The Concealed

I slumped into class with despair. I slowly sunk down into my chair. Before the teacher had come in, I started to hear everyone murmuring about something.

“It’s happening!” Isaac whispered, he defeated the whole purpose of whispering because he could be heard from miles away.

“It is?” Kylie asked, surprised. I started to worry. Was I supposed to know about this?

“The ‘thing’ is happening?” Raymond asked.

“What thing?” I asked back, everyone ignored me. For a second I thought it was just because I was too quiet. I was known to be the new quiet kid and no one would talk to me. Maybe people were thinking I’m planning an attack? People can get way too stereotypical nowadays.

I looked around, everyone was whispering about it, some looked shocked, some even concerned. Am I not supposed to know? It can’t be a surprise because they never specified a day.

“What thing?” I repeated, a little louder. The people that heard looked at me, worried, then they just went back to gossiping. I couldn’t handle my thundering heartbeat. It was too much. 

“I still can’t believe it’s happening.” Isaac said, like he didn’t know I was there. The anger inside me built up.

“I know, it makes me uneasy.” Jennifer continued. My anger was off the scales, I could strangle someone right now.

“You guys know that old saying? You must not fear, the end is nowhere near? It’s now You must fear, as the end is near.” Josiah said. So now I know it must be a bad thing. Or perhaps, a bad thing about me. Everything inside me was boiling. Everything was negative.

“Guys, it’s happening, we just need to accept it because there’s nothing we can do about it.” Jessica said, trying to be helpful. Though that helpfulness sure was forced because that’s when I let it out.

“What is happening!” I shouted. My voice boomed, “What thing? What thing is happening?” Mrs. Davis rushed into the room with a very angered face.

“How many times must the school state in the rules, we do not talk about the ‘thing’ in this class?” Mrs. Davis yelled. The class went dead silent. It was like that for what felt like hours. In reality it was 5 minutes.

It was until then, Mrs. Davis turned to me, “You may leave this classroom and speak to the headmaster. We all heard you.”

I felt offended. Being accused of something that I hadn’t known anything about prior. Since when was this rule a thing? Since was this “thing” a thing?

I should’ve kept quiet, but I couldn’t contain my anger. “Okay Mrs. Davis.” I would’ve been flamed stopping there. Though I just had to keep going, “I have no awareness of what’s happening, I don’t know what this ‘thing’ is, I had to read the entire rulebook and never once have I seen that stupid little rule. So if you don’t mind, I will not be punished because I had no idea of this.” I instantly heard whispers. Mrs. Davis’s face turned bright red. The headmaster stormed in.

“What is going on?” He yelled, “Angela, you are to apologize and be punished as you should be.” I saw people from other classes watching through the door. Even the teachers were watching, not caring for a single thing in the world.

“I’m not being punished for–”

Everyone ran to their classrooms suddenly. The students in my class instantly hid under the desks. Mrs. Davis stood toward the emergency exit.

Headmaster Louis stared me dead in the eyes. I looked towards the second exit and stormed out.

My best friend, or perhaps my only friend, Kelly, ran out. I heard a lot of yelling a little bit before that.

“What were you thinking?” Kelly whispered.

“How was I supposed to know about a rule that doesn’t exist?” I said. I was just about to scream. Tears ran down my eyes, I could barely think straight.

“Did you not read the rule book? It’s rule 51! Literally the last rule!” Kelly stated.

“R- Rule 51? Mine only goes up to 50.” I was practically sobbing at this point.

“50? Why do you only have 50?” Kelly asked, I didn’t answer. My backpack was almost soaked. Kelly took my backpack and took out my rule book.

“Let’s see here…” Kelly flipped through to one of the last pages, “Y- you really don’t. Here, mine specifies what the thing is.”

Kelly handed me her book I flipped to where it said rule 51.

“All it says is that we don’t talk about the thing.” I could barely see through the tears that were blurring my vision.

“What?” Kelly took the book back, “How? I swear it explicitly states what the thing is?”

“Can’t you just tell me what it is?” I started to breathe.

“Yeah, but we could be severely punished if I do.”

“Why?”

“Because, well, other people could hear.” Kelly shook. I could see her anxiety.

“The teachers like you, I’m sure they’ll let you off with a smaller punishment.” I tried to be optimistic, though that was very obviously a way to cope because people know I’m mainly a pessimist.

“Fine, but I need you to listen because this is the only time I’m telling you.” Kelly said, she looked more serious than ever.

“Yeah, just get it over with.”

“Alright, so it’s basically–”

“Angela! Get over here!” Mrs. Davis screamed. It was so loud I felt like the whole neighborhood would hear.

“Oh son of a gun.” I mumbled to myself.

I walked back to the classroom with Kelly. I felt like my heart was in my throat.

“So, you two have finally decided to come back.” Mrs. Davis said, the whole class had their heads down, some people were crying. I saw Headmaster Louis and the President Damion next to Mrs. Davis. Kelly looked them dead in the eyes.

“You’ve finally decided to apologize? You haven’t said anything about the ‘thing’ out loud?” Mrs. Davis softly asked, that soft voice was just a cover.

Headmaster Louis and President Damion had no emotion on those faces. I’m not even sure if they even had emotion behind those faces. Kelly sighed.

“We are not here to apologize, we are not here to take blame.” Kelly said, I looked at her, I think she took it too literally when I said they would let her go with a smaller punishment.

“Oh you’re not?” President Damion chuckled, “Tell us, what are you here for?” That was the most emotion I have ever seen from him.

My heart started thumping, louder and louder each time. Kelly took a deep breath. She looked overconfident with what she was about to say.

“We are here for you to apologize and put you guys on the blame.” My heart leaped to the moon after she had said that. I closed my eyes. It was too much for me to handle. I had rethought my choices within the past hour. Only an hour. It felt like an entire day this was happening.

“Oh are you?” Headmaster Louis said. Even his tone was intimidating, “Why should we?”

“Angela had no idea that the rule about the ‘thing’ existed! It wasn’t in her rulebook! She doesn’t even know what the ‘thing’ is!”

“That gives her no right to talk back to us and yell and scream at us.” Mrs. Davis said, smiling. I turned bright red with pure anger.

“Yes it does! She has every right! In fact, I looked through the rulebook files and I saw a separate file that was labeled ‘unluckychosenone.pdf!’” All of the teachers froze. The students had their mouths dropped.

“And not only that, they were as old as the school was. You’ve been doing this for 14 years!” Kelly shouted. I looked at her, when did she learn about any of that?

“W- well…” Mrs. Davis stuttered.

“Oh don’t even get started with the whole ‘you can’t be hacking into the school files!’”

“But you guys can’t—”

“Oh please, if the next thing isn’t ‘sorry for punishing you for something that wasn’t your fault’ or what the ‘thing’ is, I don’t wanna hear it.” Kelly has definitely gotten a larger attitude. OR maybe it’s just to defend me.

Mrs. Davis swallowed hard, “I’m sorry for punishing you for something that wasn’t your fault. Please just don’t show those files to the public.”

Kelly stood there for a moment, then she whispered, like actually was quietly whispering to me, “I’m gonna show it anyways, we can’t let this go. Future kids could experience what you did. And not all of them will have a friend like me?” Kelly always looked so fierce whenever she did this. She doesn’t do it often, but it’s scary.

“And what else?”

Mrs. Davis sighed. She looked at Headmaster Louis. And he looked at President Damion.

“Well,” President Damion started, “The ‘thing’ is–”