1 1 - Newton's First Law
There is one rule among the students in Winston International Academy: obey the hierarchy. The highest tier is the oligarchy, who rule the academy and pass laws as they please. The second tier is the aristocrats, who can control these rules, though they don't have the power to create them. The third is the workers, who do all they can for the oligarchy and aristocrats. The last and lowest tier are the outcasts. They are ostracized and isolated, even by each other.
My name is Irene Marchand. I'm part of the outcasts. It's nice to meet you, unless you decide to ostracize me like the others.
I was enrolled into this school through a scholarship, unlike the oligarchy members and artistocrats that pay full tuition for this private academy. I'm keen on becoming a professor when I grow up, and this academy is basically a flower path to the imperial university in England. I'm not sure what I want to be a professor in, actually. But I know that if I want to be the best teacher, I must be taught by only the best.
The treatment I receive at Winston can only be described as a minor inconvenience. I can study without others bothering me, I have my dorm room all to myself, and I don't have to be caught up with fake friends.
In my solitude, I have read numerous books from the tall bookcases in the academy's library. Stories of adventure, love, sorrow, tragedy, and comedy. I blame those books for rotting my blissful, ignorant thoughts.
Lately, I have been craving for something to happen. I listened over other's shoulders for stories and spied on people through my dorm window, but nothing quenched the thirst for an event to occur. I wonder if this thirst would have ever come up had I not been in this backwards hierarchy system.
While sitting at a park bench near the academy's garden, I watched the autumn leaves fall one by one. Jealousy stirred inside of me; even the leaves of a foxglove tree have something happening to them!
As Isaac Newton has discovered, an object at rest will stay at rest unless an external force acts upon it. The tree goes dormant for autumn, the rain hits the leaves, and the wind loosens its stem! It wouldn't fall on its own. How much longer will I have to sit and wait for an external force?
A thought enters my mind, almost as if to answer all of my questions. It's not just the object at rest that will be affected, but the external force will be acted upon also. A giddiness blooms in my chest. If I'm the external force, then motion will occur for me also.
It'll be difficult in this social climate. I'm not even sure what will happen if I act outside of my hierarchy. Everyone seems to follow it so well that I've never seen an instance of punishment outside of my 7 years in Winston. Whatever it is, I can handle it.
Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Irene Marchand. Today, I declare myself an ex-outcast.
