The Spark of Rebellion

Long Time No See

"My name's Leif Hayes. Leif meaning, heir, and Hayes meaning, fire, which turns my whole name into heir of fire. Which is why my family and I live in Section Blaze of the city. In fact, all the families are placed in sections of the city based on their surnames," he said as he opened his report on family origins.

Leif was a stickler for history and the origins of humanity. No one else in his section's school was interested in anything he had to say. The one really good friend he had was across the fence in Section River, Jordan Murphy (Descend and sea-battler/Descending sea-battler).

She was so interesting. When he first saw her she was drawing, leaning up against the wire fence. He couldn't help but take a quick peep at what she was drawing. To his surprise, she was drawing him. But he thought it was a very good drawing so he wasn't as creeped out by it.

She seemed to notice him suddenly and jumped up holding the drawing close to her chest so that he couldn't see.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I was just looking at your drawing," he said. "It's really good."

"Thanks."

"What's your name?" he asked.

"We're not supposed to talk," she said starting to walk away.

"The law doesn't say anything about not allowed to talk, just not allowed to see each other," he said.

Leif knew all the laws. Only people in your section could interact with each other, but if the person was in another section, then they weren't allowed. He'd read through the laws about section's relations several times for school.

"Well, we can't look at each other than," she said turning away from him.

"Wait," he said reaching through the fence and touching her arm. "If we don't look at each other we can still talk."

She waited. "Okay," she said quietly, but that's bending the rules slightly don't you think?"

"Maybe, but I don't really see the point to the section laws," he said.

She sat with her back to the fence and he followed suit.

"So," she said. "What did you ask me?"

"Oh, yeah. What's your name?"

"Jordan... What's yours?"

"Leif."

That's how he and Jordan met. But during his report, he didn't mention her, because that would cause the whole class to fall into chaos, including their whole section. And of course, Jordan and her family would get in trouble too. If anyone was caught breaking the law they were sent to Section Outcast. But he and Jordan would never be sent there. For one thing, they weren't really breaking the law, they were just bending it, and for another thing, they would never get caught.

When school was over, he waited at the fence with his back to it. He hadn't seen Jordan in three years, but they'd talked almost every day. They would always walk backward until their backs touched the fence. Every once and a while they touched it at the same time and scared each other.

"How was your day?" she asked when she got there.

"It was pretty good. I gave my final history report," he said.

"Knowing you, you probably aced in within the first few sentences," she laughed.

"I am cool that way," he said sarcastically.

"I got an A+ in art," she said.

"Nice."

"Do you wanna see my project?" she put her art book in front her face and turned around. He turned around as well and looked at the beautiful painting of an owl sitting on top of a skyscraper with its beak in the crook of its wing.