Chapter 7: The Presentation

"I know you don't have any memory of her, but the last thing I expected from you, was to forget her name as well," His aunt chastised, as she passed him a disapproving look.

"Well--- forgive me, but it isn't my fault that my father hardly shares any information about her with me," he spoke in his defense, "You don't expect me to remember the tiny bits of her life: her name for instance, when my father, without a doubt, feels reluctant to start any topic with me regarding her."

"Well, we can't really blame him. He has always considered topics concerning your mother as a touchy subject. However, the least you could do the entire is make an effort."

"Make an effort?" he scoffed incredulously.

He couldn't believe that they touching this topic again. "I doubt you were listening to me the entire time. Besides, why are you even defending my father? He should be the one making the efforts, and not me. The only people who knew my mother well enough to give me an accurate account of her life, is you and my father."

Aunt Una pushed her chair back and watched him. She focused her attention on the many emotions that flickered in his eyes. The most dominant of them all was hurt.

"We both know that you have a family to take care of, and as a matter-of-fact, you are never around to tell me anything about her. My father, on the other hand, considers his job as his topmost priority. Heck, he's always reluctant to utter a word about her. Tell me, what do you expect me to do? Fish out words regarding my mother out of his throat?" His voice rose at a much higher octave than he had intended.

The atmosphere in the dining room was slowly growing thick with tension. Taking in deep breathes to calm down his temper, Stone looked across the table to find the most dominant expression he had been trying to hide the entire time etched on his aunt's face. She looked disturbed, as though she was in deep thoughts.

"You were so close to your mother, I remember. She loved you...dearly, Livingstone," she said in a soft voice.

"If she ever did, then she would've never left me in the first place," he seethed.

He stood up to his feet with enough force, it caused his chair to produce a screeching sound against the tiled floor before it toppled over backward. Casting one last look at her, he walked out of the dining room in a haste without hesitating to excuse himself.

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"So, who can help us recollect what we studied the last time?" Ms Zaida questioned her audience, as she glanced through all fourteen rows now and then.

"Yes, Delaine Aston; I see your name reflected on my device. The floor is all yours!" she called out the name of the first student who felt an urge to answer her question without any delay, after she caught her name on her device.

Delaine, as she was called, did so well with her explanations when she began speaking after Ms Zaida gave her the go-ahead. Her explanations were more in-depth, concise and thoroughly reviewed. She touched on certain areas, the majority deemed unnecessary but to Ms Zaida, it was the greatest step any of her students could ever take.

At the end of her nine minutes talk, everyone was greatly impressed with her.

"This is what we would actually be doing today," Ms Zaida announced, "we are going to form a three-member group, ballot over seventeen topics, give ourselves a minimum time of forty minutes to expound on the topics we each selected on a one-paged paper, pick a speaker out of the group, and then present what we have on our paper before the other groups in general," she elaborated cheerfully, facing my side of the row. "Do we all get this?"

The majority responded.

"Let's begin then by starting with the first part which is --- the formation of a three-member group," she voiced. Every individual began to get off their seats in order to pair up with the other. Livingstone watched on as groups were formed whereas some students were yet to partner up with others.

"Do you mind if I join you?" A dark-green coloured haired guy from his right approached him. His keen, but pleasant grey eyes gazed at him in anticipation.

"Sure," he replied simply. The new guy moved to his side to join him and then began to cast his eyes around in hopes of getting them a third member.

"I would love to be a member of your group," An unknown voice disrupted their attention.

They turned toward the source of the voice and spotted Millenia on the next row with a ghost smile on her flawless face. She focused on her eyes on them and began to head towards them. Her hair was held up in a tight bun, and the gold-like pendant she had around her neck shimmered in the ray of light that streamed through the hall.

"No problem," they said in unison, and turned to meet each other's eye. Millenia smiled at this, her deep dimples more pronounced on her cheeks, as she finally reached their row.

