Chapter 6: Three Years Too Soon
Three years isn't of much importance in the lifetime of a fully grown adult, much less in the big picture of the universe. In fact 3 years is nothing in the history of the universe much less the earth. If the entire existence of the earth was condensed into a single day, the existence of human beings could be condensed into a mere 11 minutes. That's how irrelevant we are in the big picture. Therefore the same logic should apply to us. Although childhood experiences affect "romantic" relationships, social life, and confidence, all important for adulthood, at that time we didn't know, so those 3 years were like a stagnant pool of water.
There were only a few major incidents worth writing about. To sum up the 3 years:
We had our first camp. It was in the woods of District 4 where we learnt how to set up a tent, make fire purely out of sticks, how to catch fish in the river without a net or a rod. It was odd at the time, because 7 year old me could not think of a plausible situation where we would require such basic skills. I mean there were rules that except for school trips camping in the District 4 woods were strictly prohibited, and if you must stay overnight in District 4, you could do it in a friends house, or rush back in the middle of the night as the bullet train operated during all hours. Now I can see why they would teach us such skills, after they saved my life two years ago.
Our second and third camps were in Districts 1 and 5 respectively. There we learnt about the agricultural system, how all the food inside the dome was grown, and how we only grew 11 types of crops total. I remember feeling particularly annoyed with Bella on this camp because she was utterly uninterested in agriculture, and was making a point of obnoxiously expressing it.
She behaved unbelievably rudely to all of the farmers, and to this day I can still feel second hand embarrassment from watching her spout rubbish facts about matters she didn't fully understand. But at that time, I was still wrapped up in the spell that she cast. She was so charming whenever she smiled at me or made a smart remark. No matter what she did, I would support her, so that's why unlike Kim, who was also at the scene, I didn't speak up for the elderly farmer. If I recall correctly the second camp was when Kim made an enemy of Bella and the whole grade started hating her for it.
Anyways although my memories of this incident weren't the clearest I still vaguely remember the farmer explaining to us. "Ahh, yes, so in this corner of the farm we grow soybeans. They provide an excellent source of protein, and soy milk is beneficial to growing children such as yourself." He pointed to the vastless fields that stretched before our eyes. As he drove us on the tour vehicle he pointed to where the various crops were located. "And here are the potatoes, and directly opposite we have the rice paddies. See that, that's corn, and here, yes, you're right, that's wheat! Oooh! Broccoli!" He exclaimed in an excited voice. He went on to list the others, apples, onions, peppers, strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce.
When we approached the very last field, we could make out a wide grin on the old man's face. "And this one is my personal favourite, "Transfood", ahh, yes, Transfood."
"Transfood?" We all chorused in sync.
"Yes, it's a funny name isn't it? But that's because the genes in this type of plant can be processed into any type of crop. For instance, do you guys eat cucumbers?" We all nodded. "Well, cucumbers are not a type of plant grown in the Dome, so instead we grow Transfood, and in the processing stage we implant DNA from cucumber, so when you eat it it becomes cucumber." He grinned, proud of himself.
"So why do we still plant other crops even though we can technically make them from Transfood?" Someone asked.
"Aha, good question!" He paused for a moment considering how to phrase his response. "It's a safety net you know? What if one day a super virus wiped out all of the Transfood in the Dome? If that happened we would all surely die of famine, but because we have other crops we can still live, while modifying Transfood's immunity."
I also remember staring at the twenty or so ugly creatures, grazing in the meadows, called cows and how the farmer cheerfully rambled on about being the only farm having livestock. Considering that we had real meat with every meal, it was strange that only 20 cows could provide such a huge quantity of meat. I assumed that somehow we weren't the only civilisation and regularly traded with other civilisations for meat. I assumed that we interacted with other societies for trade, and I was right about that. But our interactions with other societies were not just limited to the trafficking of manufactured and agriculture goods.
The rest of the trip in my memory is still quite blurry. The rule on every trip was that we had groups of 5 to travel with and I must have gone with Hannah, Bella, Georgie and Mina. Long after the trip the words "safety net" still strongly resonated with me. And the image of the ugly creatures grazing on the unkempt grass lingered even as the rest of my memory faded.
The third incident of extreme importance back then, is a trivial matter. But still worth writing down. It was regarding Bella. Up until then Bella had consistently scored within the top 10 of every test. However out of nowhere her grades started falling. Soon she was just above average, where I was, and no sooner than that she had dropped even further. I think it was the pressure that everyone placed on her, the expectations, that were far too heavy a burden for her. We were almost 10 then, this was when the bullying for Kim escalated. Inflicting pain on others was her own method to deal with the unfair standards assigned to her. Her own way of coping. What resulted was the destruction of the intelligent, charming, young girl that I knew.
We were assigned dorms.
I got into a huge fight with Bella.
And most importantly: I became friends with Kim.
At that time our relationship was strictly platonic, as were most of my other relationships when they began. I simply admired her for being cool, speaking her mind and being brave. I wanted to get closer to her. All of our group were placed in class 3E. Therefore we all hung out a lot.
