Chapter 11: The Program Strikes Back

The Monday early morning swimming practice session was shorter than the previous week’s practices; the coach was fairly pleased with the team’s performance on Friday so he had the team doing straight laps, skipping the drills.

“I want you to work on endurance today,” he told the team, “so stick with one stroke and do ten laps; then go to your next stroke. We’ll do an hour of laps today. Later in the week we’ll need to work on our early start problem,” he told them.

After practice, Roger dressed and soon found Ayame near her locker talking to Michelle. He greeted her with a kiss.

“Where’s Cindy?” he asked.

“She’s with some friends; they’re planning surprise birthday party for someone.”

“Well, sweetie, your second week here begins. I wonder what surprises it’ll bring.” Roger said.

Just then, they saw Cirota walk past the adjacent corridor.

“Well, that’s the first surprise—I wonder how he got out,” Roger mused. “Well, time to get to home room.”

Cynthia came rushing up to them.

“Guess what I heard. Cirota’s back.”

“Yeah, we saw him going down the hall over there a few minutes ago,” Roger replied. “Wonder how he got out.”

“That’s what I heard about, him getting out. They couldn’t keep him long because he didn’t give instructions directly to the rent-a-cops—he told their agency what he wanted in general terms—that means he couldn’t be charged with telling those guards to do anything illegal. So they had to let him go.”

“Too bad...”

The bell rang to start the day as the teacher came into the room. She was holding a memo and reading it. Then the PA speakers came on.

“Good morning, students and staff. This is Mr Davis. Today’s announcements are about the upcoming week’s activities. Our spring sports schedule includes...”

His announcements continued for several more minutes, then, “The final item is about the Program.”

All the fidgeting and murmuring in the classroom instantly ceased; the room became absolutely quiet.

“Since we have a large student population and want to have as many of our seniors to have the benefit of participating in the Program as possible before they finish high school, we’ve decided that we need to increase the number of students who will be selected each week. Starting with today’s group, we have chosen four students each from the freshman, sophomore, and junior classes, and eighteen seniors. Each week we will select students using this same distribution.”

There were gasps from the listening students; the home room class consisted of all seniors.

“The teachers have the lists of students selected to participate this week. When your name is called, please leave your classroom, store your backpacks in your lockers, and come to the conference room. Teachers, you may announce the student names now. Have a good day, everyone.”

The teacher began calling names.

“Ayame Asano...”

She screamed and Roger, who was sitting next to her, put his arm around her shoulder and held her.

“No! I’m not!”

“Shhhh. There’s a mistake. You stay right here.”

Meanwhile the teacher had read five other names.

Roger stood up. “Marine kids, remember! Also, anyone over 18?” Three were. “You guys, you’re adults so they can’t force you to participate. And the Marine family kids don’t have to either. Just stay.”

The teacher broke in. “You all have to go. Please follow Mr Davis’ directions.”

Several of the kids had stood up to go, then looked around and sat down again.

The teacher repeated her request and one of the students replied, “I’m not a Marine kid, but I’m not going to get naked for this crap either! I’m staying!”

“Cyn, stay with Ayame. I’m going to the office to see why she was picked.”

Roger stood up, saying, “I need to go to the office.” The teacher started to object but he shot her a murderous look. “There’s something really wrong if they picked Ayame, and I need to get that fixed right now!”

The teacher motioned Roger to go; he left the classroom and hurried to the office. As he passed the conference room, he saw only five kids walking into it and two more in the hall approaching the room. He stopped the two students before they entered the room.

“You guys okay with doing the Program?”

“No,” one said, “but my parents signed me up and said I had to do it.”

“Me too,” the other said, looking in the room, “but if we’re the only ones doing it this week—I see, um, five in there—just seven of us? then I’m not gonna strip. They can punish me all they want.”

“Well, good luck, you guys,” Roger said and went on into the main office.

“Can I help you?” the secretary said to Roger.

“I hope so. My cousin, Ayame Asano, was selected to be in the Program. She’s an exchange student and not registered to be a graduating student from here; she’s also a Japanese citizen. She shouldn’t be in the Program. I’d like to make sure that she’s not bothered about that again.”

“Okay, yes, I have her folder right here in the selected Program student group. Let’s see—okay, I see that she’s a non-matric. I don’t know why she got onto the Program list. I’ll let Mr Davis and the counselor know about this.”

“Thanks. I’ll tell her not to worry. She’s very nervous, being in a new country and feeling very vulnerable; hearing her name called was a real shock.”

