“The meek shall inherit the school.”
A baffled burble came over the bunches teeny-boppers like boiling bubbles as Miss Peterson babbled something ‘bible-ish’. Frankly, it wasn’t exactly odd at Wilcox High, nor in Fillerton, for officials to evoke God ‘n Jesus in their speech, but, though practically none of these students could actually bear to read the ‘good book’ even in their ‘bible literacy’ history elective, they were rather sure that something wasn’t quite right about that quote she’d wielded despite the use of ‘meek’ and ‘shall’.
“For years,” Miss Peterson cleared her throat, “I have watched a disgusting hierarchy arise in the halls of this school, a bigotry which we’ve swallowed as normal despite the fact that we know from the rumbling in our gullets is wrong.” She cast her hand across the student body to cast the shame across the crowd. “Am I talking about racism? Sexism? Homo and/or Transphobia?” A fist slammed down. “No! I’m talking about the bullying of… Neeeerrrrrrddddssss!” She hung on that last syllable far too long to be comfortable as her beautiful face contorted.
“Nerds?”
“Nerds?”
“Nerds?”
The confusion was unanimous as the students looked from left to right, some smirking while others looked down at their own bodies in wonder before she continued.
“Whether its their appearance of glasses or portly stature, or their love of video games or sci-fi, or even their lack of social skills, you ‘cooler’ students have decided to ostracize these students to the far corners of the halls, near the garbage bins or the underfunded library. You all could have united to make a healthier, better student body for everyone, but instead, those with the resources used their incredibly slim advantage to condemn the most socially vulnerable to a collective hell that they may not recover from. For what? Just to make your own alienation feel all the less severe! But no more!”
“M-Man….” A leggy blonde in the front row turned her head. “Miss Pe-Peterson sure is judgy”
“Oh?” Miss Peterson’s had her ears twitch like a hunter on the prowl, casting her eyes down upon the gasping girl and pointing right at her. “Do you have anything interesting to add, Miss Terri Dennis?”
The usually stuttery blonde probably wasn’t the strongest of public speakers, but she also wasn’t one to shy away from a challenge. Especially when in that audience, there was a certain Darcy Tatum, raising her eyebrow to this blonde she’d hardly even noted before. Terri cleared her throat and gave an audible gulp as she stood. “Y-Yeah actually.” She turned around and put her hands on her hips just below her leather jacket, her lacquered nails resting on her red bubble skirt. “Look, I don’t feel great punching down at n-nerds, or anything, but..” She trialed off before taking a deep breath. “It’s really not our fault that they don’t take showers and make weird comments that make us uncomfortable, right?” There was the start of cheering and her smile of braces brightened. “It’s not our fault that they really like some weird shit that they won’t stop talking about, have terrible senses of humor, bad skin and just overall can’t f-f-fuckin’ function in society!”
Another round of cheers from the more crueler section of the popular kіds and their applause made Terri bow from her performance, making people wonder if she was running for class president or valedictorian of the straight up, cold-ass bitches.
“Very nice speech, Terri.” Miss Peterson gave a sarcastic clap of her own as Terri kept her showboating by posing for a selfie with the crowd behind her, probably the height of her middling high school career honestly, but there was a smug grin growing on the redhead’s face. “But you should probably wait until I finish talking before taking a victory lap.” She cleared her throat again, Terri still smiling and waving. “For one nerd, whose identity will be not revealed, will be given ultimate power until the school’s clocks hit noon. When I say ultimate power, I mean that within the boundaries of the school, reality itself will become their sandbox which they can construct and destroy to their heart’s content.” She looked down to the now trembling blonde just below her eyeline. “Not a bad power for people who like ‘weird shit’, eh Terri?”
The girl now retreated to her seat, gripping her ankles and hyperventilating into her knees as she rocked back and forth. “Fuck… Fuck… Fuck… That was a d-dirty trick.”
