Chapter 29
Holidee, Rip, Rebekah, Tom, and Zeke spent everyday together, planning and working on the new school. After their break was over, they went back to school, but still continued to plan. They would go over to one of their houses every evening, and after finishing all of their homework, they would pull out paper and brainstorm and discuss the new school they were building. On the weekends, they would drive to Holidee’s house and continue building the school. They spent every spare minute they had on it. Their sleeping hours had thinned and they were tired every morning. Some of them had gotten into trouble for sleeping in class, but that didn’t bother them, seeing that the Oceain school was more important than the classes they were in now. They had good days, and they had bad days. This just happened to be one of those bad days.
“Mr. Wolford!” Zeke shot up in his seat, his eyelids still heavy. “I am very disappointed in you. Lately you have been falling asleep in class, turning work in late, and scoring lower on tests. You had better think about your future. Just because it’s your senior year does not mean you can slack off on work.” Tom was drooling on the desk next to him. His eyelids were too heavy. His eyes slowly closed while the teacher continued to lecture him. “Are you listening to me, Mr. Wolford?” He opened his eyes again.
“Uh, y-yes, ma’am.” He yawned and nudged Tom. Tom grumbled, but didn’t wake up. The teacher gave them both a stern look, even though neither of them seemed to notice.
“Mr. Wolford and Mr. Becket. Go to the principal’s office right now.” Zeke slowly stood up and gathered his books into his arms. Then he reached over the desk and pinched Tom hard on the arm.
“Ouch!” Tom gave Zeke a dirty look. “Why’d you-” But he stopped when he realized the room was silent and Zeke had all of his things packed up. He gathered his stuff up and followed Zeke out of the classroom. “Where’re we going?”
“Principal’s.” Zeke yawned again.
“Really? Never been in his office. I wonder if it’s nice.” Zeke didn’t say anything. “Holidee’s office is gonna be nice.” Zeke smiled.
“Yeah.” They reached the office and knocked on the door. A deep voice told them to come in and they walked into the air-conditioned room. They expected to be alone with the principal, but were wrong. There were three other kids in the office, sitting in big red chairs. The kids were Holidee, Rip, and Rebekah. Tom and Zeke could only guess that they were in there for the same reason as them. Tom smiled at the thought of all of them sleeping in class.
“Sit down.” The principal was sitting behind his desk with an unpleasant look on his face. He sighed heavily before talking. “You five are bright kids and good students, but lately I’ve been hearing a lot of complaints about you all falling asleep in class. And not just once a week. Everyday. I’m curious as to what it is that is draining you so, but that is none of my business. What is my business is the fact that you five aren’t learning due to a lack of sleep. So I called someone who may be able to help us all. He seems to be the only one who you do not doze off for.” They all turned toward the door as Crix walked through it. He stood by the desk and looked at the five kids sitting in chairs. Rip was leaning his head against the side of the chair, asleep, while the others were fighting it. “Now I asked Mr. Jublemaker to come here to talk to you five about taking cat naps in class.” Rebekah hit Rip, who woke up, and they all paid attention to Crix. Crix looked at all of them.
“Sleeping in class is a very bad thing.” I hope the school is going well. “It not only keeps you from learning, but it keeps the teacher from teaching.” I’m interested in learning what subject I am going to teach.
Their eyes widened as all five of them heard Crix say one thing out loud and hear another in their heads. Holidee smiled and Crix returned the smile as he winked at her.
“Now, you are all seniors,” Almost teachers. “and it is an important year for you.” Very important. “You are almost adults.” And teachers. “So your education is crucial.” As is practicing with your Oceain skills. “Be aware that we are all taking it easy on you five.” It’s because you’re such good students. “But be warned that sleeping in class is not tolerated here or anywhere.” And I mean that. You’re taking the weekend off and sleeping.
Holidee stood up in protest, but then remembered that the principal wasn’t hearing everything that she was hearing. Once she sat down again, Crix continued talking.
“You cannot perform your best if you do not have the proper amount of sleep. No matter what, you need your mind to rest or else it will not perform correctly or be up to its normal standards.” I’m talking about you’re Oceain standards. “So get rest from now on and stop,” working on the school “whatever you are doing” At least not as much “that is causing you to lose sleep.”
Crix turned to face the principal who nodded and Crix left the office. The five of them looked at the principal, who dismissed them to return to class. None of them fell asleep after that.
“So are they going to have text books?”
“They need to have books. How else are they going to study?”
“Where’re we going to get hundreds of textbooks about Oceain skills?” Holidee sat and listened to all of them. Her, Rip, Rebekah, Tom, and Zeke were sitting on the back deck of Rip and Rebekah’s house. They were supposed to be studying for a science test, but their minds kept drifting to other subjects. Holidee was staring off in her own world.
“We’re going to have to make them.” They all stared at her.
“Make?” Holidee looked at them.
“How else are we gonna do it?” None of them spoke.
“Okay. So we are going to write hundreds of books and get them published? Who would publish them?”
“Not publish them. Just write and copy them.”
“Oh. Sounds just peachy.”
“But won’t you have to write them all? You know, since you’re the strongest?”
“Probably, but you guys can help me.” Rip looked at Holidee and spoke for the first time.
“What about the book about our history? Our ancestors?” Holidee didn’t answer. She didn’t know what to say because she, herself, didn’t know much about the ancestors.
“I…” She met Rip’s eyes. How distant they had become.
“I could write that one.” She looked at him questioningly.
“How?”
“I plan on visiting them after school ends.” They all looked at Rip then.
“What?”
“I’m going to seek out the island they first inhabited and learn everything I can about them. When I’m done, I can write that book.” Holidee stared at Rip. So that’s what he was planning.
“But, Rip-”
“Bek, this is something I have to do.” He looked into Holidee’s eyes. Please. I need to do this. Holidee nodded and he half smiled at her. Thanks.
“So we’re gonna write the books?”
“Yep.”
“How’re we gonna divide all of their classes and learning into four years?”
“It won’t be too hard. They’re going to have regular classes also, so really they are just learning more than everyone else. And if you think about it, they will only have about an hour a day with each skill, so it’ll take them four years to conquer it completely.”
“Will some Oceains be stronger than others?”
“Probably. I hope so. I don’t want them to be equal. I want them to all learn different skills so that they will have to depend on other Oceains and not just themselves. They can’t be independent, because the ocean is dependent. They have to work together. That will strengthen our race and unite Oceains.”
“So how many kids are we going to let into the school each year?”
“How many Oceains are there in the world?”
“We’ll have to travel around the world and search on the Internet and find every Oceain, I guess.”
“That’ll take a long time.”
“Yeah, but we have to do
it. Then we can decide how many and who can enter the school.”
“Wow.”
“I can do the researching.”
“Then Tom and Zeke can continue building the school. Rip, you can do whatever you need to do with the ancestors, and I’ll work a little on everything.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Sounds good.”