Moving on.

.

.

Timeskip from Thursday to Monday

Matthew leaned forward at his desk, stretching his arms out across it. First bell had been effectively cancelled for the day, leaving those who were in class to sit and wait for the assembly to be called in the auditorium. He glanced around the classroom, watching other students mingle in groups, talking excitedly about whatever changes might be taking place. Matthew was just hoping it would be a brief assembly. Sitting in a dark auditorium for a long period of time is not my idea of fun. More like my idea of a nap. On the other hand, if he slept through it, he wouldn't be bored either. It can't possibly be anything that life-changing.

.

.

The auditorium was too loud to hear much of anything, in fact, Matthew doubted he could even hear himself if he were to try talking out loud. The blonde had plunked himself down in one of the rows close to the front, and was trying to block out the majority of the noise by placing his hands over his ears. It had yet to work.

"Morning."

Matthew opened one eye as Cruz edged past him to sit in the empty seat beside him, "How did you even find me in here?"

"Wasn't easy, I'll give it that. Crowded as hell. Can't they do this in smaller groups at separate times during the day?" Cruz made a face and glanced around the auditorium, or what little they could see of it from where they were sitting.

He was actually looking for me? Matthew blinked in surprise. "… Eh… that would make more sense. And it'd be easier to get everyone's attention."

"Good luck to the speaker who has to try it." Cruz rolled his eyes and looked towards the stage, though the speaker seemed to be distracted in talking to someone else.

Matthew tilted his head, "I wonder if it's going to be our new principal…? Or maybe it's going to be two speakers? One to introduce the principal and then the new person?"

"That sounds a little redundant. Let whoever it is introduce themselves. Eliminate the middle man." Cruz sunk lower in his seat, "And whoever the person is, I hope they're not getting ahead of themselves with some fancy new ideas that ain't gonna fly."

Matthew smiled and looked back to the stage, "It'll be interesting anyway."

.

.

"… I'm sorry, did you say 'interesting'?" Cruz asked in a low voice.

"Uhm…" Matthew blinked and raised his head, "I fell asleep, what did you say?"

"You just proved my point actually." Cruz smirked at the blonde and jabbed him in the shoulder, "Stay awake. If I have to, so do you."

"I'm not saying you can't sleep." Matthew sighed, but tried to focus on the stage again, where the principal was talking. The most he'd caught before he fell asleep was 'something something in my experience…'. If you can't summarize it then… what's the point of listening to it?

"Maybe this is part of the collective problem." Cruz commented, "No one has the patience to listen to this." He glanced around and found most students around them were either sleeping, as Matthew had been, or on their cell phones.

Matthew raised an eyebrow as he noticed the principal was looking around at the students closest to the stage, but had yet to make a comment about the people sleeping (or at least not that he had heard so far).

"… now, after all that, I ask of you all, who was listening?"

Matthew blinked and lifted his head again, "Eh?"

"Nobody?" Cruz whispered.

"Did I fall asleep again?" Matthew blinked a few times.

"I think you were about to." Cruz commented, giving him a grin.

"I say this to prove a point." The principal continued, "If you cannot listen to someone who has authority over you, how do you hope to listen to those around you?"

"Uh…" Matthew made a face, "This speech suddenly changed direction."

"He really needs to get warning signs for this." Cruz muttered, "We're about to go off the deep end aren't we?"

"I'm willing to bet that there is not one person in here who can tell me what I said five minutes into what I was saying. If you can't spend more than five minutes listening to someone on a stage, how can you spend two minutes listening to someone in the hallway?"

"Wh-where is this going?" Matthew whispered to Cruz, who was staring at the principal in disbelief.

"You're all teenagers." The principal made a waving motion with both hands, "You all have your groups of friends, some smaller or bigger than others… but tell me, how many people in here, in the last week, have actually spoken to someone new? You spoke to someone you've never spoken to before? Show of hands?"

"…" Matthew raised his hand, as did Cruz (though he looked rather annoyed at having to do so). While his hand was raised, the blonde glanced around, but found very little others had done the same. "I-is this it?"

"Well that's pathetic." Cruz commented.

"That's actually more than I was expecting." The principal commented, "Good for you all who raised your hands. The rest of you are either too scared to raise your hands for whatever reason, or you just believe in sticking with your normal group of friends. Either one is fine, it doesn't much matter. But while you are talking to your friends in the hallway, in the classroom, or even on the way home… how many of you notice the people around you? The ones not in your circle?"

"…This conversation topic is getting rather uncomfortable." Matthew whispered.

"Yeah." Cruz scowled, "Going into the discomfort zone."

"Just think of your first class for instance. I know for a fact, that there are students in this school who have divorced or single parents, how many of you know someone in this auditorium now who does not have both parents to go home to after school?"

Matthew blinked for a few minutes. Well… Arthur. He raised his hand again and Cruz gave him a startled look, "Eh… I do know someone though. I haven't spoken to him, but even still…"

Cruz looked around, and found even fewer people had raised their hands, "… are we all supposed to know this stuff?"

The principal nodded in silence as he glanced around the room at the few hands that were raised, "Those of you with your hands raised, how many of you have single parents yourselves?"

Matthew's hand went back down again and watched around the room. Only a couple hands remained in the air. …That's not very many.

"All students with single parents, raise your hands."

"…That's a hell of a lot more than hands were up before." Cruz glanced around the room in shock.

