Since, A Novel

vi. ALL THINGS NO THROATS, UNDESERVING

vi.
ALL THINGS NO THROATS,
UNDESERVING

October 2018. Children, aged thirteen and less than seventeen, were all gathered up and seated in the vast Hall of St. Cecilia, a lecture room found in Saint Evangeline Academy, or SEA, the school where Yūn had attended to during her junior years. Students—curious, probing, interested—attend to the lock-horns of plans and ideas exchanged by the upper-grade, often raising their hands, attempting to participate, and most of the time getting paid no heed to, having frayed amongst themselves: new booths? Opening of new clubs? Less boring proceedings? More worthy sweepstakes? What were the goals?

     On the other hand, the bored, impatient, and bothered pupils used their mobile phones in low brightness, or romped and bickered with one another. The inner circle were more absorbed by the plans and  implementation rather than the heedless. Their voices, schoolmasters', sophists', and upper-grades', were loud and pronounced, more mature. But it couldn't reach enough attention, and it was as if the students there were sat for nothing. After every half-an-hour discussion were a minute- or two- worth of opinions, some by the lower, and most by the upper-grade.

     It was one of those Catholic schools where every student had cussed, had drawn on the bathroom mirrors using their momma's lipstick, had dared each other to disrespect the janny in exchange of a dollar, that is, if you happened to be not too broke but not too rich. Each girls were required to tie their manes in a ponytail, high or low, because having long hair meant enticement to boys. And the boys must cut their hair every month of a certain look, because having a bangs meant soul impurity. No long nails, no hunchback posture, no fiction books in each bags, and always smile. Always smile most especially after coming out from the counselor's office because you are expected to be grateful for the guidance and words they freely give.

     Kate Roman, one of the students, never laid foot again in the school after coming out from the counselor's office. The very first person she expected to yield eyes that understood, Ms. Han, had told her she was, in all chance, confused, and it is a common phase for a teenager to experience or share intimacy with the same sex. After all, "affection comes off naturally as feminine, and one should not be mistaken of that affection to be, well, amorous". Kate Roman is also the only friend of Yūn's to ever share familiar feelings.

Yūn should check up on her; she wonders about her absence.

11:31 PM

Yūn
kat
are u coming or no ?
meeting has started hslf an hour aho
ago*

     On the last, last row of vacant seats there rustles Yūn in the cold. The temperature was lower on the upper-side deck of seats as no one really sat there but her. Cold. The discussion of plans regarded the school's annual two-week intramural, the clashing persists, eating the minutes. The upper-grade argues the scooping out of talents from the students, as they had considered their flicker, their passion, all combined, to gauge eyes, and, maybe, more would stay in the school and more would hand out more certificates of loyalty. The educators refuse to budge, say students with intellect are most surmised, most regarded, most looked up to. And that the conference would last only about fifteen minutes if they (the students) had just come to an agreement. Who ran the school, after all?

          "And who stays in this school?"
          "Excuse me?" Schoolmaster Hilbert snaps.
          "Excuse you, Schoolmaster, freely. Because with all due respect, I am in this school, staying, and I regard it highly until n-now," Samantha Baroque, SHS-12, rank 1, remarks. Her voice shakes, but she lets her gutter belief persists.   
          "I've been here for over a decade—twelve years, precisely, from kindergarten to this, because it meant a lot for my grandmother, a former teacher in this school, to have me here.