20

You swallow—and then you stand up from your seat.

Suddenly, every single pair of eyes seems to turn on you—including Rana's, and Mrs. Weathers's as well. All you can do is take a deep breath and say in as clear a voice as possible:

"I think Rana's right. It doesn't matter what happens now; we just need to think about the future."

There's a pause—and for a split second, you see a look of something like pain cross Rana's face.

Then, frowning deeply, Mrs. Weathers meets your eye and says:

"I'm sorry—are you saying that all of us people here right now don't matter? What, because we spend our lives at our jobs and taking care of our families, we don't matter because we don't have time to come listen to a bunch of spoiled kids tell us how we need to recycle more and only eat organic? Give me a break. If you ever make it to the real world, maybe then you can talk to me about what matters."

There's a surge of noise in response to her words, mostly from people who seem to feel the same way as she does. You watch as Rana starts to open her mouth, without seeming to know what to say—

But before she can make a sound, Dina sits forward in her chair once again and speaks across the hall.

"Okay—okay. Thank you, but I'd like to call an end to this discussion now. Please, everyone, remember to keep things productive."

She gives a small nod of gratitude to the three of you who had been speaking—and with that, there's nothing any of you can do but agree to fall silent once again. As Rana falls back in with the other protesters, however, she glances in your direction—and the look of disappointment on her face twists something in your gut. You've realized by now that, even if you had good intentions, it definitely wasn't the right thing to say to convince anybody—and especially not Mrs. Weathers—to hear you out.

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