As Told by Lord Rilen Draconigena

Few know about the happenings in PMS during the seventh and eighth grades. Besides the five people that took part in the conspiracies, only two people know the whole story. A couple more know about either Orange Pants or the Empire, but these second-hand witnesses could never comprehend the importance of these events. But now, I, Lord Rilen Draconigena of the Empire come forth to tell the whole truth, from the point of a first-hand witness. What you are about to read may surprise you. The conspiracy, rebellion, and corruption, all of which took place in the worlds of a few seventh graders. You may find yourself second-guessing who the real authority is in today’s society. So sixth grade was the same as all grades preceding it. No friends, biggest loser in school, you know how it goes. But I was perfectly happy with it. As anyone who knows me will tell you, I don’t care about what other people think. Nor has anyone ever cared about what I think. This was and is the world I live in. So the year flew by.

But with the seventh grade year, and the opening of a new middle school in the district, Congress Middle School, redistricting had occurred. I met up with an acquaintance from scouts, Kyle. To tell you the truth, I had hated him in scouts. He was such a momma’s boy. But I needed the friendship for protection against the eighth graders who always seemed to threaten me, but never make good of their threats. I must be doing something right, because to this day I have never been beaten or in a fight, but of course, security is important. And I fit in with his crowd. Calvin, Jacob, Stephanie, Kyle, and I. Never really got to know Steph that well, cuz she was never in any of my classes and never seemed to really notice me when I was around her with her friends. Nor did I really know Jacob because he didn’t go to our school. He went to Lakeview. But he is considered a part of this group because he was always at all of the group functions. But Calvin, Kyle, and I had something at this school. People to terrorize. Popular kids. Of course the terrorizing was mutual, we got our fair share of ‘freaks’, ‘losers’, and ‘nerds’. But the kind of terrorizing we did was far greater. We enjoyed confusing people by what we did. Walking around mumbling oaths and what not. Making people think we were a part of a cult or something. Believe me, it worked. People feared us, for good reason.

I’m not sure where the idea came about, I was just informed and enlisted. I was always a secondary friend because I didn’t spend sixth grade with the group. But there formed an empire in the group, called The Empire. Each of us was given an Imperial name. Calvin’s was the only one I can remember now. It was Duke Cyrus. Our political leader was Calvin. Not sure why Kyle picked him, but he decided he would get the most attention in the public. Kyle was the real, human leader of the Empire because he harbored the true brains of the operation in his basement. He changed his name so many times I can’t even remember it. But the true leader of the Empire was a cute ferret named Inca. All was great within the empire, and now we had a better way to terrorize people. We would always march down the hallway singing crazy songs about imperial rule, and talk about how we would rule the world. There was never really a plan, just an idea. The basic concept was to eliminate all means of employing modern technology, so that all modern weapons and medicine were useless. Only then would we come out of our holes to take over the world with our superior swordsmanship skills. With all guns out of the way, nobody could stop us. Kyle always talked about it, and I always believed that Inca would find a way for this to happen. Once I even read a book that Kyle suggested where there was a great city which happened to be in a realm where gunpowder did not ignite. The Great City of Amber. The Chronicles of Amber still remains my favorite book ever and I am looking for a copy of it, but it is out of print now.

Eventually a power struggle arose in the empire. Kyle always had the argument that he should be the leader because he harbored Inca. But others began to question his competence as leader. Specifically Jacob and Steph. So the Empire was divided into houses. I don’t remember the names of the houses, but there were four. Steph’s, Jacob’s, Calvin’s, and Kyle’s. Of course the only way to win a war was to have more people than the other houses, so I was a commodity, being the only member of the Empire to not have his own house. Of course, I blindly followed Kyle because he was the one who had brought me into the clique. But others brought more into the Empire. At every ‘party’, a few more members would be sworn in by Aristial, the truth blade. But these others, were, not the idealists that we were. The Empire had turned against itself, and had completely neglected its true cause, the destruction of society. Members were blindly being sworn in, and quickly trained to fight in the battles that took place. The end of the eighth grade brought the complete destruction of the Empire.

I was the only original member of the Empire to be split from the group. I had to go to Park Hill, the others, Park Hill South. I still talked to my friends of course. We had maybe one more party. Soon Kyle drifted farther and farther away from the group, as society influenced his mindset. I called him once concerning a video game I had borrowed, wondering if he was ever going to want it back. He said that he had given up computer games as his way of trying to fit in. Apparently he was some big pimp now, with girls hanging all over him, and a new wardrobe to show off to everyone. So I told him I didn’t want the game anymore and that he should come pick it up, and that I would be interesting in seeing this new ‘wardrobe’. So he came over that night. I get up and walk to the door, to be almost blinded by the clothes this guy was wearing. Bright orange from head to toe. I mean bright. And yes, orange is a nice color, when matched with maybe some other colors, but everyone knows that orange isn’t a color to base your entire outfit on, at least without a good pair of denim jeans. I tried to hold the burst of laughter in as I gave him the CD and quickly closed the door. He was gone. Never talked to him again. I talked to the others, and they didn’t hang out with him anymore.

And of course, this brought about the end of the Empire. There was no more competition, he had been overthrown. And all ideals were lost among the fighting and the new immoral recruits. There was nothing left. And this concluded the end of what I call the middle school times. I found myself doing the same as Kyle. I met new friends, ones that weren’t so rebellious. And yes, sometimes I do feel guilty. I can’t tell whether I’m guilty for ever going along with the Empire, or for ditching the ideals of the Empire just as easily as the traitor Kyle did. And to become one of those that I was sworn to hate. I always make fun of the lower losers in our school. Duddy, Willy, etc.

And this is what I leave to the world. My little legacy. A warning to the world. Let this be a lesson to all the popular kids. Next time the Empire won’t be so small. Next time, next time...