Sidenote: This article features violence and politics. Also while the context is loosely based on current events in the recent past, the story itself is solely fiction.

It was November 9th, hall monitor election day for the kids of Mountain Bridge Elementary school. As the kids filtered into the large colorful room a little before 8:00 a.m., they sat and filled the empty wooden desks. After the bell rang the teacher announced “Today class, as we elect our new hall monitor, our country will also be electing a new president” as she turned on the small but clearly visible TV in the corner.

As part of a class tradition, the past hall monitor was given the honor of doing a speech before stepping down right before the new one would step in. After a gesture from the teacher, the small child got up from the left side of the room, which was a faded yet still blue color. While the left side of the classroom cheered, the strong and almost maroon-colored red side booed. The neutral beige color of the room looked at the past hall monitor in silence, anxiously waiting for him to speak.

“I want to say that I liked working with you guys and that even though we fought and cried, we got things done. I want to say thank you to you guys for a great year, and I will be happy to give my new title to a new person today,” the small child said. After a couple more words were spoken, he walked out of the room to use the restroom. The teacher then asked all three candidates from all three sides of the room to come up to the front of the room and started the debate session.

The debate was on the topic of ice cream or chocolate cake. The child from the left strong advocated for ice cream, demanding that it would be immoral to choose the cake and that everyone would get their fair share of it under her. Then the boy from the right came up, and from the get go started calling the girl from the left names, causing boos from the left blue side of the classroom and cheers from the right red side. He then gave his support of cake, saying how his cake would be the best cake, and that he would impossibly ban all other dessert foods from the school. The children in the middle of the class, who took up the majority were silent, caught in terror and shock as they saw the reactions their fellow classmates made.

Then the final speaker spoke to all of the class, surprising everyone in the room. “I think that instead of only having ice cream or chocolate cake, we should have a chocolate ice cream cake. If we do this, we can get both ice cream and chocolate cake in one thing.” He continued on with his speech and what he would do as hall monitor, but the left and right quickly began to yawn and started to turn and talk amongst each other. The teacher saw this happening, but only sat and watched silently.

After the candidates finished their speeches, all three children sat down. The recess bell then rang, and all of the small children ran outside, with a quarter of the class following the kid from the left, a quarter following the kid from the right, and the half from the middle simply running to the playground, ignoring all candidates. They apparently had enough of this hall monitor election business. After about 15 minutes had passed, the bell rang again, and everyone was called back into class.

The broadcast of the news networks on the small tv in the corner continued to show the current election results as the children entered their same seats again. The teacher then placed a small box on a small desk in front of the room, asking each person to write and place their vote inside. As each child did this, they found that each person from the left or right side of the classroom glared at them, as a sort of tactic for intimidation, especially those that came from the middle. As the teacher started to teach the class about world history, focusing specifically in Asia, a child from another classroom, wearing the color red with an embroidered gold sickle and hammer entered the room and ran out of the box. Unfortunately, only one or two people from the room noticed, both being from the right side of the room. Oddly enough, a couple minutes later the box magically appeared back in the same place as before, as if it had never been taken.

The teacher at the end of the day then slowly counted all of the votes, with all of the children watching, all shaking with anxiety. The winner was announced, the boy from the right side of the classroom won, and the class itself erupted in such a terrible noise as it never had before. All the children from the left started to scream at the middle and threw objects such as pencils, paper, and scissors at the right side. The children on the right then retaliated, doing the same on the left. Then lastly, both left and right turned against the middle of the room, which contained the majority of students in the class. While the left accused them of being morally wrong and sexist, the right criticized them for being weak, and for being supporters of corruption. They then physically began to beat the middle violently and moved onto beating up each other.

At this point, the teacher just sat in awe and horror, of how a bunch of school children could simply betray one another and started to see the images of adults in her eyes. She looked away, she couldn’t bear it. Seeing the bonds friends and neighbors who had once enjoyed the company of one another began to break painfully apart with each punch and each bloody nose that was caused. She wondered what caused it, and after watching it enough ran out of the classroom, and out of the building in tears. However, she forgot to turn off the small tv in the corner, which finally announced the winner of the long-awaited election. The small tv continued to play, with the sound carrying over the long and terrible screams of the children until the principal and police came in. Then as expected, it was turned off. And after all the children were carried out, a dead silence lingered. One that lasted much longer after the chairs and desks were set up, and after the floor was polished again. I would say it stayed until a new set of children were brought in a week later.