The Graduates

The silence was almost deafening. It felt like the class was nothing but marionettes, the puppeteer behind the show being the newfound adversary in front of them… or so Jayce thought. At the beginning of their senior year, came a reminder that every light has a shadow.

Seven hours prior…

There’s a certain aura about the first day of school that makes it exciting yet paralyzing, but something about it felt different this time. The sun’s light enveloped the campus, even reaching past the window’s curtains. Unintelligible chatter and faint footsteps echoed through the halls as students reconnected with the friends they hadn’t bothered to catch up with during the summer. Jayce always thought those were the friendships that had a zero chance of making it past high school. Heck, they probably wouldn’t recognize each other after just one year. To avoid the all the commotion, he put in some earbuds and slumped his head into his arms. He considers it a skill to actually enjoy one’s own company, despite the accusations his friends make of having no social skills.

Just as Jayce began zoning out, someone started shaking his shoulders and called out his name, reeling him back to reality. But even over the music, that voice was unmistakable. Reluctantly, he glanced up.

“What’s with that face?” Sierra asked, trying to maintain a straight face of her own. “Am I not allowed to greet you or something?”

“Oh, can it.”

Sierra chuckled slightly as she threw her bag off her shoulder and pulled out the seat next to him, feeling a sense of nostalgia. They first met three years ago in their freshman year under similar circumstances as they were in now, a little before their friend group formed.

“Can you believe we’re going to be seniors?”

“What are you talking about, Sierra? We are seniors.”

She groaned, leaning back into her chair. “Don’t remind me.”

“But you literally just brought it up,” Jayce replied. There have been many times where he wondered whether Sierra was being serious about something, or if she was even a real person for that matter, with the way she acts sometimes. “What do you want to do once you’re done?”

“Hmm, I don’t know,” Sierra said with a shrug. “Maybe I’ll work from home. That sounds like it would be nice.”

Jayce furrowed his eyebrows. “Shouldn’t you aim a little higher? You’re attending a school that literally produces someone rich or famous from every graduating class.”

“I mean, yeah. But that’s only a few people out of hundreds. Think about it; where do you think the rest of the graduates end up?”

He shrugged. Jayce never thought about where the rest of the graduates ended up, only looking at the few who end up making it. Before he could respond, the growing exclamations from the classroom cut his voice off. The once bustling hallways became empty, everyone pooling at various windows on the same side of the building. Unable to resist their own curiosity, Jayce and Sierra joined the onlookers as well.

Despite all the chatter from a few moments ago, the room fell silent enough to hear a pin drop. Everyone’s gaze fixated on the forest next to the school. No one ever went near it, not because there was some ‘urban legend’ surrounding it, but just because it felt too creepy to do so. The lack of warning, keep-out, or other such signs, ironically, fueled that sentiment. It’s a tale-old story for students at the academy to draw their own conclusions about the forest and why it’s gated, but in the end, everything was just speculation. It was just agreed upon that it was just an eerie sight; even the toughest kids weren’t able to build up the courage to hop that fence for even a second. The forest seemed to stretch for infinity, extending all the way up the base of a hill. This made trying to find where everyone was looking about as hard as finding a needle in a haystack. “What’s going on?” Jayce asked aimlessly.

“I think everyone is looking at that,” Sierra replied, pointing in the gate’s general direction. Jayce leaned harder on the windowsill, darting his eyes to that area. The sudden silence of the crowd from earlier became understandable to him as he struggled to find words of his own.

“What is he doing…?”

The indistinct sounds of rustling leaves and snapped branches weakly echoed in the forest as the boy started scaling the tree. He wasn’t a professional by any means, but his athleticism was enough to make him seem nimble. Quiet judgements and gossiping broke out, but the climber didn’t seem phased. It was almost as though he had lost all reason, and his only life purpose was to reach the top.

“Is this some sort of senior prank?” Sierra asked.

“What would this prank even be?”

“I don’t know… but I mean, it has gotten everyone’s attention to be fair.”

Jayce tilted his head, rubbing his temple for a second before silently agreeing.

Without notice, the bell rang, breaking the long-lasting silence. Despite the ear-piercing sound, the climber didn’t seem to hear it or didn’t care, continuing to scale his way up the tree. No one moved a muscle, keeping their eyes glued to the scene like a deer in headlights. “What are you guys doing?” their teacher exclaimed. Frustrated that no one even batted an eye to her words, she walked over and broke the crowd up.

