The morning announcements start as I unpack my back, but I barely hear them. Instead, I am trying my best to tune out the continued whispers of my classmates. I pull my notebook from my bag and start to doodle, drawing small curls with my pencil.
I do my best to get lost in it, to forget what everyone thinks of me. I am eventually startled out of my reverie when someone a few rows above lets out a dramatic “shh!” The class goes silent as the morning announcements drone on.
I set my pencil down and listen as Mr. Apala continues to drone on over the intercom. “…training class. The success of this has shown us that it is a worthy endeavor to start training the next generation of warriors as early as possible. We all know that rogue activity has only increased over the last several years and
