(All together) To celebrate life

After lunch came the usual collected senior's assembly. As always, really just accepted as a period of zoning out and recovering by all concerned after being let loose with each other for an hour. The teachers were all too aware of how… eventful… their horny charges free periods could be, and how pointless it would be trying to get them to focus on anything scholarly afterward. In fact, considering the active role most teachers took in their elder student's extracurricular activities… it wasn't unusual to see a few of them slumped cathartic in their squeaky, plastic chairs. Fluids dripping where appropriate.

Still there were those to whom this time was sacred. The backseaters took their namesaked position and tried to make as much gasping, moaning noise as possible, attempting to disrupt proceedings with proof of their endless stamina. While on stage at the front, other groups strutted… The performers and artists. Politicians to be and flamboyant exhibitionists. Every day brought a new show of inventive debauchery, cooked up cornily or clichéd or actually quite cleverly. Plays about the prude who actually had a magic penis, or erotic dance routines by the cheerleaders who's inspiration was just too out there for the county competitions. Those who wanted to be prefects would publicly offer themselves to the headmaster as he gave his speech in time-honored tradition and submission. Time-honored since he'd decided he'd bore himself as well otherwise, at least.

The only part of the proceedings that really piqued the interest of everyone present, came right at the end. A bit of incentive and encouragement for the school as a whole. It didn't happen every day… In fact, sometimes one didn't occur for weeks on end… Setting a anxiously depressing backdrop to everybody's mind. One that everyone felt, even if they didn't really acknowledge it to themselves… The confirmation of pregnancies was about as unifying a point of pride as any group of young adults so **** together could coalesce around. Each student or staff member that had nervously or flabbergastedly spotted a blue line appear upon the built-in, toilet-bowl tests was brought up to be tested again in front of all and sundry. The great sigh of jealous congratulations, followed by roar of whooping applause that followed these nerve-wracking acts of public urination were the kind of moments that really underpinned the whole school experience. Rival institutions kept strict counts and viciously competitive claims over such statistics. School Boards plastered their advertisements to prospective parents with every clawed decimal of a percentage rate. The only thing greater than the surging joy of such success was the crushing blow of a false positive… When some poor young thing had to prostrate herself openly before all her peers and guardians, only to find the bathroom stall had been lying… or tampered with. Such soul destroying cases were treated with utmost concern and seriousness by all the powers that be…

Today… was not such a day though. Alex, Grace and Simone all recognised the mousy-haired girl who made her way forward from several rows in front of them. Sandra was not exactly a stand out character among the high-school ranks. An only child with a sickly father, she was known only for having a particularly obvious crush on one of the maths teachers of all people… Still, it must have worked out for her. For it was that man himself who came over to help her onto the stage. She held his hand as she relieved herself over the offered bowl and sensor and didn't take her eyes off him for a second as the crowd erupted into celebratory uproar. Her days of girlhood would soon be over. In just a short few months she would be whisked away to spend her days in spa retreats and 24hr state medical care. Until the moment her miracle came forth and she would be offered everything else she might need to nurture it.

Alex caught herself gripping hands with both of her best friends as they watched their tearful classmate. Each hand clasped tight with that ever-present certainty: 'Some day, that could be me!'