Sincerely, Anonymous

March 1

March 1

Dear Annabeth,

Amy’s warning about Izzy has kept me thinking for days, but the only conclusion I can make from it is that I really can’t dwell on it. We need her too much and time is really and truly running out. There’s only three more months until our Procedures. 

There’s another event coming up though: Senior Week. A lot of seniors call it Hell Week, but the week isn’t really hell, it’s just really busy. After Senior Week, classes calm down a lot and you only have to go to school three days a week until graduation, which is nice. It’s the time in which you get all the ‘traditions’ done. The traditions are fun but it’s mostly just a lot of testing, along with job trainings and on sight trainings, that will occur during the week. Your performance will determine what specialty you will be assigned to. For example, if you have received a Career as a teacher, these will determine the grade and courses in which you will teach. 

Testing and job training are split into seven groups, but you are only required to take four. Certain jobs call for certain required testing. If your job has less than four required tests you get to chose what else you take, which is pretty cool. I’ve attached the lists of tests needed for each Career to these letters.

There is also testing for advance courses. The testing is scored on a scale of six. If you receive above a four, you have the opportunity to join a managerial clinic each Saturday for the duration of the school year. Upon completing the clinic, you will be placed into a higher position on entry into your Career. If you receive below a four, you may still apply for a higher position at your Career, though positions are not guaranteed. You will also be taking lengthened elective courses over the duration of the week. These courses can help you in your new Career by ensuring you a position that needs certain specialization. For example, someone who received a Career as a Food Service Professional who has taken a pastry making course may end up working as a cake maker, instead of as a butcher or  baker. 

The best day of Senior Week is Friday, which is also called Tradition Day. Tradition Day has no testing or job training, it’s all about being with your graduating class. Senior Week is required by law so the schedule is the same across the entire nation. Now that I know they take your memories some of the things seem pointless, like the meet and greets with people that will be in similar jobs as you or the senor BBQ, where you hang out with your friends. I think that by giving us the opportunity to make great memories, they don’t feel as bad when they take them away.

There are some downsides to Tradition Day. The first is the Senor BBQ. I will admit, I have heard the food is prime, but they don’t give us much of it. Each family is given a certain amount of money for food, clothing, and other necessities each month and any extra money comes form reviews, which pretty much means the harder you work the more money you make. The system isn’t bad, it is regulated to make things fair and increase productivity, but the downside is meals like the BBQ (or like when I go to the coffee shop) aren’t paid for. Each family has to pay for their children to eat at the BBQ, which pretty much means that children with parents who receive bad reviews are screwed. It’s not just how hard you work that will get you good reviews though, some Careers will get you a lot of money and some won’t, just because some are more willing to give out more money laden reviews. It all depends on the budgets given to each Career. Laborers usually all get average to mediocre reviews, while doctors and Government officials get exemplary ones. 

The other downside to Tradition Day is Formal pairings. Formal is meant to be a “doorway into your new life” so with that comes “the expectation of adult relationships”. Everyone is required to go with a partner of the opposite sex. This wouldn’t be so bad if we actually got to choose who we go with, but instead the choice is made for us to ensure we meet people with a similar Career. It seems ridiculous in retrospect, since in theory we won’t remember these people after our Procedure, but the Black Tens told me that pairings the Government sees as productive are advocated and said people are given pleasing memories of one another to make it so they are more apt to pair themselves.

Then there is the dreaded Class Night. Class Night is an all night sleepover at the school, with games and prizes for those that looked best in their dress or suit at prom, or were the cutest pairing and that sort of thing. The main event at Class Night is the reading of the Careers. At this, the principle of the school will read off the names of everyone in the graduating class and what Career they have received. This I dread the most, since nobody past the Black Tens and my group of friends knows what my Career is.

Of course I didn’t really know any of this until recently. They don’t say much about it in school and it’s not like I had ever really thought to ask Kay about it. The second I got the schedule I started to ask myself all these question about why this would be necessary. I knew my friends would have no answers, asking teacher would be risky, and asking my family was non-optional. So, I went to the one person I believed I could trust with this kind of information: Kay.

So, that is how I found myself leaving school early, stating that I was “sick”. I took the subway up to that abandoned old building at the north end of town. Yes, I know it is risky of me to be skipping school, and trust me, Kay went through the risk factor extensively. But, I can’t risk going after school, people would question why I was on a different train or heading to the northernmost area of town, where there are only the Facilities, abandoned  buildings, and a large factory. I am not good enough of a liar to fend my fellow classmates off, and I think Kay realized that too and didn’t press the subject as much as she normally would.

I started wondering some other things as I started on my way through the abandoned building. I wondered what Kay’s Senior Week had been like. Does she have any memories left for her of it? Who was she paired with? All these question were eating at me and I guess it must have been the fact that Kay’s life was on my mind that made the first thing I said to her be, “why are you always here?”

She responded with a laugh, “because I am doing my job.”

“This can’t be where the Government placed you, you should be in an issued building, not in a hideaway in some abandoned building,” I said, asking it more a a question than a statement.

“Well yes, but I have a pardon,” she replied, typing away at her keyboard, “I can work wherever I please.”

“How’d you score that?” I said in disbelief.

“I needed to stay home to take care of my daughter so I went to an appeal and got a pardon to work from home until she would turn 18”

“Why didn’t your daughter just go into daycare or school? Why did she need you home?” I can tell that I am prying too much, but my curiosity is too strong.

“She was very sick,” was Kay’s only response.

“Was?” I asked

“She died 6 years ago.”

“I am so sorry to hear that,” I replied, trying to keep the right amount of sympathy in my voice. 

“Don’t be sorry, she was in a lot of pain and now she is not. And now I know she will never grow up to this horrible world, it’s really for the better,” she sounded nonchalant, but there was a strain to her voice that made me think there was another layer, that she was consoling herself more than saying what she truly believed.

“They let you keep the pardon?”

“Yes,” she said, now sounding immensely tired, “it was worded for 18 years, I still have another 6.”

We spent a while longer talking, moving onto Senior Week and all it pertained to. We sat in silence for a while to, my legs kicked up on an old ratty sofa she had. She would just sit there typing away at some super important document as I absentmindedly tore stuffing out of a hole in her sofa. Every once in a while I would think of another question and I would just blurt it out and she would answer simply and clearly, never stopping with what she was typing. We stayed like that for a while until I decided to start on my way home and she decided to lock up for the night and we both took the subway home where we sat in some more silence, and after that I respected her a lot more because she wasn’t one of those people who felt the need to fill the silence. She said what needed to be said and that was all.

I will attach the list of the schedule for Senior Week so you can see what its like, and also be a little more prepared when I write you about some of these things during the week. I will be writing more and more frequently as I get closer to my Procedure. I need to make sure to get this all down, to tell you everything about the plan, before I forget it all.

Love Always,

Lilly