Into the Shadows (17 page)

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.

* * *

Throughout the day, Paivi followed her new rules,
sitting at the designated table at the front of the room. Her
teachers looked relieved that they didn’t need to ask her to move.
Sometimes she sat alone, sometimes with one other student. She
tried to busy herself by taking notes, or looking at her textbook,
if only to avoid the stares. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her.
None of them appeared to be paying attention to anything but Paivi
and her glowing button.

It was with a groan that Paivi entered her sixth
hour class. It felt like an eternity since she’d last spoken to
Jason. She put her head down and went to her new seat.

Jason reached out and grabbed her wrist as she
walked by.

“Hey, Anderson, too good for me now that you’re a
big star?”

Paivi pulled her hand away and headed to the table
she knew had been set up for her. Another boy in the class, Tyler
Matthews was already sitting there. She threw herself down into the
chair and started to cry. She buried her face in her arms, but
didn’t much care if people saw her. The tears poured out, hot and
angry.

Jason rushed to her, putting his arms around her
shoulders.

“I am so sorry, I was just kidding! I swear! I’m
sorry! I didn’t mean anything by it. I…I don’t know what to say.
Please!”

Between sobs she attempted to get out a few
words.

“I’m…not…allowed…to play…anymore.”

She began sobbing harder than ever. The floodgates
had opened. All of the tension of the past few days, the shame, the
embarrassment, all came rushing out.

“Oh my god! I am so sorry Paivi! I didn’t know!” he
hugged her in vain, unable to stop the tears.

At that moment, Dr. Hasenpfeffer burst through the
door. She dumped her usual pile of books and papers onto the desk
and went straight over to Paivi, who was still sobbing
uncontrollably.

“Oh you poor thing!” Dr. Hasenpfeffer pushed Jason
to the side. She pulled Paivi into a hug, patting her on the back.
“There, there sweetie, go ahead and let it all out.”

The bell rang. The rest of the class sat awkwardly
in their desks, whispering to each other.

“Jason, fill me in,” Dr. Hasenpfeffer ordered.

“I, uh, all I did was make a comment about
basketball and she started crying. I was able to get only a little
of the story out of her. She said something about not playing
anymore.”

“It’s okay Jason, it’s not your fault. I’m sure it
has to do with this.” Still holding Paivi, she grabbed a booklet
from the top of her messy pile and handed it to Jason.

He looked at it, slightly bewildered. The title read
‘EOS School Policies: How to deal with EOS students.’

“Basically,” Dr. Hasenpfeffer continued, “these
students, like Paivi and Tyler, are considered Enemies of the State
by your future president.”

The class sat silently and stared blankly at Dr.
Hasenpfeffer.

“Seriously, you guys watch television sometimes,
don’t you? This past Sunday, December 7
^th
,
President-elect Stevens gave a speech. Anybody?” She looked
flabbergasted by their silence. “Come on kids, you have to know
what’s going on around you! Get informed! Okay, Paivi, I’m going to
have you sit down, no, in your normal spot please.”

She guided Paivi to her desk.

“Tyler, back to your original seat as well. Crystal,
close the door. Okay, so no one saw the speech the other night?
Well, here’s what you missed. This new organization, set up by the
government, known as the Anti-Terrorism Coalition, announced that
they had knowledge of people suspected in helping the terrorists of
the Righteous Front. They released the information in the
newspapers yesterday and all of those listed had to show up to a
given location to register. They have made these people wear these
silver badges to identify them.” She gestured to Paivi and Tyler.
“They have rules to follow in their daily lives, and according to
this booklet, they have even more rules to follow here at school,
such as sitting at special tables in their classes and at lunch.
They’ve also been dropped from all activities and sports because of
the new, strict curfew laws.”

The students remained quiet, taking in the
information. A hand went up in the back.

“Dr. Hasenpfeffer,” asked James Boggs, a tall,
red-haired freshman, “why are they considered ‘Enemies of the
State?’ I mean, what did they do? They must have done something
bad.”

“That’s a fair question, James. That’s exactly what
they want you to think. Tyler, Paivi, did they tell you what you
were charged with?” asked Dr. Hasenpfeffer.

“No,” Tyler answered curtly.

Paivi shook her head.

“They said we had to go to some interview, so I
guess they will tell us more then. Maybe,” said Tyler.

“This, class, goes against these students’
constitutional rights. As does being forced to follow these
ridiculous school policies,” Dr. Hasenpfeffer threw the booklet
across the room, banking it off of the wall and into the garbage
can. “In this class, I will not make my students subject to rules
of these, these…Nazis.” She spat out the word. “That is why I have
asked them to remain in their usual seats. For your own safety, you
may want to keep your little silver buttons on, but I’m not going
to turn you in if you don’t. We are going to get on with our
lesson, but please, more than ever you all need to get informed!
This is your life we’re talking about here. Wake up people!”

Dr. Hasenpfeffer then turned to the day’s lesson,
which was something about the Middle East. Paivi was too distracted
to pay attention. She could feel the other students’ eyes boring
into her back the whole period. She could only stare at the clock
and will it to move faster.

By the end of the hour, there were doodles in her
notebook that she had traced over so many times that she had
pressed them into the pages underneath. At long last, the bell
rang. Paivi snatched up her things and bolted for the door. Jason
was just as quick, catching the back of her backpack.

“Slow down, speedy!” He pulled her backwards as they
entered the hallway.

“I wasn’t sure you’d want to walk with me,” she
mumbled.

“Come on, Paivi, I don’t really understand what’s
going on right now with all of this,” he gestured to her EOS badge,
“but I’m not going to allow some idiot to choose my friends for
me.”

He grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to his side.
Her fingers tingled, making her forget everything for just a moment
before she came rushing back to her all too terrible reality.