fell to the floor, shattering on impact, causing a few kids to jump in their seats.

"The Earth will never be habitable again. We will never go back. There's no magical, sudden event that occurs one day that will make everything paradise again. They're lying to you!" She screamed, breathing heavier than before. Everyone remained completely still in their seats. No one dared to talk or even look the other direction. All eyes were fixed on her and what she was saying. She paused again, then looked directly at me.

"He's lying to you." She stammered, looking down at me with eyes full of pity. "I hope you'll see that one day."

Miss Delilah dismissed the class early, something that had never happened before. I turned to look back at her before I left the room. She looked at me with a look that both resembled fear and hope at the same time. I didn't know what it meant, but that was the last time I ever saw her face.

* * *

The following day during first session, we were reassigned to a class called "Rules and Etiquette" with a lady named Miss Alco. This time it was a Firsts only class, so all the other kids were reassigned to another class. At first, I thought they were still attending Miss Delilah's history class until I read the Euphoria District's administration board listing all the staff. To my dismay, Miss Delilah's name was replaced with someone named Miss Taft for the history category.

I learned to miss Miss Delilah's history class after a few minutes of attending the new class I was assigned to. It was even more disgusting than my fifth session class "Bonding and You" which I nearly fell asleep in every day.

This class was beyond anything I was ever taught by my father. The first thing Miss Alco did was draw the five symbols of our class system, the Firsts being at the top and the largest, and the Fifths at the bottom being the smallest. She pointed to the top and explained again our importance to society and how we must fulfill our destiny. I tuned out whatever else she said because I really couldn't care less. What did catch my eye however was the symbol marked on her own hand: one dot.

Normally, our teachers come from the Thirds group. All the teachers I'd ever known were from the Euphoria District, where the school was located. All of them were Thirds, but she wasn't. I didn't understand this, but as the sessions went on during the following months, I began to understand why.

Miss Alco only cared about the Firsts, and that was all she talked about. When it came time to learn the rules about interaction between other classes, she was straight and to the point: there was none.

"I don't care if they're even Seconds, we do not tolerate any behavior or interactions with these groups. We do not share the same ideology as these groups, and you are to not share anything with them." She lectured with a voice more proper than my father. It wasn't long after that all my classes were reassigned to Firsts only classes taught purely by First counselors. Even the second session and lunch were rearranged in such a way that I no longer even saw the Seconds in the same room at the same time. Everyday I saw the same fifteen kids, and I had to sit with the same three friends I was assigned to since I started school. I no longer had the ability to even watch the others play their running games when the auditorium was restricted to sitting circles only.