chapter 02

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by summrvibes

by summrvibes

The theatre was grand, and boasted of riches from a time gone by. It was designed and built in the Old Days, back when people could choose the way they lived. But that time was fast becoming a distant memory now. Bailee's fingers gently ran along the aging plush velvet seats until she found Willow, her best friend and took a seat beside her. All this time Bailee's mind had been on the boy, the boy who got away.

"Hey Will" Bailee greeted her friend as she sat down on her chair, the velvet gently prickling the back of her legs.

"Oh Bailee, it's you, hey" Willow looked up, taking her eyes off the information booklet resting on her lap. Bailee peaked over Willow's shoulder so she could steal a glance at the running order. "You're last." Willow said looking her in the eye. Bailee nodded. She just hoped that her job involved being outdoors.

For some odd reason, Bailee had always had a fascination with the outside world. She wanted to explore far beyond the concrete world she lived in. Quite often, when she was younger, her mum would find her trying to get her hand through the fence, so that she could pick one of the daisies that grew outside the community. More than once the electricity in the fence had caught her off guard, leaving her shocked and sore. Many times however, she had suceeded in claiming a flower from the outside world, but however much she tried, she could never get one to grow inside the community.

x x x x x

"You nervous?" Bailee asked Willow, on her left.

"Yep" Willow said, her knuckles white and hands clenched into fists. Bailee decided to ignore this. She was probably just nervous about the ceremony.

"What do you reckon happened to Tyler?" Bailee asked "I mean I didn't really know him very well but still, to run away..." She trailed off

"I don't know, I was never particularly close to him. I reckon he would have run away though, like people were saying." Willow said, "I know that the government will tell us something, but I reckon he wanted to leave, either that or they took him out. But then again, I don't really know."

x x x x x

The Head Elder had just finished her speech. Now she was calling each citizen up to the podium one by one, so that they could have their barcode scanned one by one. Each new adult citizen went up, had their barcode scanned, the data was displayed on a board behind the Head Elder so that the whole community could see, was followed by applause and then the new citizen returned to their seat. Bailee had come once before, for one of her cousins. It had been extremely boring, and nothing particularly noteworthy had occured. Sometimes, a citizen's soulmate would be from another community, so a live cross to them would be made, standing up and waving to their new soulmate. Mostly however, their spouse was sitting in the room.

The Head Elder started with Waters, Riley, the oldest citizen to be scanned and continued in age order until she reached Evans, Bailee. Bailee had been waiting nervously for her turn for a few hours now, there were about 150 anxious teens from the community being scanned that night, all feeling rather apprehensive about their future.

Willow was somewhere in the middle area of the group. Bailee paid attention as her friend was called up to the stage of the old theatre to where the Head Elder was standing. Willow held out her left wrist and the Head Elder scanned her barcode. Willow was going to work as a doctor, would write as a hobby, and had the opportunity to have three children by the age of 32, she was staying here, in the community and her soulmate was a shy male from their year named Joshua.

The rest of the citizens seemed to pass in a blur. Willow was Bailee's only close friend really. Finally, or so it seemed, it was Bailee's turn. She walked up to the podium, trying to seem self assured and confident. On the inside however, she was a mess of nerves and could barely think straight. She smiled out to the crowd as she held out her left wrist to the Head Elder, who scanned it. She turned to face the board behind her, displaying her future. She would work as a farmer, with her hobby being painting (she had found that out a few years ago, but it was all officially announced at the ceremony anyway), she would have two children by the time she was 32 and thankfully, was permitted to stay in the same community. Her soulmate was, no, she thought, it couldn't be.

Her planned soulmate was Tyler.

Well isn't this just my lucky Saturday?

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Hey sun rays,

Little bit of a cliffhanger there.

I actually get so excited when people read this.

It makes me so happy that you guys like my story enough to read the first two chapters.