The secretary nodded. “I can imagine. I’ll take care of this.”

On the way back to the classroom, Roger peeked into the conference room. There were eight kids now and Cirota was speaking to them. Davis was also there with two other teachers. None of the kids had disrobed and they were waving their arms and making negative gestures. Roger shrugged to himself and continued back to his room.

When he arrived, Ayame grabbed him.

“Roger, I’m so scared,” she whispered, holding onto his arm tightly.

“I told the office that putting your name on the list was a mistake and to take you off it.”

Cynthia leaned close. “A school security guard came into the room after you left and announced that the students who had been called had to obey and go to the conference room. Everyone refused to go, so the guard left.”

Roger replied, “I saw just eight students in the conference room out of the thirty who were supposed to be called. I don’t know if all of them will resist, but they seemed to be arguing with Cirota. We’ll see. If they do get naked, I hope that they’ll get the help that the first group got,” he concluded.

“We’ll need to watch out for Ayame now, too. I wonder how she got on the list, unless she was deliberately added,” Cynthia mused.

Roger looked at her thoughtfully. “Yeah, that’s what I thought when her name was read. Maybe she was picked to retaliate against us somehow? Cause we refused? Could be.” Then to Ayame, “Sweetie, please keep your little phone with you when we’re not around. Not in your pack, but on its neck chain. And don’t go anywhere alone, okay?”

“Yes, Roger,” she whispered.

“I’m gonna text Dad and tell him that they seem to be targeting Ayame. Maybe he can do something,” Cynthia said suddenly. “Maybe with her status here, the base can warn the school not to mess with her.”

Then the PA system came to life again.

“Your attention, please. A number of students who were called to begin their week of Program participation did not report to the starting meeting. This lack of obedience will not be tolerated and we will locate each student involved. Each will have to serve an additional day in the Program as a punishment, unless you come to the office before the end of home room period to begin your participation. You have ten minutes to comply. That’s all, thank you.”

“Wow,” Roger said, “I guess they’re not using force this time. Maybe it’ll be just threats of additional time.”

Suddenly they heard a crashing sound from outside the classroom and a lot of yelling. Roger leaped out of his seat and rushed to the door. He was out of the room even before the teacher could react to call out, “Stay in your seats!”

Roger saw kids pouring out of the classroom on the opposite side of the corridor.

“It’s a riot in there!” a girl yelled as she ran out.

“What happened?” Roger called. “What’s going on?”

“Three teachers came in to get some kids who were called for the Program but didn’t go. One teacher took a boy’s arm, it looked like to turn him around to face him, but he pulled away and shoved his desk into the teacher. Then a bunch of other guys tackled the three of them and there’s a fight in there now,” another student exclaimed.

Roger called to some of the students who were milling around the doorway, “Everyone! Guys! Let’s get in there and break up the fight before someone gets hurt! No one needs to get hurt over this! Let’s go!” and he rushed in, followed by a few other students.

He saw three piles of people, each one atop a struggling man, and arms and legs were flailing wildly.

“Okay, EVERYONE STAND DOWN,” Roger commanded. “Let them go! NOW!” He pulled a kid off the nearest teacher. “You made your point! Now let them up!”

The other students who had come into the room were also helping to pull kids away and most of them willingly allowed themselves to be pulled up. After a minute, relative calm was restored in the room. The teachers who had been attacked rose slowly to their feet.

“Thanks, kid,” one muttered to Roger as he limped out of the room.

“Everyone, listen to me,” Roger called to the kids still in the room. “My sister and I were responsible for the first Program resistance, but we tried not to hurt anyone. If you hurt someone, you can get into real bad trouble. If you have to defend yourselves, do it, but try to use the least possible force. The best way is to just walk away from someone who’s trying to hold onto you. If enough kids resist by simply refusing, there aren’t enough of them to force anybody, okay?” Just then the bell rang. “Hey, remember, if they come for you again, just walk away,” he called as the group began to scatter.

Then he noticed the classroom teacher; she was still huddled in a far corner of the room. Roger went over to her.

“Are you okay, ma’am?” he asked.

“Now I am. You’re Roger Denison, right? Thank you for stopping that ... fight ... riot, really. They were so angry! I was afraid that if another teacher came in, especially another man, they would have attacked him too. I can’t believe how angry everyone has become about this. Nothing like this has happened in other schools that I know about. Anyway, thanks again. I don’t know what we teachers are supposed to do now...” she trailed off.