To Kill a Mockingjay

This is the second installment in my substitute teaching fan fiction series. To read the first installment, click here.

He wondered why he even traveled to the outer districts.  Sure, he understood the need was there and the job was there. However, at the end of the day, would there be any bread left for Jon?

He drove thirty minutes west towards the outer district.  The trees grew up around him until he suddenly passed into a giant field.  On the outer edge, he saw it- the outer district training center.  Today, he would need to prepare the citizens of district 11 for an important task in their dim futures: Venn diagram completion.

Commissioner Venn had created a full proof system.  With two swift strokes of his fountain pen, he showed each trainee how they were different, but not unequal.  They were all the same in some ways, but do not forget that we are different... separate.

Jon had long accepted the fact that each district had their own ways, but when the bell rang they all made the same sound.  The cacophony of district 11 was no different than the blabbering of district 8 or the chit chat of district 17 or the howling of district 2.   Jon had built an immunity to it- at least on most days.

Today Jon requested, asked, and then demanded his trainees' silence.  He had dimmed the lights, closed the blinds, and allowed them to shift their metal seats loudly across the tiled floor. Each time they asked for more, he knew he was losing control, and as he had been trained- you have to control the game to succeed.  As the opening credits to the classic To Kill A Mockingjay played, Jon stood high on a desk and made one final move for respect.  Suddenly, he had silence.  Some traineees logged out, placing their heads on their desks, others picked up their pencils and began their training.  He had done it... barely.

The peanut butter and jelly desegregated in his mouth.  He chomped down in silence- a short rest before the training would restart.  The importance of the Mockingjay might be lost on most students, but Jon had to control the room again for those who would learn to love it as he had learned to love it decades ago in similar metal chairs on similar tiled floors and awaiting a similar result in fate's arena.