The afternoon started for Howie and Maria during morning announcements, that's when they learned they had been selected to visit the nearby junior high school. They entered the middle secondary school later that day at about the same time former officer Chávez had stopped Angela for driving too fast.

This particular afternoon was exactly one month after a similar morning announcement at Sandy Beach middle school had started something never before experienced by anybody, anywhere, ever; "Do something real." The announcement crackled out of small speakers in every room. "Take one step at a time." It was a quote from a self-help program school administrators were involved in. They shared the idea with the students.

The idea had taken off, throughout the school immediately. Then on into the town as soon as the school day ended and students were out. Whenever a student told someone about doing something real one step at a time the answer was often something like, "Sounds like a good idea to me." It wasn't long until the entire island was hearing the self-help motto. Many said this new idea is what had effected the election vote in favor of independence. Then across oceans, where it rolled on into the president's office. It happened so fast that school administrators did not at first realize their students were at the epicenter of a new world action happening here and now.

The junior high school computer class had announced a national contest to write a program that divides every state into a population map of congressional districts of contiguous zip codes with a minimum length sum of district boundaries for each state’s population. The winning program was to be called, "Put the best in the proper place logically."

The contest quickly expanded from sandy beach schools to all around the world. One hundred and one programs were formally entered in the contest before the cut-off date. Even so, more programs were being received everyday.

"Now why didn’t I think of that when I was a young legislator?" the president wondered upon hearing the contest news. But deep inside he knew the answer to his own question. He had sold his soul many years ago and now, older, he was worried about that, too. The president assigned an aide to stop pesky democratization of district boundaries. But it was too little and way too late.

At the same time, far, far away from the president, across a vast ocean distance, toward the equator; In Puerto Rico, where the contest had started, the good energy was still happening, focused in the junior high school student government room.

The student government room is a curious room, it's between floors. There is a door where one of the ramps between floors makes a switch-back U turn. The door is in the middle of the U. None of the other ramps have a door to a mystery room midway between floors. This was indeed a strange entry. The door seemed to open and close extra swiftly. The hinges had a barely audible sound effect that some of the students didn't hear. The door spring allowed just enough time to enter or leave. Some claimed they felt a chill crossing the threshold. All of the students hurried through the door whether they felt the cold draft or not.

Howie felt the chill when he entered the room but shook it off. He already knew the slightly eerie yet humorous unidentified rumor spirit of Sandy Beach middle school. Howie had been a student at the middle school three years ago and he was pleased to return as the boy's student guide from Sandy Beach high school. He had stopped along the way and was now looking for Maria, the senior girl's liaison from the high school. Howie chuckled thinking how he and she came to be here; Adults in administration of the junior high school had decided they should provide leadership and assistance when the congressional boundary contest had gone viral nationally and then throughout the world via cyberspace and the kids had said, No.

The world had entered a new era of constitution writing and the era had begun at Sandy Beach Junior High School, in the room between floors. The students knew the world had been waiting for a spark and they had without any preconceived idea become the spark that flashed from their concentrating brains to around the world. It was recent and still happening. The junior high school students had swiftly rejected adult offers of supervision and guidance.

The students were quite clear; they had done what they did purposefully. The students were actually moving their project off-campus to a local park or rainy day cafe when the junior high school administrators suggested a liaison with the high school student government. The administrators had no idea what might happen next but were relieved when the junior high school student government agreed to stay on campus and work wth rotating members of the high school student government.

Howie and Maria were the first representatives from Sandy Beach High School. Most everybody at the high school was already aware of the project, they had a head start via younger sisters and brothers. The Sandy Beach High computer lab had contributed the first computerized congressional district maker and it was being used to check the other entries. So far there were 101 ways to get to the same answer.

Maria saw Howie enter the room between floors. The floor sloped upward slightly to her and created the feel of a small auditorium. She stood up and waved from the back of the room. Howie hurried to sit next to her before all the seats were taken. He relaxed as he approached and saw a reserved sign hanging on the seat. Howie sat down just as the Sandy Beach Junior High meeting started. They were here to finalize a winning computer program.

All the entries worked, they all draw congressional districts of equal population with a minimum sum of boundary distances of all the districts combined. Shared boundaries were only counted once, that had been settled at the beginning of the contest. There was no apparent winner. No one could have anticipated this.

A petite dark skinned young woman, ninth grade, sat at the center of a table in front of everyone. She banged a very large gavel and brought the meeting to order. Then she quietly watched the people in attendance until the small room grew quiet.

"I am Pamela, today's facilitator," She began. "I see everyone is sitting at a passable social distance and wearing a mask, The top vent windows are open, ventilator fans are on and we are ready to begin discussion. Yes, the pandemic is ebbing but it remains a major problem.

"On the positive side, we appear to have helped change the adult's game of politics and now see a way forward. As you all know, some adults decided we had become too big after our contest went to the top of the charts. We resisted and the compromise was two participants from the high school. Howie and Maria are the first of our rotating partner teams and I invite them to stand to be recognized and welcomed."

Pamela banged her gavel again following a brief welcoming applause for Maria and Howie.

