The entire back wall of Miss Green’s third-grade classroom was covered in drawings of sports equipment, in varying degrees of skill.  There were hundreds of baseball bats, footballs, tennis rackets, and hockey pucks on that wall.  And not only in Miss Green’s classroom, but in every classroom in every school in every nation throughout the world.  Each home with children boasted these crude drawings as well.

       No one could understand why the children would only draw sports equipment anymore.  This was a recent occurrence, only having started the past month.  The adults couldn't figure out where the idea came from; sports no longer existed.  In the past, before Chancellor Jacobs took over, sports were a huge deal.  Too much, actually, even causing riots at times, not to mention excessive gambling on games.  So when Chancellor Jacobs came into office, he banned all sports.  Every last piece of sports equipment was gathered and burned at a ritual that he resided over. 

       That was fifty years ago.

       Now all of a sudden, children - who weren't around back then - were drawing said equipment on a daily basis.  But how did they even know what sports were?  It was forbidden to speak about sports in any capacity, so it was unclear how they had unearthed this knowledge. 

************

       Cassie Finch sat quietly in the corner of her classroom.  Miss Green had put her in time out when she had seen the book in Cassie’s desk. 

       The Complete Encyclopedia Of Sports.

       What was Miss Green to do?  She couldn't turn over an eight-year-old child to the government!  As a teacher, she had dedicated her life to keeping children safe and informed.  Was it truly so bad that Cassie had found out about sports?  Being only twenty-eight, Miss Green hadn't been around during the time of sports and, therefore, was unaware of any specific reasoning for banishing sports.  As she leafed through the book, she wondered why something that seemed so wonderful had been banned.

       “You showed this book to the other children and started the phenomenon of drawing sports equipment, didn’t you?” Miss Green approached Cassie.

       Cassie merely nodded her head, fear etched on her face.

       Miss Green knelt down next to Cassie.  “I’m not going to turn you in, sweetie.  But why are you all drawing this?”

       Cassie looked up at her teacher with big blue eyes.  “We just want what was taken from us.  We want a chance to have fun, get dirty, play sports.  The Chancellor makes us wear dress clothes every day and do nothing but school and chores.  We want fun in our lives.”

       Miss Green could appreciate that; she felt the same.  But she knew it would do no good.  Still, she couldn’t dash the children’s hopes.

       “Keep drawing then.  Hopefully it will make a difference.”  She plastered on a fake smile, and then turned away before Cassie could see the tears in her eyes at the lie.