This Year's Novella

I wrote this in a single day, it's a rough draft but i think you'll like it.

This Year’s Novella. The hall was packed with overly glee faces, all the smartest and brightest kids from school’s across the country gathered in the summer of 2009. It was the third and final day of the National High School Dialogues (N.H.S.D) held once a year and just moment’s away until the minister of education himself handed the Literal Arts Novella to one lucky student for best speech.

The novella was a nicely crafted award of a pen made out from glass weighing not more than 18g. The topics were mostly controversial (students showing public affection on school grounds, homo-sexuality, abortion, profanity on creative essays etc.) but there was one topic in particular that everyone avoided "religion.

Temper’s seemed to flair too high when the existence of God was questioned so this year everyone did their best to leave theistic orientation out of it. Daniel Sims was in the middle of his speech. A clean cut boy, prefect in his class, hails from one of the most esteemed private schools and son of one Charles Elliot Sims -a respected Harvard alumnus who now practiced law in the great state of Boston Massachusetts.

“Who is that?” asked Reese a red head from Daniels school, pointing to one of the tables across the room.

“Who you talking about” Amber answered seating next to Reese, curious she turned around scanning the hall.

“Christ Amber right there, in the table with the crimson table cloth over whatever.” “Oh the one in the dark blazer,” she pauses then adds “mmm… his hot.” “No dummy,” said Reese, somewhat irritated “not blazer boy… the guy next to him -with the shades.”

“I don’t know, never seen him before, was he here yesterday?” One of the ushers walked over to the girls table, told them to keep it down and Reese smiled at Amber then at Valerie who had her hand on her left chick and kept stirring her drink with a tooth pick. Reese was even more curious now, batting her eye lashes trying to get the mysterious boy’s attention.

The room claps at a supposedly strong point Daniel makes about Global warning before he continues. Reese sees Cameron taking out something from under the table "it’s an antic thermos. He looks around; eying one of the teachers crossing and crisscrossing her long legs then takes two massive mouthfuls from the thermos.
“This convention is so lame. It’s a suck fest.” said Valerie rolling her eyes.

“You think everything is lame.” says someone else.

“C’mon we all know Daniel is going to take it home just like he did last year… and the year before that.” Then out of nowhere Lyle, Amber’s younger brother and the only boy in the table says “His name is Cameron.”

“What?” Reese asks. “The kid you were askin’ about… with the shades, his name is Cameron.” “How do you know?” “I went to Spencer remember? before I transferred.”

"Right, after you got caught stealing the answers to the midterm paper.” said Reese.

“Allegedly.” Lyle pauses, taking a sip of cranberry juice, then makes a face after putting the glass back down “Anyway me and this friend of mine used to score some killer weed from Cameron. I think he was putting some special ingredient in it, but we could never figure out what it was you know?”

“Wait his’ a drug dealer?” Reese inquired, alarmingly. “Who’s a drug dealer” asked Valerie.

“Shiiii… no, not anymore.” said Lyle. “So…” “So,” he stops looking at the positions on the ushers “He got busted a few months back and now his facing expulsion.”

“Poor guy.” says Reese. “Nah don’t shed a tear, he’ll be just fine. His dad’s on the board at Spencer and he makes Daniels dad look like a manager at Burger king.

"Everyone stands up and claps when Daniel finishes his speech (all the deans and principals and judges and students) except for the minister who claps passively seating down with a look of redundancy on his face. As Daniel leaves the podium the confidence oozing from his steep -Cameron stands up, removes his sunglasses and bumps a table on his way to the stage, people cover their noses at the strong almost faint inducing smell of Cameron. Reese sees all this and asks

“What‘s wrong with hm.” “Best guise, his drunk as usual,” said Lyle clapping “I overheard some chick from REED saying his been in his room drinking the whole time we’ve been here.”
“Eyu… he looks like a hobo.” says Amber. Cameron gets to the podium, his wearing a white shirt with the court of arms logo from his school on the right pocket where his scotch thermos is picking above. The shirt isn’t ironed and has a few buttons undone, and he has no idea where his tie is.

