The August 5 by Jenna Helland

the hall. His eyes deliberately avoided Charlotte, even though he was addressing her.
    â€œEverything has its proper place. You understand that, don’t you, Charlotte? You’re such a smart girl after all.”
    He said girl like he was saying something dirty. Charlotte’s shoulders were hunched and she continued to stare at the floor. Tommy wondered how she had felt this morning as she got ready to come to class. He doubted she had expected this. Tommy’s hand shot up in the air. “Sir?”
    The entire class, even Charlotte, looked at him in surprise. Tears were running down Charlotte’s cheeks. Tommy couldn’t imagine anything more embarrassing than crying in the lecture hall, and he thought desperately for a way to divert attention away from her.
    â€œExcuse me, Mr. Shore,” Rannigan said. “I wasn’t finished!”
    â€œI was going to say that it’s the same with the cottagers and appointed places. Natural laws…” Tommy trailed off as his classmates stared at him like he was insane.
    â€œWell, yes,” Rannigan said, obviously unsure how to respond to the son of the chief administrator. “That was the point I was getting to.”
    â€œThe cottagers are trying to cut the tree down!” Tommy said, slamming his fist on the desk and making everyone around him jump. He had no idea what he was doing, and he could see Dennett and Giles staring at him like he was insane. Well, they couldn’t argue with the anti-cottager rhetoric, and he’d distracted them from picking on Charlotte.
    After a moment of silence, Rannigan seemed to warm to the situation. “Mr. Shore has an excellent point. It is your job to be vigilant against transgressions wherever you see them. And sometimes they can be right in front of you.”
    Outside, the bell in the tower began to chime, signaling the end of class. Charlotte, who was still standing, grabbed her notebook and rushed toward the exit before anyone else moved.
    â€œMiss Ramsey?” Rannigan called when Charlotte reached the door. “A word, if you please?”
    Charlotte froze near the entrance. By now, the other students had filed out of their seats and toward the exit. They passed Charlotte as if she were nothing more than a chair or a hat stand.
    â€œDon’t forget to do the reading, lads,” Rannigan called. Tommy tried to catch Charlotte’s eye on his way out, but she stared at the floor with her back to Professor Rannigan. Tommy crossed the threshold into the weak morning sunshine. He suddenly imagined what Charlotte might have looked like when she was a little girl, sitting at her mother’s knee while her mother brushed her golden hair and wished all good things for her beautiful daughter.

11
    COLSTON SHORE, ILLEGITIMATE LEADER?
    In light of the new information regarding the kidnapping of Hywel, the administration of Colston Shore should be called into question. Hywel was unable to attend to his duties at the Chamber because of violence and imprisonment, and yet his faction deserts him and flocks to this questionable leader. What, exactly, did Shore offer them for this treasonous behavior? Until Hywel is safely returned, all acts passed by Colston Shore should be null and void, and the administration of Hywel continue in absentia. Shore’s Ancestral Homes Act is a blatant attempt to deport cottagers from the city and turn them into slaves for the profit of the estate system.
    â€”Angry Em, JFA Bulletin, September 12
    A soggy newspaper lay in the gutter. It was an illegal cottager paper and like all the others, it would probably disappear quickly. The paper was cheap and the ink smeared, but Tommy could still make out the words of the headline denouncing his father. Hywel had been advocating freedom of the press before he was kidnapped. That was yet another issue that made Tommy’s father hate the former chief administrator. Embarrassed to see his family name in such a