Chapter Fourteen
Policies
Paivi carefully packed her gym bag for basketball practice that crisp, sunny Tuesday morning. She looked her outfit over in the mirror, carefully affixing her new silver badge with the red glowing letters and numbers to her purple hoodie. She studied her reflection carefully.
It’s not so bad, she thought. Maybe people won’t even notice.
She tossed her long, blond hair over her shoulder. She could still see the red light glowing through the strands, but it was much less noticeable. Paivi headed downstairs for a piece of toast, though she didn’t feel very hungry.
Mrs. Anderson was going to drive both Paivi and Torsten to school. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson felt it was best for them to avoid the school bus, at least until they were comfortable with their new accessories. Paivi and Torsten didn’t argue.
Paivi was slightly nervous — she hadn’t spoken to any of her friends since the list was released. She kept reminding herself that she had been friends with many of them since grade school. One stupid, silver, glowing button couldn’t ruin what she’d had with her friends for seven years.
The ride to school was quiet. When her mother reached the school parking lot, Paivi sighed in relief. Everything here looked comfortably the same. Students parked their cars and others were getting off of busses — the usual noise and chaos of a regular morning before school.
Paivi got out of the car; carefully making sure her hair had fallen over the glowing pin. She headed towards the front entrance of the school, spotting Michaela, Aimee, and Crystal near the steps and headed over to join them.
“Hey guys!” she tried to sound as upbeat and normal as usual.
“Paivi!” squealed Michaela, throwing her arms around Paivi. “I missed you yesterday and I didn’t get to talk to you all weekend! It feels like years! Where were you?”
Paivi didn’t feel like going into all the details.
“My parents made me stay home. It was pretty lame,” she answered.
“We thought maybe it was because you were on that list in the paper,” Michaela spoke a little more quietly. She looked concerned. “My dad told me about it, but we just couldn’t figure out why you, your parents, Elena, Christian, and all those other people were on the list. What did your parents say?”
Aimee and Crystal were watching the conversation with interest, like spectators at a tennis match.
“They were pretty upset. I mean, we’re on this list and they won’t even tell us why. None of us have ever broken the law, let alone helped terrorists. It’s all just crazy! It’s got to be some kind of misunderstanding,” Paivi said, her voice low. “Yesterday we had to go to City Hall, and they gave us a bunch of rules to follow, like we have a curfew and we have to wear these stupid pins.” She brushed her hair back, exposing the silver badge. “Anyways, we have to do this until they interview us. Hopefully that will be soon, so everything can just go back to normal.”
Michaela fingered the silver badge.
“Well, it is ugly isn’t it? Maybe I could glue some sequins to it to give it a little pizzazz!”
“Very funny,” chuckled Paivi, feeling happy that she had been right about her friends. “Come on, let’s go inside. I’m freezing!”
As the girls entered through the main doors into the cafeteria, Paivi noticed something out of the ordinary. Four men, dressed all in black with the now all too familiar ATC badges glowing on their shirts, stood with arms folded across their chests. They had positioned themselves so that the students had to go around them. Paivi’s heart began to thump so loudly in her chest that she worried they would hear it. One of the agents spotted her right away.
“You.” He pointed right at Paivi, eyeing her badge.
The students all around them stared at her, more frightened of the agents than of her, at least.
“Go over there.” The agent pointed to the side of the cafeteria.
Stunned, she shuffled to the side of the stream of students, unable to utter even a goodbye to her friends. At one of the lunch tables sat about a dozen other extremely miserable looking students, slouching down as far as they could. Some had even put their heads down on the table, hiding their faces in folded arms. She spotted Christian’s white-blond hair and headed over to sit by him. She said nothing as she slid onto the stool opposite him. He looked up, eyes ringed with dark circles, but otherwise looking as cocky as ever.
“So I guess a ‘good’ morning isn’t really in order,” he offered.
“Yeah, not so much.”
“Paivi.” His eyes were serious. “It’s gonna be a bad day.”
“Way to cheer me up.” She smiled sarcastically.
He nodded in the direction of the agents.
“I know they’re here to give us more rules.” He glanced at her gym bag. “No more basketball for you.”
Her jaw dropped. “What? No way. They can’t do that!”
“Paivi,” he whispered, “they took away all of our constitutional freedoms in one day and you’re surprised that they are going to kick you off the basketball team? Come on!”
“Well, I just don’t see what our activities have to do with all of this. They’ll figure something out,” she insisted.
“Whatever.” He rolled his eyes at her. “I wouldn’t lie to you about that.”
“I…I know,” she answered quietly, fiddling with the zipper on her gym bag.
The warning bell for first hour rang and the crowd moving through the cafeteria had almost completely thinned out. Three of the four ATC agents came over to their table. Paivi noticed each of them had a holster containing a handgun, not unlike the one her dad carried at work.
“Good morning students,” began the agent standing in the middle. “We will now be escorting you to room thirteen, where we will meet with the principal to detail the policies you will have here at school.”
The bell rang, and the fourth agent joined them. Without saying a word, the students rose to follow the agents, who broke into two pairs, flanking the group in the front and behind to ensure none of them deviated from their route. Paivi was grateful that everyone was in class with the doors closed. She didn’t want to be seen being herded down the hallway by men with guns.
They entered room thirteen and took seats in some empty desks lined up in rows. The principal, Mr. Carson, and the assistant principal, Ms. Merriweather, stood waiting at the front of the room. Their faces were tense, mouths set into a firm line.
“I would like to address my students before you begin,” requested Mr. Carson, speaking to the man who appeared to be the leader of the ATC agents. He nodded his head.
“Kids, I just want to say that we value you. The school did not create the new rules that the ATC has mandated. Please come and see us if you have any problems. Thank you.”
“What are you implying, Principal Carson?” demanded the now red-faced ATC agent.
“I’m not trying to imply anything. I am just factually informing the students from whence the rules came. They are a creation of the ATC, are they not?”
“That is correct,” stated the agent, looking like he wanted to add a few more things to his response, but decided against it.
Mr. Carson stepped back, gesturing to the ATC agent to take the floor. He and Ms. Merriweather looked on sternly, arms crossed.
“It is a privilege for you to still be able to attend school. I am here to inform you of the policies that the ATC has developed for EOS students. My name is Agent O’Higgins. We will be stationed here at St. Andrew High School. If any of these rules are broken, you will be immediately expelled from school and subject to house arrest.”
As Agent O’Higgins spoke, one of the other agents handed each student a booklet.
“Inside this booklet you will find the information that I will explain to you today. First, you must all wear your EOS badges at all times, which has already been explained to you at your local ATC office. Your lockers have now been moved to a designated EOS area, directly in front of
the main office. In each class, EOS students need to sit at the special table at the front of the room, next to the teacher. In the cafeteria, there will be a table specifically for EOS students. You may get your food only after all the other students have gotten theirs. Finally, you are no longer permitted to participate in any clubs, organizations or sports related to this school.”
Paivi sucked in a hard breath. It’s not that she didn’t know it was coming; it still pained her to hear it. She snuck a look at Christian. He was sitting straight up in his chair, no expression on his face. She could feel her eyes prickling with tears, but she wouldn’t let them come. She wasn’t about to give the ATC agents the satisfaction of seeing they had hurt her.
Agent O’Higgins dismissed the students to return to class, following them out into the hallway. Paivi trudged along slowly, wishing a giant hole would appear in the floor, sucking her right in. Or just that she could go home. But that would probably break some rule, causing her to be placed under house arrest. At this rate, maybe that didn’t seem like such a bad idea.