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Driftwood Chopsticks - Part of the Bag of Beginnings

Chapter 1: A speech to the masses
“And now a reading from Miss Sakamoto, from class 2B” said Mr Strauss, the whole base clapped me as I walked across the stage to the microphone. I felt so small under so many stares, I looked down at the piece of paper which was supposed to have my speech written on it, instead it had a picture of a cowboy riding a narwhal on the moon, no, I don’t know how that works either but it does so ok? I looked up from the paper, and stared at the back wall of the classroom, through the porthole positioned there and into the deep blue water beyond. I took a deep breath and began:

“I am grateful. I am grateful for the food we eat and the water we drink. I am grateful for the walls which keep us safe, and dry” There was a small chuckle from the audience, “I am grateful for the friends and family I have. I am grateful for my education and the teachers who provide it. I am grateful for the life I lived and will live. But most of all, I am grateful for the overseer, Lord Foxwell, for allowing all of what I am grateful to exist, and without him and his efforts, I, nay, all of us would be nothing. So join me in thanking the overseer, here here!” At the end I raised my fist into the air, and the crowd of my fellow base members all cheered with me, I turned and faced the overseer, who was seated in his pedestal at the back of the stage, and doubled over in a deep bow, before walking off stage. As soon as I stepped behind the curtain I let my emotions return and tears welled in my eyes, my best friend Riza Gremory was there and I hugged her, tightly, to hide my tears. After a few moments we released each other, coming back to my senses, I thanked her and we walked out of the backstage area, and rejoined the crowd, Mr Strauss the education head was concluding the ceremony but I wasn't listening, my focus was on our overseer, Lord Martin Foxwell. He was different from the rest of us, his family came from another land, somewhere off west, some say they had left his brother there when the young overseer fled with his parents. He wore a relaxed smile, that always felt natural and genuine, he was one of the few people in the base with blue eyes and brown hair. For example, I had black hair and brown eyes and his skin was pale, and mine was somewhat more tanned, even with the lack of sunlight we get down here. Mr Strauss said his final words and the crowd began to disperse as everyone went back to their duties. I stayed watching him for a bit as he scanned the crowd. For a moment, we caught each other's gaze, and he smiled at me, I tried to smile back but all that I could do was stare, he seemed to chuckled a little before getting up to leave. I hadn't noticed but Riza was pulling my arm for us to leave, I complied and we went back to our dorm. The metal corridors were causing a ruckus with the many footfalls of the crowd, a few people stopped to look through the windows at the familiar sights of the bottom of the ocean, the solar farm on the upper plateau shimmering in the sunlight and the current turbines turned gently. Our bunks were in dorm G, room 76. It was a small room with beds for four including a wash station and storage. The other two girls of our room, Hanako Mudo and Setsuna Yodobashi had arrived before us, and had already begun getting ready for bed. Riza and I undressed and got into bed, soon after the lighting went out, signaling that it was time to sleep. I looked out the window and at the minor light coming down from the moon and wondered if there was anything outside of the base.
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