274 (Complex Series, #4)

Chapter Two

The screen flickers and the hologram reloads my Teaching material. I force myself to begin typing my spelling words again, to avoid the suspicion of the Officials.

Now that the daring moment is over, I begin to second guess my actions. What if an Official traces the messages? Why didn’t I just ignore it, like any other logical girl would have done?

Did my curiosity just seal my fate?

I spend the rest of Spelling Teaching worrying over my future while absentmindedly typing in the words, getting almost every single one of them wrong.

˚˚°˚˚

Lillie glances at me during Free Hour, a stand of her plain brown hair falling out of her braid and slipping in front of her eyes, “Are you okay, Claire?”

She worriedly asks me while tucking the strand behind her ear, revealing her dull, blue eyes.

I smile brightly at her, “Oh yeah, I’m fine. I’m just wondering how the Heads could be so gracious to us.”

Lillie nods, falling silent in her own thoughts. We don’t have too much conversation between the two of us. Ever since our third roommate was taken away by the Officials and hauled to the Unknown, we’ve both formed a wall of hesitation and unfamiliarity between the two of us. Our forth roommate was taken away when we were only six years.

My thoughts shift back to my third roommate. She was taken a year and a half ago, without any warning. She had, in the middle of Inspection, started singing a tune from Music Hour. It was supposed to be a song exalting the Heads, but she switched every positive word to a negative one.

She screamed it at the top of her lungs.

She was quickly silenced by an Official and dragged quickly away. I’ve never seen or heard from her again.

Lillie breaks the silence, “Are you sure you’re okay? You look more anxious than normal.”

I quickly wipe my face of any emotion. If Lillie is noticing differences about me, are the Officials?

I repaint the smile on my face, making sure it stays there this time, “Of course, I was just thinking about the professions that we are going to be getting soon.”

Lillie’s eyes widen, “Oh, I can understand why you’re anxious then. Next year, right? Our Graduation Day is just in a couple weeks, and then we’ll be testing for our professions. I have no idea what kind of Official I want to train to be for my future.”

I nod, glad she’s accepted my lie. “I have no idea what it’s going to be like.”

“Yeah,” Lillie agrees.

Our conversation once again quiets.

I survey the room around me, remembering what Marie said about ‘noticing the small things’. My eyes slide past the dull, curving steel walls, forcing us to walk around in a big circle for Free Hour.

Free Hour is another lovely activity that the Heads force us to do. I guess we need exercise to keep our bodies healthy and this is the easiest way for the Heads to do it. They even let us talk to our roommates, as long as our voices are at a nice, soft, controlled volume. Of course, we can’t talk about anything we want to. We have to discuss any topic from the small range that they give us. It’s what you’d expect: what we learn in Teachings, honor to the Heads, and that’s pretty much it. If you are caught discussing something else, it’s the Unknown for you.

Lillie and I discuss the same, dull topics every day. By now, we’ve discuss anything that could be said about the topics, causing the lull in conversations.