Boarding School

Its all my fault” Anna screamed across the crowded dorm floor. Susan gasped, and froze like a statue, as the dorm mother went to escort Anna out of the main corridor. Anna was led into the dorm mother ‘s living quarters. It was furnished nicely, a real apartment. Anna had often wondered what it looked like. She saw the empty bottles of alcohol that the chosen students had been invited in to drink. Different rules for different folks. Anna was hoping that she would get suspended or even expelled, but first she had to find out what crime she had committed. She did not have to wait long.

The staff searched her room and did not find the jewelry they were looking for. They came in and asked her where the bracelet was. She didn’t know so she said nothing. Suddenly there was a rap tap tap on the housemother’s door. There stood Susan holding what looked like a 14k gold bracelet. Anna’s eyes popped. Susan said she had found it outside the dorm. She would have returned it earlier, but…her voice stopped. She turned towards Anna “Why did you take the blame?” Anna shrugged, “Not to protect anybody, it seemed like an opportune way to get out of here for a while.” They (the staff,) glared at her in slight confusion. They were proud of how they ran the school, plus she had made a fool out of all of them. Anna slouched out of the apartment, displaying her disappointment, and went back to her room. In her room was the bracelet that had disappeared months ago. The dorm was quiet, no one asked her why she had taken the blame, in fact, the dorm was stone dead. No music, no chitter chatter.

Her roommate, Kim, returned to the room. “Your funny,” she said. Anna replied “Thought I would be going on a vacation. If they were at all observant of their students they would have never gone for it.” “You got to stop caring, “Kim said as she put on some music. Kim did not fight against the status quo, she just ignored it, and lived her own life, following her own values.

But Anna had been mad when she didn’t get on a competitive soccer team at school. Of course, it was all the popular girls that got selected. Anna had done well at the tryouts, but it didn’t matter. The problem was she had expected the evaluation to be fair. Nobody talked with her and told her what she needed to work on if she wanted to get on the team next year. She was unseen. Kim did not care that she was unseen, but Anna did. The same students who got on all the teams, went into the dorm mother's apartment to socialize. She was hoping that the staff would call her parents, and they would have to explain that she had lied about being responsible. Anna hoped her mother would realize how incompetent the staff here were, instead of finding. fault with her daughter. She returned her attention to her book, as she and her roommate listed to the Dave Mathews band.

Anna tried to follow Kim’s example, but bizarre seemed to follow her. She didn’t mind listening to other peoples’ problems in the dorm. Even though she was spending more and more time jogging, to release her tension. When one friend tried to open Anna’s dorm window and jump out, in an attempt to kill, herself, Anna almost flipped. She comforted her friend and talked her out of jumping, and listened to the circumstances. As soon as the drama was over, Anna called her mother. “I don’t want to return here next year” was all she said. She then went and talked to her science teacher and his wife. She explained to them how Beth had gone to her boyfriend’s room to smoke pot and he had raped her. She now felt suicidal.

Anna stepped out of the situation, although Beth was mad that someone had given the teacher an honest description of the situation. Beth was mad that he knew about the pot. Anna just wanted to go to school in a more stable environment. All these normal people were totally bizarre. Anna hung out mostly with her roommate till the school year ended. No signing of yearbooks and definitely no desire to go back.