Hi there, my name is Zane. I'm 18 and a Highschool senior from a decent sized town. There's nothing here to write home about. That is except for one thing...Nora. Nora and I have been neighbors and friends since I was little. Granted now I would do anything to be more than that. I swear she's the thing of dreams. She's the same age as me and stands about 5'3", a cute blonde bob haircut with dark roots that ends at just the right spot. Then there's her body, the only words that do her justice is that she's filled out perfectly in all the places that matter. Sadly I'm cursed to forever just be "the childhood friend".
Today started out as just a regular Monday. For me that meant the best and worst part of my day...carpooling to school with Nora. I met her outside and did my best to not leer.
"Hey bestie!" she called out.
"Hey..." was all I could muster back while trying to grab what glances I could at her assets.
We arrived at school and settled in for the morning announcements. Nora leaned over and whispered, "Isn't it a bit weird that Mr. Sanders is late this morning?".
To be honest I had barely even noticed. With that thought the announcements started up and as if on cue Mr. Sanders walked in. I told Nora, "He looks extra tired, guess he had a long night".
She answered back, "I guess...". While the announcements droned on about the usual I took another look at Mr. Sanders. Something seemed off about him. What was it though? Before I could finish thinking the intercom caught my attention.
"All seniors please meet in the gym afterschool for an important assembly. Attendance is mandatory!". The building practically shook with the collective groans. Nora gave me an exaggerated eye roll to show her displeasure. The most I mustered back was a slight shrug.
The day ended uneventfully and it was time for this seniors only assembly...fun. Me and Nora walked together to the gym. Inside it was set up with rows of chairs for the students followed by more chairs on the stage for the faculty. On stage was a large projector screen for the presenters to use and a small podium. I asked Nora where she wanted to sit.
"Might as well sit in front" she carelessly responded. We found our seats and waited as the rest of the students and faculty filed in. Since we sat in front I was able to get a good view of the people on stage. I noticed that they all seemed to share that look that Mr. Sanders had this morning. With the extra time from students sitting down I was able to finally piece together what seemed wrong. They didn't look tired, they looked...vacant? It was clear they were awake, but it was like nobody was home. I swear I caught a few of the teachers going slack jawed as they waited in their seats. I should tell Nora about this. As I leaned over to tell her a tall slender man entered the stage. His presence was beyond distracting. Maybe it was his energy compared to all the slack jawed teachers that caused me to never actually tell Nora what I had figured out. The man stood about 6'1", had a clean suit, no nonsense haircut, and couldn't have been more than 30. He walked to the podium with a strut that exuded confidence. He reached the podium and the assembly started. This should be interesting.
"Hello everyone, you can call me Mike, my apologies for holding you all late today. I understand how valuable your time is and I promise you this assembly is of the utmost importance. Maybe even life changing! This morning I met with the faculty of this school to pitch them the most wonderful program. This program is designed to get as many of you bright young minds into the jobs you want! I even gave the staff a demonstration and they were so overwhelmed that they asked me to speak to you all today! It's that great!"
I tried to whisper to Nora, "This guy sure likes to toot his own horn".
She mentioned, "Clearly he bored them all half to death, I mean look at them."
That's right! I need to tell Nora! Again though, before I could get the words out Mike started up again.
"With that introduction out of the way, today I'd like to give you all the same demo I gave the staff this morning. Good news! After today all other sessions of the program are voluntary. If you don't like today's demo you'll never have to see me again."
You could hear the wave of murmurs from all the happy seniors who certainly planned to never see this Mike or his stupid "program" ever again.
The lights in the gym started to dim and Mike moved out of the way of the projector screen. Did he put on sunglasses? With that the projector screen was bombarded with an array of colored lights. I chuckled to Nora, "Guess the projector is busted again".
A half hearted chuckle came from her along with a "yeah...I guess...".
From there the screen went black and then a white spiral began to swirl out from the center of the screen. Then a cheesy logo slid onto the frame over the spiral "Paving over your future". What kind of title is that?
"Nora, can you believe this?"
The most that came from her lips was a forced "...yeah...".
"Jeez when does this title card end?" No response came back.