He stands there for a while holding back the need to vomit,looking around at the Chartering Deans and judges deliberating and students, then he taps the microphone and says “I have something to say, eye everyone I have some s**t one my mind.” No one really paid much attention, the M.C of the dialogue and Dean from a well-known all-girls school walks over to Cameron and says “Young man,go back to seat.” Cameron simply avoids him and shrugs off his hand when the Dean tries to escort him.

The minister who seems surprisingly amused looks over at the teachers from Spencer and they intern look away as if they know nothing god will follow within the next moments. VAGINA! -shouts out Cameron, and everyone is stunned, looking at one another awkwardly, and not really sure how to react. “Good, now that I have your attentions please sit. I have something to say on the matter everyone’s been avoiding this year. Wait,” He reaches behind and retracts his underwear that had made its way right up in there and was really, really starting to bother him and then he says “Ahhh… don’t you hate it when that happen?”The students laugh, along with some of the teaching faculty. The minister says to the M.C “Let the boy speak Walter.”

And Cameron acknowledges the Dean for the first time by saying “Yes Dean topee’, let the boy speak, I mean me… let me speak.” By now everyone is seated and shocked and the hall is so silent you can hear a needle drop from the back.

Cameron whistles in awe and says “Wow, this is a really big room.” He giggles chilled like and takes a deep breath, rolling out a piece of paper he took out from his pants and starts.

RELIGION: “I’ll be brief, you know I’ve often been referred to as an atheist, however this not this is not the case. If we were to think about this whole God business logically, putting all bull s**t aside and getting really concrete here.
I think weather I personal believe in the divine however you may choose to define such a thing is irrelevant. What does matter is this "you can either chose to see that some things like love for instance do exist, very much like God we cannot see love, taste or touch it.
We just know it’s there.” He stops to take a sip of water and everyone brace themselves for the worst “Or you can choose to see love in extension all emotional entities as simply induced chemical reactions reacting to environmental stimuli,wired from birth into your D.N.A. And thus the idea of God to be yet another in-fantasized delusion contrary to the inherent human condition and need to quantify its surroundings with something that’s not really there.But there is a third door I would implore you to consider my fellow pupils "what if, now just what if God does and does not exist at the same time. What if there’s no conclusion, not just about God but about everything else, what if the whole point of all this is to go on like this forever.

The reiterative nature of evolution does seem to reflect this somehow, things evolving or devolving in the case of human beings.” Everyone laughs, and Cameron sniff’s the air and collects his dunk thoughts“For me this theory fits everything so elegantly, Shrotighm’s experiment on the uncertainty of perception, Arkam’s razor etc. I know the probability of this is unlikely at best yet the electron does this every-single-moment.” The crowed claps, everybody claps in a standing ovation equal only to that of the minister when he flew in from Washington on the second day of the dialogues. Cameron excuses himself to go to the bathroom and the judges deliberate.

When he returns, the students stand again and start clapping, a few of them stand close to the stage to shake his hand and Reese slips her phone number in the pocket of his shirt. The minister call’s him to the stand and hands him the Novella. He leans real close to Cameron and says “You didn’t give us your name.”

“It’s Cameron, Cameron Hughes.”

“Hughes…” the minister pauses, thinking of something then says “You’re Micheal's kid?”

“You know my dad?”

“Of cause, he and I caused a lot of trouble in our day. Good man.”

 “No, his an a*****e.” They both laugh as the applause tier down. The sun eventually let up and wasn’t as hot. A warm breeze rustled the tress and it was dark outside but bright enough to see. The minister lifts up Cameron’s arm and says “This year’s novella goes to Cameron Hughes.”

The End.

Reviews

[VALENTINE]

thanx cass i'm glad u enjoyed it.

[Cassy Samuels]

Personally, this story was...so...wonderful and interesting, of course! science tries to have a logical explanation for everything..but love is not just explainable its spiritual, you neither see it nor touch it! and God really "exists" too you just have to believe.
For writing this in a day i got to congratulate you....It was good, I enjoyed it...though i think you have to do some more editing...nice good plot too, perfect....very good!
Cassy Samuels