“That’s right, ladies and gents.” Miss Peterson pulled a promise ring from within the lectern and rolled it back and forth between her digits, letting an ever so light chuckle from her lips. “Though no one will find out for quite a few minutes from now, after this assembly, one fortunate down-on-his-luck dork will find his ring glow a most attractive colour of red and once it activates, they’ll find even the slightest fancy become as real as the very brick, mortar and chain link fences that make up this school. You’ll only have a limited time of course, but I’m sure you’ll find a way to make the most of your momentarily omnipotence.” The ring in her hand grew a red glow, eerily casting a sensation of an early Christmas over the auditorium. “Any questions?”
”Uh yeah…” One ring-less hand shot up and the short tanned boy, Aaron Mason, was practically bouncing to be answered first. “What if you don’t have a promise ring ‘cuz they’re stupid?”
”You don’t get powers.” She bluntly stated before this petite nerd started having quite the fit in his seat as he threw around f-bombs to anyone who looked at him. “Next question?”
”Uh yeah.” Norman Magruder, running back for the school’s underperforming football team, put his thick ‘n bulky arm up and cleared his throat. “Okay, so just hear me out here and tell me, like, if we can do this, ‘kay.” He looked his big block head left and right. “What if we gather and beat up all the goobers and losers before anyone can leave this room. We’ll force all the weenie guys to get off all their rings and then we’ll go home happy, aight?” He actually clapped at his own idea, probably expecting a Nobel Prize to follow up such a brilliant idea.
“Oh? You think that it’ll just naturally go to a guy?” She chuckled into the microphone, growing into a cackle. “I never mentioned gender here. Every socially under performing student could possibly be blessed by this power, and guess what? Your plan might even work, you know? But you’ll have to decide personally who is a nerd and who isn’t, and by the time you’ve sorted that out? Goodness, it might be too late for you Norman. I wonder what kind of babe-slave they’ll turn you into, my muscle-head friend…”
”Aw fuck…” He blurted out, probably the first time finding out in his life that there might be consequences for him punching and giving wedgies in the hall.
“You want my suggestions ladies and gents?” She casually leaned on the lectern and checked her nails. “You probably should just keep your head down. You might worry about these reality changes, but guess what? The nerds are probably smart enough to make you not even notice them, and unless you’ve been really awful to them, they’ll probably leave you alone. Maybe you’ll even find enjoyment of the higher steps of the social ladder being dragged in the mud. Who knows!”
”And just hypothetically.” A gothic dweeb by the name of Velma stood up with a question of her own, her oversized sweater sleeve flopping limp to hide her hand. “How powerful are we talking about?”
“Yeah.” The chubby latina beside Terri couldn’t suppress her excited grin. “Are we talking like Neo bending the laws of gravity here or like… Doctor Manhattan or even-”
“Yeah!” Another nerd by the name Jackson LeBurn put his hand up way at the back and shouted. “And could we make an object so heavy that we couldn’t lift it? What if-”
”Who ever wins this superpower lottery will be satisfied, you can be sure.” Miss Peterson rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Look, the organization the school is working with states that you’ll be very sated with whatever omnipotence it’s about to bestow on you nerds, so I wouldn’t worry too much.”
The chatter now in the crowd was a rather frothy cocktail of fear from one side, excitement from the other, and continued bewilderment from the other. Sure, most probably should have been asking what kind of ‘organization’ could be bestowing such powers and whether they even believe such words of this Miss Peterson, but as the assembly was concluded and they were told to go to their scheduled classes as normal, the students all slowly raised up and chattered amongst themselves as quite the state of uneasiness floated all over their heads.
“Oh yes, I forgot to add, ladies and gents!” Miss Peterson cleared her throat for a final time. “When the clock hits twelve, the power will transfer to another student, so don’t be surprised if we’re dragged from one extreme to another!”
That only added to the heavy thoughts that hung over the students’s heads as they filed into their classes and activities, just looking at the clock for when the changes would come. But who would feel the wrath of the nerds first?
Wed Sep 16 06:51:57 2020
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3 comments Last updated: Thu Sep 17 20:28:01 2020