“Is everyone ready to have some fun?”
The upbeat teacher was only met with a small mumble from the less than amused crowd.
“I can’t hear you,” She put her hand up to her ear and repeated herself, “Is everyone ready to have some fun?”
Today was the first pep rally of the semester at Manha High School. The entire student body, grades nine through twelve, were all seated in the gymnasium bleachers. The teacher stood with a microphone at the center of the gymnasium on top of the purple rhino mural on the floor. The gym was overpacked and stuffy, was it really that hard to believe that the students weren’t all that excited to be here?
The young teacher continued, not letting the dreary crowd lower her enthusiasm.
“Alright! Before we get to the fun activities we’ll kick things off with an announcement from your student council president!”
The lethargic crowd immediately erupted into boos. Unless someone had seen them just a moment before, nobody would believe that this was the same crowd.
“Quiet please. Please be respectful to your peers.”
There was no stopping the enraged crowd. Their displeasure only grew in decibels.
“Everyone, this is inappropriate and very distasteful.”
The roar of boos overtook the projected voice of the teacher, even with the help of her microphone. After a few more inaudible words, she snapped.
“EVERYONE SHUT HELL UP!”
Her voice made the audio coming from the speakers above crack, but it had done its job. The rowdy crowd had fallen back into a slumber. It seemed that the uncharacteristic outburst from their teacher had gotten their attention.
She patted down her hair and let out a small breath, recovering from her outburst. She gestured to her left.
“Thank you, now your student council president, Rose Visca.”
The teacher began walking away from center court as Rose Visca went to take her place. During the intermittence, the crowd started to become a bit rowdy again. She whipped back around to face the crowd, with eyes bulging out of her skull. That was enough to bring the crowd down to a gentle simmer.
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The student council president, Rose Visca, took the microphone from the worn out teacher as they crossed paths on the basketball court. She continued to the center of the gym, where the teacher had stood.
She stopped on top of the purple rhino and swiveled herself to face the crowd of students.
Rose was a little above average height for a girl. She wore a small black skirt along with a white dress shirt and a black tie. Her studious glasses were high on her nose. Her build would suggest that she played sports. Along with all of that, her blue eyes and blonde hair complimented her good looks, making her position as student council president seem fitting. She resembled a stereotypical popular high school girl. Although, from the crowd’s reaction, she didn’t seem all too popular. Or at least not popular in a good way.
She brought the microphone up to her mouth.
“Thank you for the introduction Ms. Benson.” Her words matched her confident demeanor, “Now, we are all gathered here today to celebrate our school pride. Homecoming is just two weeks away, I know that everyone is quite excited.”
The crowd had settled after its initial outburst. They were back to being dull and unresponsive as they were at the beginning of the pep rally.
“The student council has planned some activities during homecoming week that I hope that all of you enjoy. I know I look forward to it. More information will come along with the schedule next week. Make sure to check the school newspaper for it.”
She let out a sigh and began to read from a piece of paper she had been holding. She pushed her glasses further up her nose as she read from her notes.
“Now to fully enjoy such things as homecoming week, we must remember the main purpose of this school, academia. Everyone here is here to further their education and better themselves. Sadly, our most recent test scores have been historically low. That is why the student council has agreed to some changes to improve our institution's education.” her voice wavered a tiny bit, although, her strong and confident voice still pulled through after a short pause, “In conjunction with the school board, we have decided for all after school activities to be cut by thirty minutes and the school day to be lengthened.”
The crowd immediately erupted. It might as well have been a gymnasium full of chimpanzees on crack. Yelling, booing, screeching, yodeling. Name the sound and it was most likely being made. Papers, pencils, books and bags were being tossed onto the gymnasium floor. Luckily for Rose, she was out of the majority’s range of arm strength. A couple pencils were able to reach her, but they didn’t cause her any harm.
She buried her face into her notes and continued speaking, “Including the adjustments stated before, the school will also implement a single block lunch instead of three that will be cut by five minutes. Passing times will also be cut by two minutes, going from six to four minutes. Schedules have already been fixed accordingly and will be sent to your school emails over this weekend. The new schedule will start next week…”
The uproar washed away her words. The gym had broken out into a complete frenzy. Waves of students stormed down from the bleachers and onto the gym floor. The student council president quickly scurried off to the side of the gym as hoards of teachers lined up in front of the crazed students, trying to take control of the situation. The teacher’s were engulfed in a sea of enraged students. They were as useful as a net trying to hold back the crashing waves from the sea.
The pep rally was strategically scheduled for the end of the day. The other pep rally activities were naturally canceled. After the riot simmered down, the students were released and sent home for the weekend. The school had hopes that the weekend would give time for the students to calm down.