Suddenly, an uproar of shouts rang through the hall. A commotion had been stirred among four students and Ace Butchers was one of them. He stood at his full height with his back facing them, his hands were balled into fists as he faced the other three guys in front of him threateningly.

Hushed whisperings and mutterings mingled with the atmosphere as students watched the unpleasant commotion unfold before their eyes. Ms Zaida lowered her thick-rimmed glasses with her index finger, and looked up from where she stood to see what all the commotion was about. She walked over to them, addressed their issue and solved it like a pro.

'Who was to stay and who was to leave' was what stirred the commotion in the first place. The group Ace found himself in needed an additional member on their team to form the three-member group Ms Zaida required.

Ace arrived in time with the 'other guy', and though Ace was picked over him; the other guy felt reluctant to leave. Instead, he saw this as a good opportunity to spark an unnecessary argument.

When all was over, the guy from his left who was first to approach him introduced himself.

"I'm Eael, by the way." The faint unnoticeable accent in his voice proclaimed him as someone from the Justice Unit.

"And I'm Millenia," the next member added.

"Stone," he disclosed.

"So, who among us would be going in for the balloting?" Millenia asked, as she shifted her eyes from Eael to Stone.

"I think you should be the one going in for the balloting, simply because, you're the only female we've got in our midst," Livingstone explained.

"I agree," Eael expressed.

"Fine. That shouldn't be hard. My only hope is that I pick a less complex topic for us to expound on," she said.

After a few minutes went by, Ms Zaida got their attention once again. It was time for the balloting. Millenia stepped forward, just like all the other students who were also selected by their group to the ballot box. She came back with a neatly folded dark red paper. As she unfolded it before their eyes, it read: Three things you believe The Council must change under its influence.

"This sounds easy, but it certainly isn't," Eael voiced.

"Which, is why we need to start working on it now," Stone said, looking around them to find some groups already putting their heads together and working with feverish haste.

His group took charge of a corner on the eleventh row and sat down, bringing out all their electronic devices, as they began their intensive research. Though their search for answers on the topic given surpassed a herculean task, they managed to raise points just as arguments were backed.

In the end, Livingstone was propelled to do the writing since Millenia and Eael claimed he had the most legible handwriting. Upon completing their work, they realized that their points on the topic filled not only an entire page, but a quarter of another. Thanks to Eael's keen eyesight for editing, they settled on a single page only. It wasn't long before the said forty minutes was up and the general presentation began.

They fell in the eighth group, and as such, they had to wait till they were called upon to present before the other groups. Eael took up the responsibility of presenting and no one disagreed with him since he volunteered. The greater portion of their marks depended on how well they presented on this topic, and knowing how well of an eloquent speaker Eael proved to be during their discussion, they had no doubts in their mind that he had the potential to take charge of this presentation well, and with full force.

Right after the seventh group was done with their presentation and allocated their marks, they were called forward. They walked over to the podium, faced the audience: which now consisted of seventeen three-member groups and introduced themselves by their first names only. Eael positioned himself in front of them, whereas Millenia and Stone behind him.

He began with the presentation.

He was vocal and illustrative with his gestures. He explained their topic so well; he didn't have to explain a statement twice. He was both assertive and confident, as he spoke before the audience on the podium. His movements were graceful. It took him approximately, four minutes and thirty-one seconds to complete their presentation, hence, he fell within the five minutes duration given to all groups.

"Well done, group eight. I loved your speaker and I love how well you three took charge of the topic. Excellent," Ms Zaida praised when their time was up. She went on ahead to ask three questions, of which a question was meant for each person.

In all, she looked pleased with their answers though she rejected an answer to their first question.

Feeling satisfied with their group's effort, she turned to face the audience and announced brightly, "At the end of it all, group eight earned a score of 7.9. Why don't you give them a round of applause!"

As they descended the podium, with the audience cheering them on, Livingstone couldn't help but feel that they deserved better, if not the best.