We were folding paper cranes during Visuals Arts class, when Hannah first discussed her crush with us. This sparked the beginning of the numerous gossip sessions (regarding her weekly crushes) that we would have at night in our dorm. I was fumbling with my third crane, in a series of demented, crinkly triangles. My upper lip twitched with jealousy as I witnessed Kim's delicate fingers gently creasing the paper, folding it over, all of it done effortlessly. If anyone in Cransfield asked me about it I would always reply that I hated Kim for being proficient in every aspect, but in reality I loved that part of Kim too. Even writing this fills my heavy chest with sadness, as tears, larger than pearls begin to fill up my eyes.
"Umm, I have a confession to everyone." Hannah whispered, her head bowing down with shame.
"What is it? Just say it no need to be shy." Felicity bantered playfully.
"I think I like Will."
At that moment our entire group collectively clapped their palms to their foreheads. Kim, who was in the process of making her 34th paper crane immediately dropped it.
"He's so obnoxious" I exclaimed in shock. I couldn't imagine anyone liking Will being the annoying brat (in a bad way, unlike Finn, who was somewhat a good sport and humorous) he was.
Felicity interrupted. "Are you sure you like him?"
"Yes." She replied super seriously.
We left her to be, too shocked to say or do anything. I really wanted to slap myself, I would never allow Hannah to date such an asshole. Luckily in one week she quickly moved on to another guy called Jim. And after about 20 crushes within half a year, we all stopped believing her whenever she claimed she was serious.
Our group continued like this for another 4 years. Everyday, chatting about girly things during math class, and getting scolded. It was in grade 8 and when I was 14, when finally the 6 of us were separated into different classes. Although we were still each others' closest friends we didn't hang out as much. I regret not spending enough time with Hannah, one of my closest friends. But then again if I did I wouldn't have spent so much time with Finn. I don't even know anymore. What should I have done then?
Cransfield for me before the age of 14, was a wonderful place. The fields were so peaceful, and all of the teachers despite their varying degrees of strictness, really looked after us. It was the best childhood one could ever ask for. Apart from our 6 hours worth of classes daily we were free to play as much as we wanted to, and eat as much as we wanted, the library was filled with delightful books about lively protagonists in vast, beautiful fantasy worlds on endless adventures. Those books were my favourites. Cransfield was truly a bubble within a bubble.
One of the highlights of the year at Cransfield was the biannual shopping trip. Everyone was given $200, and on different days, different classes would visit the central business District to buy certain possessions. Apart from the uniform, soap and toilet paper everything else of our belongings had to be bought from these shopping trips. This included beauty products such as makeup, furniture and of course clothes.
For us clothes were a very important part of our culture. They represented our individualism in a society where conformity was valued so much. Wearing our own mismatch of clothing on weekends were the only freedom given to us. This was partially the reason for us not borrowing clothes from our friends, not a single person in the dome dressed the same, so it felt wrong.
From the 7th grade onwards we were forced to wear uniforms, which everyone was against at first. Because the only form of self expression, which we had, fashion, was stolen from us. When it was first announced I remembered the look of disappointment on Felicity's face as she realised that she could no longer wear those crop tops she loved.
"Geez, what's the fun of wearing the same thing everyday?" She whined.
"But I just bought that white dress half a two weeks ago." Hannah cutely pouted, adding on to Felicity's fury.
"Yeah, that's just cruel. Come on please tell me this is a bad dream."
"Nope." I responded to her.
She sighed.
We were all gathered in the hall of Cransfield as Ms Williams in her red rimmed glasses, frowning, made the announcement. The wrinkles on her forehead appeared more obvious than the last time I saw her. If this was our usual teacher we would have all started booing with great volume and complaining about the unfairness. But it was Ms Williams, sure you could protest to her if you were willing to risk a detention. As she waved one of her skeletal hands in the air, on signal about a dozen of senior students marched into the hall, uniforms piled on their arms, ready to hand out. We were then dismissed from the assembly and ordered to go back to our dorms and change into them.
Our uniform was comparably (look at Shaftsburg) not that bad, however it took away the little freedom that we already had. It comprised of a white short-sleeved dress shirt, and a pair of khaki knee length shorts or trousers for the winter months. A matching khaki jacket was also provided and you were required to wear dress shoes along with the uniform. And the worst part of it all was that you were required to wear the same uniform regardless of gender.
So it was only natural that after a few days of wearing this, a few of the girls made modifications to their outfits. For one they hemmed their shorts so that they only extended to the upper thigh and they shortened the sleeves even further for their dress shirts.
Kim didn't do anything to her uniform, she couldn't even be bothered to tuck in her shirt, she told me it didn't matter, because she found fashion pointless: if she had a point to make, she would just say it.
To some extent I found myself compelled by Kim's reasoning. For the longest time I was in love with the dresses that princesses wore in picture books, they were so frilly yet at the same time so elegant and beautiful. When I didn't make any modifications to my uniform, everyone was surprised.
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