Presentation

I tried to focus on the empty seats. My rational mind told me that the auditorium wasn’t packed full. There were some seats that were empty, after all. But whenever I glanced around, all I could see was excited faces, faces with eyes, eyes that were looking at me. I sat in a chair next to the other council members on stage, a microphone in the center of the stage in front of us. The student body was filtering in, staff members directing them where to sit. I tried not to think about just how many of them there were, but the doors stayed open for so long, teenagers and college-aged kids filtering in, chatting quietly as they took the next available seat without skipping many, that I was beginning to think that there were more students who attended this school than I had originally realized.

Ben was sitting in the front row next to Maggie. They were almost directly in front of me. I had no idea who the