REBELLIOUS

Chapter 5: Social Experiment

Everyone had their own ideas for how they would make Willow Creek a better place to live. Almost everybody made their decision based off of the classes that they took in high school. Amelia had horticulture, Bentley had photography and graphic design, Kade had medical science, and Joseph had chemical and electrical engineering. Bradon needed to think of some way that he was going to participate in the cleanup of this town. The best that he could think of would revolve around his high school classes, which were computing and engineering classes. This would be his foundation of what he would be able to give this city.
Bradon had spent a few hours at the computer station everyday for the past few days, researching things that he could build. Then he finally found something. His idea was for something that could help the people of the town. He wanted to build something that had such a simple job that the machines purpose would make people's lives easier. After all the time he had spent looking at different companies and websites that are working on certain technologies, he finally came across something on an add that had popped up in the lower half of the screen.
"Bentley!" Bradon called out to the house. There was no reply. Bradon groaned, getting up and searching the house for someone to look over his ideas. But after exploring the house, he discovered that everyone else was still sleeping in this morning. That must be what he gets for waking up at 3:00 in the morning out of excitement to start this project. He returned to the computer, beginning the design process of his idea. He needed to brainstorm functions of the device. What would it need to do? Bradon pulled out a pen from the drawers and a blank piece of paper from the printer, and he began writing. Navigation system. Storage space. Security and safety.
These few ideas launched more. How would the device move around the community? Would everyone own their own or would it be a public device? Bradon pulled up multiple apps and designing platforms to give the device a physical design. What only felt like a short amount of time launched into several hours. Bradon continued to design the device, tinker with its actions, adjust the new device to fit it's requirements, and repeat. Software would be its most complicated function.

When did life go from being so simple to be so complicated? Before, the biggest issue would be what you would pack for lunch. Did you have the best flavor Capri-sun? That Cosmic Brownie from Lil' Debbie? But now life was so much more than those small issues. Danny was sitting in the back of his Math class. Only one more week and he could graduate. Four years of this school and he had spent most of it preparing for life outside of it. But just for the fun of it, he had watched and judged the people in his class change and grow. Some learned that there would soon be life outside of high school, and quickly jumped onto the idea of preparing for that life outside. Others weren't so lucky, and they based everything they did around popularity, how likable they were, and what everybody thought of them. Now here they were. Not in this class. That's right. They had cared so much about their reputation that they let their grades drop. They cared more about what their friends thought of them that they didn't care what the colleges thought, and so they chose social life over this AP math class. Danny had worked so hard to earn his place in this class. You start from learning simple addition and subtraction, work into those advanced years of elementary with memorizing multiplication and doing long division. Then there's middle school, learning all of those graphs and functions and variables. Then you get to high school, and everything works its way up to college, getting harder and harder. But what was it all for? To earn the highest paying job? Math was an important skill, but the only thing it was learned for was to show people who will give you the most money that you can do the hardest work. That's what was posted on the bulletin board at least. Danny looked over at that laminated chart that showed the jobs in the ring from most schooling and the salary to the least schooling and the lowest. School prepared you for money. It prepared you for a single function. Danny heard most schools weren't like this. They gave certain skills for certain areas of life. There was a class in Newcrest that Danny had heard about and had been interested in back in his Freshman year. 'Wealth Management'. They taught you about how to pay taxes and sign certain forms. W4s and W9s. Teaching the information that most would expect to see in the everyday world.
Danny pulled out his new phone and started texting Bentley. You up yet? Danny had written. There were the three bubbles, and then there was a reply.
I am now. Lol.
What are you gonna do today?
Sleep in. Do nothing. What about you?
Just at school. Don't know how much longer I can put up with this.
Mr. Jordan walked up to Danny, who didn't take notice of his presence. Danny continued to text Bentley as his teacher stood over him. "Danny." Mr. Jordan said. Danny looked up.
"No phones in class."
Danny looked up at the clock. "Class hasn't started yet." Danny said.
"Are you talking back to me?" Jordan cried.
"I'm just talking to somebody until class starts."
"Put it away or it will be mine."
Danny put the phone in his pocket, and the teacher left. Danny looked up at the clock. 6:59. Could he do this 5 more times until he graduated? Having to come to this class 5 more times and he could get that high school diploma and move on with his life. Danny thought about the classes that he had taken. The last four years of sitting through classes. 16 classes a year. For 4 years. Danny stopped. Danny thought about the Oregon requirements to graduate. Then about the number of classes he had taken. The LA credits. The Math. Plenty of Science and electives. If he were to drop out of high school at this moment, and not complete the work for the rest of the finals. His grades would drastically drop, but he might not hit below 60% in his classes. But it wasn't just grades, it was absences. Danny had never missed a day of school other than this last week. But he could find a way around the rules for the maximum number of absences in a school year. Right? Whether or not it affected his life at this point, it didn't matter. What was the point of living up to something that could be so meaningless? If he were to graduate from high school and were hit by a bus the next day, what would be the difference between having a diploma and not?
Danny got up from his seat, and through his backpack around his shoulder. As he headed for the door, he heard his teacher call out to him. "Where do you think you're going? Class is just starting!" Jordan had yelled. Danny turned around. "I'm out of this, bitch." Danny said. With that he was gone. Danny left the building and marched out to his car.