Smart

Transfer

"Wake up, Ame," Tag teased, poking me in the shoulder.  I just slept through another note taking class of Integrated Science-Math.  Today's lesson was something about slope triangles and three laws of something.  I hated all that. 

"Can you send me the notes through Mind-Sphere?" I asked him.  We shared everything on Mind-Sphere and the Web, another type of internet. 

"Sure thing.  You coming to my house, right?"  Tag asked, walking towards the public bus station. 

"Oh yeah.  Of course." 

Tag didn't have his own smart-drive car like me, so he took the bus. On these days, I take the bus with him. 

We got on the bus early, taking a seat near the back.  I always liked the back.  There were fewer teachers to holler at you and tell you what a bonehead you were.

"Do you like chocolate, or gummies?"  Tag asked me.  It was a game we'd started since he met me in second grade.  We were supposed to guess what each other had. 

I gave him a playful look.  "Well, chocolate is way too expensive for you, so I assume gummies," I responded. 

His mischievous grin grew larger.  "Wrong! I've got some chocolate!" he exclaimed, showing me a candy bar.  It was one of my favorites, and I pulled one of my backpack. 

"And you can have mine, too." Tag's family was no where near as rich as mine, and chocolate was a rationed item. 

"Ohmygod, I love you!"  Tag shouted, then, realizing what he said, added, "You know, not in a weird way, just that you're nice." 

I smiled.  "I know what you mean. Now let's get off this bus before it leaves your stop," I said.  He looked shocked, as if noticing for the first time that the bus was stationary. 

We walked to Tag's house, which was about two kilometers away from the station.  By the  time we reached his  bedroom, I was ready to take a nap.  Tag might have been used to this, but my car took me straight to the driveway. 

"Amery, I know we aren't doing all that well in school," Tag said. "We probably won't be matched, and very few at careers will even consider picking us." He could have gone further, but he didn't. No one wanted to hear they could very well die by twenty-one. That was four years away, anyway.

"Yeah, but we don't need to talk about that now," I said. I glanced at his door, half expecting a hollow-cam watching and recording our every move, but this was Tag's house in the middle of the Worker's Circle. The council didn't care what happened here.

"Yeah, we do," Tag argued. "We're in eleventh grade. Careers will happen next year, then the year after that will be matching. And then when we're twenty-one, they'll be the exit exam, and then..." He didn't continue.  He didn't have to. No one liked hearing about their own death.

"So?" I asked. "What can we do about this? What can we possible do to be smart? We weren't born that way, and they know it! That's why they're doing it!" 

"They don't have to, but they do. We don't have to look this way. Look at this," Tag said, making a Mind-Sphere gesture with is his fingers. I checked my Mind-Sphere, finding a form floating in my eyescreen.

"Transfer from Diego to Itex," I read out loud. It said that anyone who graduated eleventh grade could skip twelfth grade and careers. They'd be moved to another city-state, Itex, and live out the rest of their lives there.  Well, as long as the council approved.

"Isn't this great?" Tag asked, his eyes alight with excitement. "No careers, no matching, and no termination 'cause there won't be the exit exam!"

I kept reading, looking for a loophole that would end this holiday-like leave. 

"Must get consent from at least one parent or guardian and two council members," I read to Tag.  "How are we going to get that?"

"My mom already signed off, and we are talking to Council Members Zoë and Lupin," Tag said triumphantly.

"Um, I'm not sure about my folks," I said. They wanted me to do something in the world, like they did, or even what Johana and Terrik did.  They probably didn't want me leaving the city to some far off place with a name that sounded like a goat.

"Well, you should think about it," Tag suggested. "It wouldn't be half as fun without you."

"Thanks," I replied. "I'll see if I can play on Ellie's more emotional side."

"Don't forget to mention the matching," Tag said with a wink.

"No more talk about this transfer," I said. "Let's get down to homework."

"Whatever you say, Queen Bonehead," he joked.

I punched him in the arm playfully. "Don't forget you're a bonehead, too."