"Recapping for our new high school partners," Pamela continued, "Our original school contest has brought forward several backup system designs that may or may not be better than the one developed with our older brothers and sisters at Sandy Beach High school, it is the one we are using to check contest entries. Young programmers our age are pounding on this job around the world as we speak.

"Adults who never outgrew the game of monopoly are panicking because we are teaching instead of being taught. I find this to be humorous. This is a great day! We have maintained our independence on the actual day Puerto Rico is becoming independent. Is that just a coincidence? No way. Now listen close to the opening presentation from Gloria. She started off with a pencil and paper. Now Gloria has a library of world maps and has not looked back."

There was a moment of brief applause for Gloria. "They seem to be doing fine without us," Howie said softly to Maria, who shrugged her shoulders in answer and then turned her attention back to Gloria, who was placing three large maps on easels. One map was the US state of Kansas, the central map was the country of Honduras and the third map was the greater metro area of São Paulo, Brasil.

"We use Kansas as our calibration state because it almost perfectly rectilinear yet has population variance. Nebraska also works for this purpose and is our second test."

"Why use anything from the US?" A voice called out from the center of the room.

A quick discussion listing several topic headings ensued. The US has semi reliable data and is in north America, Honduras is in central America, and the metro area of São Paulo is a huge population with a creative culture and a well-educated younger generation.

Pamela banged her gavel. "We’ve discussed this before. It is simply chance of time that we here at Sandy Beach Junior High School decided to set up a contest that opened the door to new forms of government. International discussions blossomed and indicated mathematically determined election districts were already viewed as a good first step to alter the balance of power among adults. And let's be frank, we know it's our adults, too. They are nice as parents but are destroying Earth to support us, their children."

Maria leaned toward Howie and whispered, "Did you know junior high school kids could be this smart?"

Howie leaned a little closer to Maria and whispered, "Going through that doorway is still just as weird as when we were in school here but the kids seem different."

Maria nodded. "This is scientifically serious business. I'll ask about the change." She raised her hand and was given permission to speak.

But before Maria said anything, a very young looking seventh grader with thick glasses sitting in front of Maria had also raised his hand and started speaking at the same time. Pamela banged her gavel and laughed, "You are supposed to raise your hand to be put in the queue... Then you tell us what is on your mind. But go ahead. What's on your mind? What's your name?"

"Enrique is my name. Enrique Sanchez. I joined this student government thinking we are working on global climate collapse and the pandemic. I get the idea of dividing into equal sized groups. But what does dividing countries into equal population blocks such that the sum of the borders is a minimum have to do with balancing the environment?"

Maria raised her hand again and Pamela indicated she should answer.

"Enrique, I am Maria. Are you aware the adults tried to take over this project and that is why Howie and I are here?"

Enrique nodded yes. "I thought it would be fun meeting somewhere else, like in the park across the street, but even so, I'm glad you are here. So how does dividing up the country with a computer help the environment?"

"I was going to ask why the kids are so much smarter now than when I was here as a student but here I am talking," Maria said. "You are all very energized. Howie and I have studied what you've been doing for almost a week and are proud of your success," she continued. "Please correct me if I am wrong; This political districting idea came out of the contest itself. We don't know who in the world brought it up. Is my idea correct?"

A murmur of agreement rippled around the room. "Every person around the world who knows what happened in our student government also knows the district boundary equation of equal people and minimum sum of boundaries came from all of us at once," one person explained so quickly Maria wasn't sure who spoke. She continued the idea with a thank you and then concluded;

"Laying out the districts with a computer doesn't update and modernize the actual government structure but it shuffles the deck of people in congresses and parliaments world-wide. That's why the school administration tried to be involved. This is big."

"You go, Maria." "Right-on." "Exactly." The room buzzed with excited conversation until someone asked; "But how do we choose a winner when they all work?" That question brought everyone back to Earth. Silence ruled until Howie stood up and Pamela waved him on.

"This looks to me like a tie,” Howie said, "I have football practice soon. Let's meet again here tomorrow during lunch hour and announce the result."

"Sounds like a proposal." Pamela said. "I second it Enrique yelled out."

Pamela banged her gavel just as a sustained gust of wind blew in through the open windows. Papers flew. The door blew open. Everyone laughed as they walked out the door to what came next in each busy student's life. Howie and Maria were last. Maria put her hand on the door frame as she left. Howie did the same, he glanced at Maria and then closed the door between floors. Then they walked down the ramp and turned toward the main front door. The younger kids scattered into different school hallways.

"How long has it been since you were in that room?" Maria asked as they turned into the main door entry area.

"Almost three years, Howie answered.

"I liked the unidentified rumor spirit, when we were in school here." Maria said it like a question.

"Me, too." Howie responded. "And so did my mom," he concluded with a smile.

They both pushed open the big and heavy school front door together. "I think it was glad to see us again," Maria said with a laugh and a toss of her hair as they walked into tropical blue sky sunlight and distant white billowy clouds.

"I'm going to football practice," Howie said. "Shall we meet after that?"

"Okay," Maria answered. "Let's have a snack at the little restaurant. I'll meet you there after science club."

Howie smiled and nodded yes as he turned and ran to football practice.

Maria waved to the unidentified rumor spirit as she turned away from the school and walked to science club.

© Garrett Tobin Connelly