———

-Lacitia-

Today is finally, finally the day. The day when we are going to put everything into motion. The day when we are going to have our voices and our desires be heard. I am jittering with excitement on the inside, and restless in the outside. Alissiya is helping me with my makeup, which is a godsend, because my makeup needs to be absolutely perfect today, it needs to match my coral minidress with the frills and the shining tassels. 

"Thanks, Alissiya," I tell her, spraying my fastidiously curled hair, dyed at the tips to match my dress. I take my backpack, slip on some high heels, and I make my way to the school, which is a short bus ride away from my house. 

"Where are you going, pretty young lady?" an older woman on the bus asks me. 

"Just to a protest," I answer her. "We're fighting for our rights to wear what we want at our schools."

"Good girl," she replies, smiling with her red lips. "May the gods aid in your journey."

The bus stops and I walk out, and in no time I am at the gates to my large school, which shines in the sunlight. About one in five of the girls are dressed like me, are dressed lavishly in colours and cuts and patterns of all different sorts. They all look glamorous. We all look glamorous. We all scan the crowd of incoming children, and smile upon seeing each other. 

There are no teachers at the gates of the building, nor are there any in the halls. But in the first class I go to, the teacher looks over the crowd of students in front of her, and she immediately calls the principal. 

"What do you girls think you're doing?" she asks. She doesn't sound mad, and the usual warmth of her voice is still there. But still, there is something annoyed to it. Which makes her a hypocrite to be honest, standing there with her blue skirt and cream blouse that is not quite up to standard for the teachers' uniform. 

"We're standing up for ourselves," one girl replies.

———

-Alissiya-

She left her uniform at home. She honestly left her school uniform at home. And, everyone is gone from the house. No-one is here to see what I do, to see where I go. This is a golden opportunity, an opportunity which I cannot afford to miss out on. This is something that I've wanted all my life. It's something that I've never known that I could have. 

Yet it is something that is deeply dangerous. It is something that I know is deeply dangerous, something that I know that I should not do. The rational, reasonable part of my mind is screaming at me to stop, it's screaming at me to not carry out my plan, but I am just not thinking rationally right now. I'll never have a chance like this again. 

So I slip on the uniform, which is a little large on me considering that Lacitia is a couple of years older than me, and I board the bus. 

My heart is thudding the entire ride to school. I feel like I'm going to vomit. It is simultaneously the best and worst sensation that I have ever felt in my lifetime, except for the times when I get to be with my mother. I'm not thinking straight, I know I'm not thinking straight at all, but I don't care. I don't give myself time to examine all the reasons this is dangerous. I don't give myself the opportunity to come to my senses. 

At the school, I am able to slip in unnoticed, and I am able to melt into the crowd of students, all dressed like me, dressed in blue and white. I have to pretend that I'm supposed to be here. I have to pretend that I belong here, with all these middle class children from middle class families living their middle class lives. I have to pretend, and I have to make it believable. 

That should be easy. I've been pretending all my life. 

And it is easy enough. I go with the students that look my age, and follow them into one of the classes. 

"And who might you be?" the teacher with her crisp blue skirt and inquisitive blue eyes asks. 

"My name is Avilia," I lie, "it's my first day here, after moving to this city."

"Strange. The school didn't notify me of any new students."

"That is strange indeed." I have to think fast. "Maybe they just forgot. I'll tell my parents to contact the school."

"Okay," the teacher acquiesces. "Go take a seat."

The class is about history, and it is one of the most interesting things I have ever heard in my life. We talk about the thought processes and the values of people in the late Middle Ages, and about all the social developments that were going on at the time. We talk about how the power structures of society affected the way people viewed themselves and society, and we talked about how technological inventions lead to new ways of seeing the world. It's absolutely entrancing. 

———

-Lacitia- 

I am in the assembly room, along with all my fellow protestors. We're all so pretty. But we're also all getting a talking to. Well, I knew that this would happen. 

"What you girls are doing is commendable," Mrs. Valzim, the principal, is telling us. "It is exactly the type of citizenship we long to foster in this school. But the problem is, you have to understand that the rules that are put in place are put in place for a reason. In this school we are breeding an atmosphere of diligence and professionalism, and the uniforms are a part of that..." I stop listening to her as she drones on, opting instead to post to my Connectio account some selfies of myself in this pretty outfit, bravely standing up to those who seek to oppress me.

———

-Alissiya-

"Hello. I'd like to talk to a miss Avilia." There is a woman in a crisp white blouse entering the door to the class, just as we are about to leave. Her hard eyes land on me. This is bad. This is very, very bad. 

"That's me." I try to keep my voice even as I follow her out the door. It's not like I could run right now, they'd just trap me. And, if I try to resist, that will make me look all the more suspicious. 

She leads me down the halls, not saying anything as her polished shoes hit the hard school floor. My heart is racing. And, the rational part of my mind, which I had been suppressing until now, is telling me that I should have listened to it. I knew that this would happen. The part of me that I so thoughtlessly suppressed knew that this would happen. But still, I was blind and foolish and thoughtless. Why was I so impulsive? This is all literally my fault. 

She stops at a private office, and I can see that there are two police officers there, guns and handcuffs glinting on their belts. I act surprised, I act confused. 

"Did you think wouldn't catch on?" the lady asks. 

"Catch on to what?" I ask in fake earnestness.

"We know you didn't pay to be here. We don't know who you are or where you came from, but stealing an education is a very heavy offence." 

"But I didn't steal anything. Maybe my parents forgot to sign me up."

"We keep fastidious records. And don't think we haven't noticed how that uniform is a little too big on you. Those aren't really your clothes, are they?" 

The police officers move to surround me. I do not resist as they wrench my arms behind my back and clamp cold metal handcuffs around my wrists.

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