“There’s some student out there. He’s in the forest!” one student said in protest.

“And that’s an excuse? I don’t care if there’s a student or even an alien down there; we are going to start class!” she said, closing the window’s blinds entirely, shutting out any light.

Collective groans filled the air as the students headed back to take their seats. Without another word, the teacher began her introduction of the syllabus and such, but Jayce couldn’t really hear her. It didn’t help that he was in the back of the class, but it wouldn’t have mattered much, anyway. That climber outside lingered at the front of his mind, taking up all the room for anything the teacher was saying. It wasn’t just his own, but the excitement everyone had earlier vanished, replaced with curiosity and wonder. However, to the dismay of the class, the climber was gone by the time the first class ended. Jayce was always someone who didn’t let things that didn’t affect him linger in his mind, so his interest in the topic soon died. He hoped it would be the same for everyone else as well.

He soon realized he was mistaken.

“You guys saw it, right?” Haylie asked, her eyes sparkling.

“That was all everyone was talking about in class! That person was Aiden, or so I was told. You know, the one in our grade,” Blaise excitedly replied. Jayce should’ve known that would be the main topic of discussion among the friend group as well.

“I mean, he had guts. Seemed pretty brave to me.”

“Well guys, I guess we know who Cayla’s two-week crush is going to be for the start of the year,” Corbin joked. Through laughter, he found himself kneeled over and unable to breathe from Cayla’s strike. While he was writhing in pain on the floor, no one batted an eye and continued to talk about the climber from earlier with interest. Jayce couldn’t help but smile to himself; it was almost as though they hadn’t missed a step since last school year, immediately fanning any worries he had about a reunion. Originally, they had made plans to hang out a lot during the summer. However, when there are seven people in the group, things often fall through.

To Jayce, his friends were the one thing that made high school life tolerable, even if they were the ones who get on his nerves the most. “Why do you guys even care about the climber, anyway?”

“Literally no one goes in the forest, ever.”

“Not to mention, how often do you see someone just randomly climb a tree?”

Overwhelmed by the backlash he received, Jayce attempted to defend himself. “I mean, it’s probably just a stunt because it’s the beginning of the year, end of story. Right?”

“Or… okay guys, hear me out on this one,” Morgan started, before they immediately shut him down. It was plainly obvious to everyone else that the most outrageous thing anyone had ever said would come out of his mouth if they continued to let him talk. They’ve fallen for that trap too many times to not catch on.

“Morgan, you’re the one person who is banned from this conversation,” Blaise joked.

A piercing scream not too far from the tables they were sitting at cut their accusations and teasing off. Everyone whipped their heads in the direction it came from to see a girl looking and pointing up at the school’s roof.

“Oh, what is it this time?” Jayce murmured under his breath. However, nothing could’ve prepared him for the scene that unraveled in front of him.

When he looked up, to his horror, he saw a student sitting at the edge of the highest floor in the building. It wasn’t the same boy from earlier, but a girl this time. Even though there is a protective gate surrounding the roof, she climbed over it regardless. Her legs dangled from the thin ledge, swaying with the wind like the last leaves on an autumn tree, while playfully tapping her fingers to an imaginary beat. Unlike with the situation earlier, no one was quiet this time. It was a flurry of panicked voices, both pleading with her and questioning what was going on. Despite all the chaos on the ground, that girl did nothing but smile. No matter how many times she was called out to, or how large the crowd below got, she remained unfazed; stuck in her own world.

“What the-, what is going on?!” Morgan exclaimed.

“I’m not sure, but can you go find a teacher or something, Morgan? Haylie and I will try to find the rest of us,” Jayce said.

With a nod, Morgan ran back into the building, fighting the wave of stunned students. A sudden scream once again startled Jayce. However, this one came from right next to him. By the time he had turned back around to see what had happened, it was too late. The leaves had fallen.

***

After the incident, the school gave the students the final class of the day off. However, they couldn’t dismiss them from school entirely because of an assembly. Jayce wondered why they couldn’t just postpone that too, but he figured it must also be to cover what had happened. Despite only some people actually being there to witness it, the news spread like wildfire in no time, so it’s not as though they could hide it. He always despised hearing other people’s conversations, but he found himself longing for that energy the class had before all this happened to come back. That memory already felt like it happened years ago, even though it’s only been a few hours. Even his friends, who always found a way to make light of any situation, couldn’t say anything. All their energy was being used to comfort themselves and process it in their own way as they sat in an empty classroom together.

