One Hundred Twenty-Eight

Chapter One

A war had begun. Yup. It really sucks. It sucks because our side, Zon, is a peaceful country. We have not been in war in three centuries. The country we are against is Bloemenveld. Their country is practically all military. I don't like to admit it, but there is no way we can win this war.

The reason Zon got into this war is because Bloemenveld were capturing people who were living by the border between the two countries. Bloemen people have been acting violent and there has been many shoot outs at churches and public schools in the cities by the border.

I bet you're thinking, wait, how do you know it's Bloemen people shooting? It is easy to tell the different between a Zonick and a Bloemen person. First of all, every Bloemen person has chestnut colored hair and a tattoo of a 3-D X on the back of their hand. The government makes every family take their child in when they are under eight to get it. It makes me happy I was not born in that country.

Well Zon is doing everything they can to get all their citizens safe and sound. They are moving all the people who live in a fifty-mile radius of the border and providing them with a small apartment in the closest, safest city.

And yet, another reason why this war sucks: Me and my family live close to the border, we must be out of our house by tomorrow morning. It is very sad really. I don't want to leave my childhood and pack it up in one day! Well there is nothing I can really do about it, is there...

Zahra sucked on the top of her pen. Deciding there was nothing else to write and slammed her diary closed, satisfied with the loud thud it made. This whole thing is so stupid! She screamed in her head. She was not the type to lose her temper, but right now, she was about to burst her bubble.

"Zahra! Your room is not even close to being packed up! Quit sitting in the barn, moping and come clean it out! I will also need help with Alex's room as well!" Her mother's voice yelled across the open air.

Zahra sighed. Alex was coming home tonight, why couldn't he just do it himself? She grabbed the wooden fence and hauled herself out of the hay pile. She brushed the hay out her long dark hair and off her clothes. She trudged out of the barn and toward the house.

Her mother was standing on the porch, hands on her hips, squinting into the sun light. It was just like her mother to wait stubbornly until something was done. Her mother's name was Charlotte. She had blonde hair and, sadly, age had not been good on her. She was already starting to look like a grandma with wrinkles taking over her cheeks and hands. Zahra hated it whenever anyone said she looked like her mother.

Zahra was surprised that her mother's voice box had not blown up yet will all the yelling she did. She was convinced that her mother's voice could travel a mile.

"Well there you are. We better hurry, we want to get out of here before all of the fighting starts." Her mom said, her eyes looking over her seventeen-year-old daughter.

"Woah it seems like you actually want to leave," Zahra mumbled, walking up the steps. "Also, I was not moping." She spoke as she passed her mother.

She walked through the house and into her room closing the door behind her. she felt a childish urge to clam the door but decided not to. It would probably giver her old man a heart attack.

She fell back into her bed, sighing. Yup I'm moping.

After waisting a lot of time staring at the popcorn ceiling, Zahra pushed herself up and grabbed the mirror, pulling it off the wall. Zahra look at herself in the mirror, pulling out some stubborn left-over hay out of her hair.

Zahra has black hair, her green eyes were bright and forced any eyes to look at the shining green of her eyes first. She was not that tall but not too short. She was average. She had a small baby face with fat cheeks. When she was younger her father would squeeze her checks, thinking it didn't hurt because her cheeks were so big. It still hurt,  but Zahra never told her father because she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

Zahra looked around the room, realizing that there was no place to put the mirror. She opened the door and put it outside, standing it up against the wall. She cleaned for what seemed like a short amount of time. Once she started something, the time flew by, even if it was something she hated, like cleaning. Because of that she did not have a good grip on time.

When her room was practically empty except for her bed, in which she was to sleep in that night, she walked out of her room and into the living room. Her living room was all a plain beige color, even the one couch against the wall was along the color of beige. There was a small TV that faced the couch. Behind the TV was a small crowded kitchen and a table which sat four people. Between the TV and the kitchen was a hallway that led to the three bedrooms and one bathroom.

"There's my sweet-heart." Zahra's father walked into the room. He looked more like Zahra. He had black hair like hers, or he used to before it turned grey, and had green eyes. They weren't as bright as hers, but it still counted for something. His name was Thomas, and years had not been good on him either. His looks were better than her mother, but her father had back issues. It had gotten to the point where it was almost impossible to bend over and get something he had dropped.

"Hi papa." Zahra plopped down into the couch and turned to the TV which was on the news channel. Her father was the kind to watch the news all day and yell at it. When she was younger, mother made Alex take Zahra into his room whenever Papa was watching the news. When she was younger, she never understood why, but when she turned ten and mother and Alex were gone, Zahra sat and watched the news with her father. She realized two things that night. First, the news is super depressing, and second, her father had a mouth full of swear words, ready to shoot at people through the TV who could never be able to hear him. Papa had been yelling a lot lately.

The TV was showing the leader of Bloemenveld, Arin Luke Veersions II. Everyone called him Captain on the Bloemenveld side. On the Zon side we just called him Veersions. He was shown talking in front of a stand with what looked to be at least twenty different mikes propped up on the stage, Zahra never understood why they needed so much mikes. Standing next to him was the General, General Limly and Veersions son, Arin Veersions III. They all had bright chestnut hair, except for General Limly, who's hair was all grey.

"What is happening?" Her father asked, sitting down next to her.

"Huh?" Zahra asked, turning to her father.

"On the TV," he answered, pointing at it.

"Oh, nothing really. Just Veersions taking." She replied. Her father turned to look at the leader of the country that they were fighting. He had voiced his hatred for Bloemens so many times through the TV it was just a normal thing to hear. Everyone hates the Bloemens, Papa. Zahra wanted to tell him. You don't have to keep yelling it every time they do something stupid.

Zahra personally didn't exactly hate the Bloemen. Yes, it was their country who were attacking their peaceful country, but not everyone in the country was ruthless and all violence. She guessed there was probably a family just like her own, who wanted it to be over. It was a little hard to imagine in a country that was practically a military camp, but she could.