Moving into the hall, Ebony was greeted by a not-so-pleasant surprise. Everything in the room was covered with sterile materials. All the walls, the large dining hall, the park and the digital rooms now lay covered in a white plasma sheet. Ebony figured that the last dinner was going to be like no other.
Tiny robots moved around the room, asking students to keep a distance of more than 2 metres from each other. Other, more aggressive ones beeped and screeched when students did not do so. Big android robots gave every student a tray table and a chair to sit on. For all students to keep their distances, the dining room and the main hall were all filled with chairs. Gigantic screens and speaker complexes broadcasted the speech of the dean.
A small, hawikish man, on whom age and stress had taken their toll, the dean stood on the podium and asked for silence. The students quickly complied. It seemed the old man had a way with enforcing discipline and obedience. He then started:
"To all students, teachers, deans and alumni of the Institution,
This is the last day of schooling before we all retire back to our source homes. I want to extend my gratitude to the city authorities for assuring the security of the Institution, at a hard time. I ..."
Ebony was on the verge of enjoying a very good nap. Unfortunately for her, pesky little robots ran around, waking her up with their shouts and beeps.
"Please keep a distance with a minimum of 2 metres" they repeated endlessly.
"Okay, we got it", Alice, who seemed equally tired, shouted.
The dean continued.
"The government has enlisted our help in the fight against the new virus. Our biology teachers will oversee clinical trials and test existing medication. We are happy and willing to serve the human race and our government. Our school will also send the top-performing students in Biology to the Capitol, to the state laboratories. There, they will participate in ongoing research. As for the government's need of ..." he rambled on.
Alice almost choked on her apple puree. Her excitement was immeasureable. A flood of questions filled her. Did this mean she going to go to the Capitol? What was she going to do? What kind of research would she participate in? Would they let her see some patients up close?
After recovering from the shock, Alice looked at Ebony. She seemed to share her enthusiasm and mouthed the words "I told you so".
Alice started to laugh, a laugh coming from the depths of her soul and echoing across the room. She did not realise it, but an instructor three rows back had heard it, and had started signalling her about something. She wanted Alice to stop, but she didn't, failing to notice the signal.
The instructor then mumbled something to a student and pointed in her direction. She realised what the instructor was gesturing about. Her face immediately turned pale. She thought of all the punishments the instructor could have reserved for her and shivered.
"What if they fired me? Damn it. With my bad behaviour, they'll send me home again. Yes, yes, that's it. They'll send me home early, with no chance to say goodbye to my friends. Without ever seeing Ebony again."
But the student she had seen had stopped somewhere else. He was now out of sight.
That scared her ten times more. What if he had to inform the dean of her punishment first?
"Maybe," she thought "the dean could pardon me. But then again, maybe not. He was not the calmest of men." She still remembered the day Anne was expelled from the school. "She had been using her phone in class, yes, but was that a good reason to expel her?"
The dean's speech was coming to an end now.
"I thank all students for their contributions in this hard time, and wish you all well"
Ebony, awoken by one of those pesky robots, was unable to understand what had come upon her friend. She seemed stressed, pale. She tried talking to her, but Alice lay motionless. Everythign else failing, Ebony sent her a text message. Despite her good intentions, the notification led to Alice's phone ringing. It had a squeaky tone, and was set to full volume. Its ring resonated across the room, waking many students up.
Alice sat motionless, praying nobody else had noticed.
"Miss Vodel, is that your phone?" The dean stopped and looked at her.
"Y...yes", she hesitated, her voice coming out croaky.
"I see. And what makes you think you can use your phone on the school premises?"
" I was not using it. It was just on"
"Just on? Miss Vodel, aren't you aware of the interdiction of phone use? Are there any exceptions for the phone being on that I am unaware of?"
Sweat had started to build all over Alice's face. Now, it threatened to overwhelm her. She opened her mouth, but nothing seemed to want to come out.
"Well, Miss Vodel?" the dean asked again.
" I am aware of one." Ebony shouted. Everyone turned around to look at her.
With pairs of blue and green, and the occasional brown, eyes fixated at her, Alice started speaking.