“Are you guys okay?”

“Okay? Are you really asking us if we’re okay right now, Cayla?” Haylie shot back.

“I’m just trying to be comforting right now. You don’t need to get all high and mighty like you always do, Haylie.”

Before any of them could make another remark, Corbin stepped in, separating the two before they got in each other’s faces for real. “Guys, calm down. We’re still processing things, and we all do that differently. The worst thing we could do right now is fire away at each other.” The two looked as though they wanted to say something, but surrendered, sitting back down, and re-entering their own spaces.

After waiting for the tension to ease a bit, Blaise asked, “Now that I think about it, have any of you seen Morgan?”

As though he saw a ghost, Jayce could feel the color drain from his face. Without another word, he shot up from his seat and headed to the door, only to be greeted by a teacher.

“Oops, sorry sir, I didn’t see you.”

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I was going to go look for someone. I’m not sure where he went,” Jayce replied.

“Sorry, but you’re going to have to look for him later. I was actually coming here to tell you to head to the gymnasium for assembly.”

“But sir…”

“I’m quite certain your friend can find their way on their own, right?”

There’s a certain aura about the first day of school that makes it exciting yet paralyzing, and this time Jayce knew what it was. The senior assembly was meant to be a grand kickoff to the year at the end of the first day, except it was hard for any of them to get into it. The buzz from his classmates was certainly there, except for all the wrong reasons. It almost felt as though more people were wishing for this year to be over than actually looking forward to it.

“Hello seniors at Tempus Academy! I’m excited to stand before you today to kick off your final year! Could we all rise to sing our school anthem?”

Jayce couldn’t help but feel disdain as he slowly stood up. That wasn’t some random person or low-level faculty staffer, it was the principal of their class! He knew for sure that he knew of what has happened.

“There’s no way they just gloss over the incident, right?” he softly asked Sierra.

The program wasn’t long: just the anthem, the principal’s speech, the priest’s blessing, and then the president’s speech. Jayce waited for someone to make almost any acknowledgment about the events of the day, but his wishes remained unfound as the final event of the program, president’s speech, came.

“And now, I would all of you to give a warm welcome to our school president, Mr. Wyatt!” the principal said.

“Thank you. Seniors, I’ll get to the point: soon, you will be done with your time at Tempus Academy. We as a school have spent the last three years nurturing and honing your strengths and identifying your weaknesses. Everything you’ve learned until now will decide how your final year plays out. It’s up to you to decide your own future…” he said. It appeared as though he was waiting for some applause or cheers, except that never came. “…for example, you could have a life of fortune ahead of you, which I personally guarantee you will have if you graduate.”

This statement caused the dead crowd to perk up a little.

“You’re probably wondering how I could make such a statement… after all, there are hundreds of you in this very gym. As you know, this school is prestigious because we have produced so many exceptional students who ended up becoming the faces of their generation. We have preached to you for so long that the only way to success is through not just hard work, but hardship as well. That’s why only five of you three hundred seniors will graduate.”

For the first time in a while, there was life once again amongst the seniors, except this time, it was in uproar and outrage. The room was like a powder keg just waiting to explode, and the president’s words were the ignition. Only five people could graduate: that’s less than two percent of the grade! The voices of the students were loud, but they were far from celebratory, as they were at the beginning of the day. However, the president’s gaze remained unwavering, commanding a dominating presence in the room.

“I know you all have endless questions, and while I can’t answer all of your questions relating to why right now, I will say this: those who want to see the stars must play the game. Nothing comes without an equal exchange. That’s why you must play the game to pass. Survive, and you’re going to be set for life in terms of wealth. That’s how this game of life works anyway, right?” he said. The crowd grew silent once again.

It all made sense now. Why there was always someone famous from every graduating class, but you never heard about the rest of them. Or why those two from earlier were acting the way they were, and why they didn’t acknowledge what had happened. “Play the game of life, and if you lose, you die,” Jayce said simultaneously with the president. He looked at his friends as they made the same realization… as the entire class put it together.

The silence was almost deafening. It felt like the class was nothing but marionettes, the puppeteer behind the show being the newfound adversary in front of them, or so Jayce thought. With the beginning of their senior year came a reminder that every light has a shadow, and that the weight of victory is one that could prove too heavy.