The edict ordered every pupil to ignore the bell. (edict: decree, order, fiat) Signed by an insurgent calling herself the Duchess, it seemed almost designed to incite insubordination. (insurgent: rebel, insurrectionist, revolutionary; incite: provoke, instigate, spur; insubordination: disobedience, defiance, rebelliousness) The head suspected a seditious prank. (seditious: rebellious, subversive, insurrectionary) His deputy read of an insurrection against a tyrannical headmistress and demanded the culprit's removal. (insurrection: uprising, revolt, rebellion; tyrannical: despotic, oppressive, dictatorial) To allow this apparent challenge to authority, he said, was to invite anarchy. (apparent: seeming, ostensible, outward; anarchy: lawlessness, disorder, chaos)
Nina recognized the paper. She had typed those words for a dystopian school play. (dystopian: anti-utopian, oppressively nightmarish, bleakly futuristic) The Duchess was a puppet and its autocratic ruler lived in a boot. (autocratic: dictatorial, authoritarian, despotic) The play didn't urge anybody to subvert the school. (subvert: undermine, overthrow, overturn) The noticeboard had been painted gray for a backdrop. A cleaner had wheeled it into the hall to let the paint dry.
The deputy insisted on a public declaration to quell the turmoil. (quell: subdue, suppress, quash; turmoil: tumult, upheaval, commotion) Nina agreed. She took the puppet out of the boot and made it read the rehearsal times aloud. By the second day the company had so many volunteers that it had to convene in the gym. (convene: assemble, gather, meet) The head took the role of the bell ringer and followed his cue with impeccable obedience.