"Use of the phone is permitted under exceptional circumstances. The virus is an exceptional circumstance." She said matter-of-factly.
"She could get a call from her family at any time. The government may inform us of a change in the state of emergency. Her home may no longer exist."
The dean shrugged her off.
"Both of you girls shall help with the school clean-up. And, Miss Vodel, you were originally selected by our school to work in the state laboratories...", he said angrily.
The end is nigh, Alice thought.
"You will not go there now. You will, instead, go to a private laboratory, with recommendation from the school. Detention is tomorrow at 7".
"Well, I'm still going somewhere, at least", Alice told her friend.
Ebony grumbled. She saw herself going up to the podium, and making a grand speech.
"For, how can it be, that the human race has advanced so much, and changed so little?. We have settled galaxies, conquered planets, created all everyone could ever dream of. And still we are subjected to the age-old idea of discipline and subservience to our elders. God forbid we speak against them"
But she didn't want to risk another cleaning session, and stubbornly sulked in her chair instead.
At some point, Alice poked her. The robots around them went into a frenzy, as physical contact was detected.
Unable to communicate, the two girls were interrupted by someone. Alice immediately recognised him.
"You're the boy Mrs Waltham sent to leech on us! What are you here for?" she said, trying to sound aggressive but failed to hide the worry in her voice.
"No. Not for that. She wanted me to tell the dean, sure but I didn't. As a favour", he told them
"And why are you here then?" Ebony inquired.
"I want a favour. And since I did you a favour, you should grant me my favour. Sounds good?" he asked them
Alice nodded. Ebony interrupted.
"Wait Mr. What's-Your-Name. What kind of favour are we talking about?", she asked
"Edward. Just a small one.", he told her
"What do you want?", she reformulated the question
"You to do me a favour", he teased
"What is the favour?", she snapped
"I'm not telling you. She said yes, so it's a yes", he answered.
Seeing that Ebony was ready to explode any minute now, Alice intervened.
"Honestly, man, what do you want? I'll do it, just tell us", she asked.
He finally gave in
"Well, we have detention together, tomorrow. Cleaning at 7. But I'm not used to getting up early. I don't want to. So, you'll do the cleaning up for me."
"Because Edward wants to sleep?", Ebony sarcastically commented
"No, because you owe me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to my friends", he walked away.
"And what if we don't do your work?", she shouted.
"Then I'll tell the dean what she told me to, and your punishment will double. Oh, good speech, by the way". He left.
Alice was sure she could see smoke coming out of Ebony's eyes and ears.
"He's right, we have to do him this favour", Alice told her
"No, we won't. I won't. You do it if you want to"
"Fine, I'll do it. Now calm down. You look as if someone killed your cat".
"I don't like cats. You do"
Then the bell rang again, signalling to them that they had 15 minutes to go to sleep. They moved up and down the hall. They said their goodbyes to their friends. They parted as the beeping robots harassed them.
And finally, after a long and tiring day, they went back into their room. They changed to their nightclothes and packed their suitcases.
Chaos reigned as the two girls tried to put everything in its rightful place and fit it in their luggage.
"Wouldn't it be great if someone finally invented something so we don't have to pack everything ourselves?", Ebony wondered.
"No, cause then our punishment would be to pack everyone's suitcases", Alice answered.
Then there were times when the girls would marvel over something they had shared. The little wooden owl, the spider-silk totem, all encompassing their memories.
There was even the occasional argument, with Ebony adamant that the little metal dog was hers, which Alice disputed.
After all this settled, the girls went to sleep. Exhausted, Alice immediately drifted off.
Ebony, on the other hand, spent some time planning the demise of the Edward person that had wanted to sleep while she was forced to work. She went over many plans, and none seemed to satisfy them. Finally, the idea came to her. She scribbled it down in her notebook so as not to forget it. Confident that she would now give him a lesson, she went to sleep.
As the clocks stuck eleven and with the city full of life, it seemed the virus had disappeared. But it would reassert its presence the next day, making sure noone forgot about it anymore.
A/N: A bit spooky, isn't it? Tis quarantine season, so please consider leaving me some feedback on the comments down below. Or even voting, if you want.
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