(Written in 2019, senior year of high school)
Dumb Dumb doesn’t want to be friends with Smart Smart. Bad Bad breaks Dumb Dumb’s pencil. Mr. Teacher doesn’t see the complex first grade politics — only sees the hierarchy of scores, which happens to be the hierarchy of seating. Smart Smart sits in front of Ms. Teacher, Dumb Dumb by the back door, everyone else in between in the following order: Cry Cry, Bad Bad, Mute Mute and Loud Loud. The name tags (Dumb Dumb official name is Dumb, Loud Loud is Loud, etc) are glued to everyone’s forehead, or else there would be no way to tell between them. All have the same faces, they have the. same “jeans”. Mr Teacher told them. When Mr. Teacher walks into class, he tells everyone: You are potatoes. I am a potato. People have planted us potatoes to do experiments, to work in factories because people are too expensive. People are difficult to make because they are grown in other people called mothers while potatoes grow in the field. When companies plant potatoes, they get a whole harvest so it doesn’t matter if there’s one bad potato.
Why do potatoes need to learn? Smart Smart asks.
Because people only want good potatoes. For instance, if people do not buy Dumb Dumb or Bad Bad, they go to the Recycle. Recycling is the worst fate for a potato. In the Recycling Center, the potato is not disposed but rather eats the nutrients distilled from the trash of the city until their time is called. When their time is called, they are usually needed by the people (the more precious beings). The potato blood and the potato organs are the same as the people, so when transplanted on the people get to survive and lead a more meaningful life than a useless potato. The potato are living preservers of the potato organs and potato body, which are more important than the potato souls. But that’s only for the bad potatoes. You are the good ones. Your “jeans” have been tested for years to be favorable and marketable. So the company establishes a potato school to sell you guys for better purposes. So understand your privileges, educated potatoes! Mr. Teacher shouts.
Every day, Mr. Teacher announces “Potato of The Day” to commemorate prominent potatoes that have contributed to the development of society: potato’s blood saved the founding father of the country, potato helped the making of Mosa Lina by sitting 10 hours without moving, potato’s gene mutation helped develop the mutation to cure a disease…
Dumb Dumb, Cry Cry, Bad Bad, Mute Mute and Loud Loud and Smart Smart are not concerned if their stories will be told in “Potato of The Day” decades later at the Potato Institution. Being potatoes, their stories are all the same
