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Untitled Document
I wasn't just doomed. I was beyond doomed.
"What are you doing in my office? With my tape
recorder? Were you trying to steal?"
"Mr. Sterns…"
"You admit it! You're nothing but a petty thief,
girl!"
"Your tape recorder? It's my tape recorder!
I'm the head reporter for the front page of the Golden Jubjub Newspaper!"
I found myself looking straight into those bottomless
pits that were his eyes. I felt myself being drawn into them, hypnotized, but
I resisted. Then, I realized that I wasn't afraid of our principal anymore.
In knowing of his cowardice and recording it on tape, I had broken the spell
of fear he had placed on students. Now, I could talk in complete sentences around
him, and I was no longer afraid.
"I don't care if you're the queen of England,
child! I want my tape recorder back! And I'm going to suspend you for sneaking
into my office! This isn't a place for unsupervised children!"
A sly look crossed my face. "If it's your tape
recorder, tell me what's on it."
"You guess first, young one."
"I guess that this tape contains valuable information.
Information about a new grading and discipline system that the superintendent
would love to hear about. A system that penalizes a friend of mine for starting
a newspaper."
"That dreaded paper! It's made you students
go way out of line. You're not supposed to have a say in your education! You
shouldn't be able to change your school. Your elders and betters made this school
and all of the systems in it. Now that this paper is out, I hear all of this
nonsense about change and student representation! No one cares about what you
tiny children think. Children aren't worth squat."
Then, he realized his mistake. His cold, merciless
black eyes darted from my face, to the tape recorder, to my hoof, to the buttons
my hoof was holding down.
The play and record buttons.
I had recorded the Principal's angry ramblings.
* * *
Three days later…
"That was some amazing sleuthing, Ruby. You're a true reporter." My friend
Indigo said to me.
"Thanks. Do you know what really makes me angry?
The fact that he'd lower grades in order to suppress the students' right to
be heard. Those grades are our future, and ultimately, they're the future of
Neopia."
"We're the children of tomorrow," Indigo said.
"It's up to us to find a better way." "So, do you know what'll happen next?"
"Mr. Sterns is fired, I know that. Assistant
Principal Stevens the Chia is filling in until we find a new permanent principal.
Those unfair grades that he told teachers to give, they won't be counted in
our averages. And you don't have to serve that suspension he talked to you about."
"And what about the newspaper?"
"Your article made the front page of the first
issue."
"Don't you still have to name that paper?"
Indigo seemed to be in a trance for a minute.
Then, she said, "No. Your story inspired me so much. I decided on a name."
"What is it?" I asked anxiously.
"It's coming out tomorrow," Indigo told me.
"See for yourself."
The newspapers were passed out in homeroom the
next day. I was antsy, bouncing in my seat. Of course, I sat in the back row,
so I was the last person to receive one. But what I saw took my breath away.
At the top of the paper, in the center, was
a picture of a globe. I could see the high peak of Terror Mountain, the plateau's
of Tyrannia, the sands of the Lost Desert and the oceans around Faerieland.
And around that globe, children NeoPets of all ages, colors, sizes and species
held hands in a circle. Lupes stood next to Chias peacefully. Jubjubs had no
problems with Grarrls or Skeiths. It was a truly touching picture.
Then, I looked at the title. "The Golden Jubjub's
Voice".
It couldn't have been more aptly named.
The End
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