𝓡𝓸𝔂𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓢𝓱𝓮𝓵𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓭 (𝓡𝓸𝔂𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓢𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼 𝓑𝓸𝓸𝓴 𝓞𝓷𝓮)

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓻𝓽𝔂-𝓔𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽

Today is the first group meeting we're gonna be having about this whole protest thing. I would be lying if I said I was just excited. I was far beyond that.

I'm a little scared though, which is probably why I'm sitting cross-legged in this circle in between Ninny and Arty, shaking uncontrollably. My hands are knotted in my lap while my face is burning.

I don't know if we all correlated this, but we're all dressed in some variation of black sitting in the same position. There's this strange sense of uncomfortable seriousness among the atmosphere. It's churning the insides of my stomach upside down.

Fanny looks around at the group and sits up straighter, "I guess we should get started."

I nod and sit up. The night after we all had that huge discussion, I kind of spent the rest of the night trying to figure how this enter thing would go. From what I gathered from the other day, it seemed like last time we all just spit out our ideas, and some of us (Walter) were downright rude. 

Therefore, we probably need some rules before we actually start this.

I take a deep breath and look around, "I- well, maybe before we s-start this, we should have some rules," I pause. That sounds bad saying that out loud, "Not l-like concrete rules, b-but like a g-guideline."

Sophie crosses her arms against her chest, "I agree, otherwise one person here will just attack us the entire time."

Walter rolls his eyes and flares his nostrils, "It's not my fault you women have terrible ideas."

Ninny stares at him and shakes his head, "Why don't you save that cruelty for these corrupt people, and stop going after them."

Walter nods but crosses his arms.

At least that's settled with.

Ninny turns to me, "So Cat, your rules are?"

I shake my head and let out a nervous laugh, "M-maybe rules wasn't the best w-word to use, but uh maybe we should agree to t-treat each other f-fairly."

Everyone nods and Jessie smiles, "Yes, we need to all be nice to each other above everything else, and be interested in what everyone has to say!" She exclaims, her voice severely high-pitched.

Sophie shivers a little and stares at her, "We're all next to you, you don't need to scream."

Jessie's smile falters and Fanny rolls her eyes, "Anyway, I think we should also be fair with our ideas. Since this is a group protest, we need to be united with our ideas."

I nod, "W-we need to all a-agree on everything we p-protest for."

Everyone nods and Jessie goes on, "Yeah like we can have some sort of vote on everything."

A vote? That's actually a pretty good idea.

I smile at her, "Yeah, a vote would be fair. W-whichever idea gets the most v-votes is the one we s-stand for."

Everyone nods, and I relax my arms a little bit. Okay, this isn't too bad right now. We're actually agreeing on stuff.

Arty lets out a breath, "I hope you all are aware that you cannot speak of any of this beyond this room. We would all be executed for treason."

I didn't even think of it. I guess I was just so enthralled by the idea of making some sort of plan for this issue that I didn't really think of any negative ramifications that could possibly happen.

I slowly nod and Alice goes on, "We need someone to be in charge of our ideas. Like keep them in a notebook."

Fanny nods and takes out a gray notebook from behind her, "This is one of my spare drawing notebooks. We can use this."

She hands me the notebook, and I take it quickly. Fanny's remaining hand lands on Jessie's next to her on the floor.

If we're gonna be keeping a notebook, someone has to be in charge of writing in it. Because if we're all shooting ideas at each other, someone has to be the one to jot them all down.

"O-okay," I start, "D-does anyone want to volunteer to write in t-this? We need someone to be in charge of t-taking notes."

Sophie looks around, "Who here has the best handwriting?"

We look between each other, and shrug. My handwriting is decent on a good day, and I plan on being someone who actually tries to create ideas.

Ninny raises his eyebrows and sighs, "How about, who is the one who plans on being more silent during these discussions?"

Everyone's eyes fall on Alice and she turns a bit red, "Okay sure, I'll do the writing," I hand her the notebook and she awkwardly smiles, "I'll keep this hidden in my dresser so no one can find it."

Okay, that's a good start. This is turning out to not be the worst thing in the world. 

Walter scoffs, "Can we get to something interesting now please? I'm getting bored."

Jessie awkwardly laughs, "Well actually, I think we need to let our ideas marinate a little longer before we bring them up to the group. Like, we should take a week to really think about what we wanna protest about."

"I agree," Arty replies, "If we were to just barge in somewhere with incompleted ideas, we would appear foolish."

I nod to both of their claims and sigh. They're right, this kind of did come out of nowhere, and we need to really figure out what the main talking points are. 

Walter scoffs from beside Ninny, "How long is this really gonna take? I don't have an entire lifetime for this."

Everyone collectively rolls their eyes as Fanny goes on, "This most likely would take years right?"

Arty tilts his head, "I would assume at least a year. It is a lot to get together."

Walter just slaps his hands on his legs and sighs, "Whatever, is that all for tonight?"

Jessie sighs, "Walter please, just stop. Anyway, since this is gonna take a long time, do we need to do anything specific?"

This brings me back to something I've thought of before I even brought this up to them. If this is gonna be going on for a long time, we all have to get into this Academy next year in order to know everything and be prepared. That means we all have to do amazing in courses.

"W-well," I start, "I-if this is gonna take a l-long time, we need to come back to this A-Academy next year. We n-need to do really well in courses."

Everyone nods and Jessie smiles, "That shouldn't be too difficult," she looks around at us, "If any of you need help, I can try to help you." She smiles at everyone.

That's very kind of her to do so. 

This entire thing is kind of interrupting my plans of never returning here again, but oh well. They're more important things at stake here than my personal happiness. 

I need to be perfect in courses. I need to get the best grades, and be on top of everything. I need to get back into this thing next year. 

In order to fully get in here with a prize of riches, I'd need to come in first place.

Can I really do that? Do I really have it in me to come in first place out of sixty people here? 

I just need to get a hold of myself. I need to actually try in courses. I need to study, and study quickly. I need to get all of my coursework done perfectly. Especially if I need to think of all these plans, I need to be quick. 

I also need to get a hold of my own issues and "outbursts" in order for all of this to actually succeed. I can't let this entire thing go to waste because of my own issues.

Besides, if I end up getting over all of my issues and score in the top spot, I'd finally make Mother proud of me. She'd probably actually treat me nicely, and show me some sort of kindness. I'd actually exceed her expectations, and prove to her that I'm not entirely a failure.

And prove to myself as well.