As summer came to a close, I was overjoyed to resume my weekly routine of going to school and being able to take advantage of all the opportunities to better myself through the pursuit of knowledge. So anxious for the first day of school, I barely slept at all before waking up and getting ready for the beautiful start of another school year. Arriving at the building at precisely 4 am on the dot, I began to organize my locker and greet my fellow fresh-faced students eagerly waiting for the day to begin. Before long I was merrily going on my way to my first period class, where I was sure to have a wonderful class full of informative tutelage beside my peers who were waiting just as enthusiastically. Sitting anxiously waiting for the bell to signal the start of class, I was shocked to hear a strange noise.

This noise was so peculiar and unfamiliar that I began to look around in question only to be met by similarly confused faces. The conspiracy theories began to circulate at maximum speed as the student body tried in vain to discover where the sound that interrupted our peaceful school day was coming from. “Was that an airplane hangar?” “I think a train is nearby!” “No, no, that was an elevator!” “An asylum!” “A penitentiary!” The rumors continues to spiral. As a devoted reporter to the Cresskill Communiqué I realized it was my duty to head the search and discover the source of the mysterious noise. Armed with only a purple pen, a notebook, and baseball hat to disguise my identity in case I found myself in immediate danger, I began my investigation.

Courageously, I took to the dangerous halls of Cresskill High School and began to cautiously ask around. I decided to approach a small, honest-looking 9th grader first; when asked about the sound she looked around hurriedly before whispering, “I hear it chimes three times in a row,” before quickly turning the corner and disappearing from sight. After such a questionable reaction I decided it would be better to approach someone looking more brave of heart; a football player was the ideal choice. But after being asked, the boy froze while looking at a nearby speaker in the hallway. When further probed, I had to strain my ear to hear him softly murmur, “I heard that it rings in forty-five and four minutes intervals.” I continued my search but the answers were always just as vague and the reactions always as bizarre. “It gives me the chills.” “It confuses me.” “Leave me alone.” It was only when I asked one student in particular, who shall remain anonymous for his own safety, that I began to piece together the pieces of this strange mystery: “Does it even matter? We still have to go to class either way.”

Now if someone begins asking you, dear reader, where you got this information from, I humbly request that you leave my name out of it in case trouble comes a knockin’. Now remember, this is just my own hypothesis based off of my countless hours of research and field work, but I do believe… that the strange noise is our school’s new bell system.