20. The Challenges Ahead

After that unsettling conversation with Madam Virginia and Sgt. Hart, we were left speechless to the point that it was impossible for us to even talk to each other, what were we going to say it was pointless.

After class we decided to take a walk together, sure unlike my classmates I wasn't living in the dorms I was living in the headquarters allow me to explain what I mean by that. The FA headquarters were like the Whitehouse and Commander Graves as the head officer of the FA army he was more like the president and the whole base the country, so he lived in the headquarters and so did I.

"So we aren't allowed to train and prepare?" Otto asked trying to break the dark cloud looming over the rest of us.

We ignored him but we did kinda looked at him, and gave him a shrug.

There we were in the park, more like the training facility for soldiers but we took it like a park. We sat near the fountain and Luke started throwing stones into the fountain.

"So are we really that hated, by everyone?" Sally asked with sadness.

"This is the real world Princess, there's always someone who has to get screwed over" Luke said.

"But what did we ever do to them, we don't even know them" Chrysler started to cry.

"It's okay Chry, it's okay" Sally trying to comfort her though she started to cry too.

I was sitting next to Otto all up in my thoughts, sadness and anger built up to me I don't know what happened but I got so mad the fountain actually exploded. Out of shock I snapped out of it.

Noticing that the rest were all up in their feelings and talking negatively, I stood up and went to the demolished fountain and found something to inspire them.

"So what if they set us up for failure? It's not like this is our first time being oppressed. For goodness's sake we live under the rules of the machines we have no idea what their origin is" I said placing broken pieces of the fountain to the flowing water.

"What are you blabbering about Jordan?" Luke asked.

"Yeah" Chris, Chrysler and Sally all agreed.

"I think I know what he's trying to say" Otto said coming to me.

"Well spit it out genius" said Luke.

"He's saying that though we may feel oppressed and with no way to move forward, we are like water flowing across the river... Though there are big rocks blocking it. The water just flows through no matter the obstacles set for it" Otto said now joining me in placing the rocks in the flowing water.

"So we are the water and Virginia and Hart are the big boulders in our way?" Luke asked seemingly getting inspired.

"Yes!" Chris shouted.

"So what are we going to do?" Chrysler asked.

"We will find a way to win" Otto and I said.

I know we should feel bad that we were about to lose everything and be banned from FA but we were getting close as a class and become one.

So we formed a small group and started to come up with the plan.

Just a week and a half until the tournament of classes began, we were a little bit famous after that everyone in the school looked at us, some sent presents to us with strange messages like YOU ARE GOING TO DIE! or CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU FAIL, YOU DELINQUENTS! That was our life now week after week we seem to make new enemies, but that didn't surprise us anymore.

So we went back to our regular class assignments though we should be training and preparing for the tournament, but we were forbidden to prepare and train and we couldn't because if we did we forfeit and they win and we lose either way.

The worst thing to witness was to see Ms. Jackson lose hope, she wasn't the fun positive, flirty old self. She just became dark and gloomy... She began to lose weight and her light faded from her eyes.

Though she taught us a lot of things about how to handle things mentally and our motto... Not Everything You Know Is True & Nothing Is Always The Same!

Days passed and we were so close to the tournament of classes, preparations began, the stages were set, the obstacles and the judges were picked. Though we knew all these things were happening... We were still kept in the dark about everything.

Sgt. Hart always found ways to torment us with his class. Remember my cafeteria friends? Rocky, Lace and Walter turns out they were the best of their classes and since I've already met them to me they weren't that scary but to others they meant business. Like to Otto I don't know what it was but he was afraid of Rocky.