For as long as I can remember I have been living far away in a school called Outward Phoenix. They told me my label is Cr-155 but I call myself Criss. I grew up being told that it is a school for gifted children but some of the older tenants have told me rumors that they have us here to keep us away from the rest of the world. I have often dreamed what the outside world would be like. “Why would they keep us here away from others?” I and many others have often asked ourselves this, it’s become a hot topic of debate.

Some say that we are powerful beings and would cause havoc on the outside world, some say we are weak, and the outside world would be devastating to us, so they keep us here to prepare and be able help and protect our own in the outside world. I have a mixed view, I believe that we are powerful beings, but are being taught how to deal with the scary and dangerous outside world.

The teachers say that when you get to a certain age you are given the opportunity to take the final exam and get a job in the outside world. We’ll be able to serve the lord and help in his cause to saving people. Those who don’t make the cut are held over and given more time to adapt. If you don’t show signs of adapting they take you to a different facility entirely. Nobody knows what happens at that facility. We are told that the facility is a separate school where students are given more one on one time to help them learn and adapt. They do this so that the flow of this school does not get too overwhelmed with held over students.

The people who run the school work as servants to the lord, the teachers and the hall monitors say they have our best interests in mind but they are all big sour puss meanies. The only one that I feel genuinely cares about us is the principal. She calls herself Angel and boy howdy if I didn’t agree. She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. She is the one responsible for us and she greets us every morning over the intercom with a heartfelt speech about today’s current topic and goals, such as what there is to eat at the mess hall, general goals for the day and a heartfelt message to keep pushing forward.

“Hard work is the skeleton key to all locked doors towards the path to happiness.” she always finishes with that line. She tells us that if we work hard and study for the final exam, we will be granted a job and graduate from the school into the outside world. It has become one of my lifelong goals to finally see the outside world. I want to finally be able to answer the burning question on everyone’s minds, what it’s actually like in the outside world.

Everyone's day to day life consists of Angel's morning announcements, followed by school where they teach us how to better ourselves and general education. Some examples of things we learn for the final exam are science, math, cooking, and the words of the almighty himself. Much of our class time is spent learning and hearing about his words and how they affected our world. They say that his guidance is what allows us to live peacefully in this world. I often wondered if it was his choice to have us secluded from the outside world. Upon asking a teacher if we are kept away from others to allow us to become good people, I was met with detention and extra duty.

Speaking of duty, the teachers in that class don’t like when you ask questions, so I got detention and extra duty. Speaking of duty, after class we all have our daily duties to attend to and finish before we are released. Everyone is assigned a different duty depending on their skillsets, duties range from cooking, gardening, and cleaning of classrooms and halls and other tasks to get done around the school. I am not very talented, so they gave me the duty of being a janitor. I sweep and mop the bathrooms as the other people on janitorial duty said it was the hardest job out of all the janitorial duties and that janitors would work out shifts for it just because of how tough it was.

I like to make everyone’s lives a little better so I volunteered to do the bathrooms full time so no one would have to struggle with them anymore. All the other students usually hang out after their duties are done but since the bathroom does take quite a bit I tend to miss out on a lot of meetings. Which is fine because the teachers and hall monitors tend to scold me for bothering others with their work anyway.

I don’t really talk to anyone, and it makes me feel sad and lonely but that’s okay. They all think that I am strong, kind, and super reliable. Of course no one has really said it, but I know if someone was doing the things that I did for them I would be happy. So all is well, as long as I can make others happy then I am happy, and today I am especially happy.

Today is the day of our class finals, we will be getting tested on our general academics, if we pass that then have interview with Vanarch herself. Vanarch is the school guidance counselor and she is the one that determines whether you are fit to leave school and serve the lord. This moment is what I have been looking forward to for my whole life and I am excited to see what is inside that locked room of happiness. My mind wanders of endless possibilities.

As I lie in bed lost in my thoughts after coming home from my tasks, I am desperately trying to go to sleep but I am too excited to do so. I feel like a kid on the almighty lord’s birthday. Despite receiving and giving plentiful gifts from the students and angel herself on the almighty lord's birthday; I believe this night could equal in excitement to that day. Lord forgive me for thinking so!