"Eh… I think we're really bad at noticing people around us." Matthew whispered.

"Again, proving my point." The principal gestured to the students in front of him who had their hands raised, "Some people are even sitting next to those with their hands up, that did not raise their hands when I asked who knew someone with single parents. This is what I meant. You have grown up in an environment that teaches you to stay inside your comfort zone. You grow up talking to the same people and never look beyond that. People of habit."

"… This is really bad." Matthew muttered.

"What does this have to do with our failed reputation?" Cruz grumbled.

"On a more serious note, how many students in here know someone who tried to take their life?" The principal looked around the room once more.

Matthew made a face as Cruz's jaw dropped, "What the hell kind of question is that?"

Uhm… He was sure Alfred's hand had gone up, but Cruz's hand remained down. At least he didn't hear that about me.

"Now I can understand if you don't want to answer this, but how many people in here have actually tried?" The principal looked around the room once more.

Matthew spared a cautious glance around the room and was surprised to see more than a few hands go up. Eh. Might as well. He raised his hand as well, receiving a look of shock from Cruz.

"When was this?" Cruz continued staring at him in disbelief.

"Middle school?" Matthew shrugged, giving a sheepish smile.

Cruz stared at him for a minute before looking around the room again, "What the hell. Seriously? All these people?"

"Now that is sad." The principal commented, "I can't even imagine how many more there are who just don't want to raise their hands. Nor do I want to know how many succeeded."

Matthew glanced around the room as it suddenly turned dead silent. Ouch.

"Imagine for one minute, if all those students who just had their raised were not here. If everyone in this room who had tried had succeeded, how much smaller your class year would be."

Cruz made a face as Matthew slowly sunk in his seat. "This is unbelievable…"

"Out of… curiosity." The principal waved both arms again, "How many students in here… have been in the hospital for a serious affliction, self-caused or otherwise?"

Matthew sighed and put his hand back up again, "Might as well have just told us to keep our hands up."

Cruz scowled but raised his own hand.

"Eh." Matthew stared at him in shock, "Was it a fight?"

"Technically." Cruz grumbled.

The principal looked around the auditorium again, "I'm probably going to regret asking, but of those of you who do not have your hands raised, take a look around you, and raise your hand if you knew about at least one of these people."

Cruz grinned and waved at the students who had looked back at them, "I know you all didn't."

"A few people… so about half the room has their hands raised right now… your class year could have easily been half the size it is now. And none of you… would have noticed."

"Ouch." Cruz said flatly.

"… No one?" Matthew whispered.

"I can pretty much guarantee, that out of everyone that does not have their hand raised, you might have wondered for about five minutes, but then the thought would have left your mind. Either with the assumption that they moved or transferred, but never would this thought have occurred to you. …Of the students who had their hands raised… how many of you can honestly say that you are still here, because of the actions of someone else?"

Matthew folded both hands on his lap and glanced around the room, curious to see how many hands would go up.

"… kind of?" Cruz half-raised his hand, "Depends on which time you're referring to."

"Those of you who have your hands up, more than I expected again honestly, how many of you are here because of the actions of someone else, from the most recent time you were hospitalized?"

Cruz put his hand back down and shrugged, "That knocks me out."

"… That… put everyone out." Matthew glanced around the room.

The principal looked around the auditorium again, "This…" He motioned to the whole room, "Is not only disappointing… it's sad. Because that means of all of you who had your hands up, you did not have a friend to help you, and you didn't even have a family member."

Matthew sunk lower in his seat as Cruz shot him another look, "Neither did you." He muttered.

"I'm an only child." Cruz said flatly, "You have a twin."

"So I ask again, who would have noticed?" The principal gestured to the room once more, "Who can honestly stand up and tell me, you would have noticed that something was wrong?"

Silence echoed around the room, and Matthew saw the principal's face turn to the opposite side of the auditorium. The blonde could dimly see someone standing in the front row, "Eh. Someone stood up."

"Are you serious?" Cruz gaped in disbelief.

"Oh hello." The principal wandered over to that side of the stage, "And why would you have noticed?" He held the microphone out to the student.

"Because we're people of habit." The student said flatly, "I honestly could not tell you their names, but I could tell you their absence would be obvious. I pass the same people every day to classes. I know who to expect in the hallway while I'm walking, because they always stand at the same spot, with the same people, every day."

"… Someone actually noticed that?" Cruz whispered.

"He's really observant!" Matthew exclaimed quietly, "That's amazing!"

"Thank you." The principal nodded his head to the student and returned to the center of the stage, "So one student… one person out of this entire room, would have noticed. That is… sad."

.

.

"That was… awful." Cruz said through gritted teeth as they were weaving their way through the hall.

"Talk about feeling like there's a weight on you…" Matthew sighed and looked around them as they were walking, "I mean… it's kind of worse when you realize that he was expecting those responses."

"Seriously, is he a principal with a major in psychology or something?" Cruz made a face, "And why say all that at the beginning of a school day?"

"Maybe he wanted us to think about it?" Matthew tilted his head.

"Yeah, sure. That speech will probably be gone from everyone's heads as soon as they're in class. We all have to pay attention to the inane lectures." Cruz rolled his eyes, "As awful as it sounds, I guarantee you, the majority of our class will have completely forgotten about it by the end of the day."

"… People of habit." Matthew whispered.

"And all the bad ones." Cruz grumbled.

.

.

And so it begins…