Forced to have the Player's Kid (Book One of The Great Age Plague Series)

Chapter Two

The bus ride to school was.... tense. Despite the fact that every girl was dressed to the nines, everyone seemed on edge with anticipation. I sat in my usual spot in the back, opening up a copy of Emma by Jane Austin. I buried my nose in the book, hoping to drown out the annoying drone of what I dubbed the Fashion Harpies in front of me. Queen bitch Crystal sat amoungst them, tossing her blonde hair over her back and shooting me a dirty look as she spoke to her pack of overly- made up friends.

"I just know I'll get Josh," Crystal said "Don't they pair us based on, like, compatiblity? Like, that test we took? Honestly, I'm so his type."  I rolled my eyes. Please. Josh was the school player, practically every girl was wishing to get paired with him. But not me. I've never been into meat-head types and it was obvious Josh was trying to put off the bad-boy player persona. He was just trying to hard. Sure, he was attractive-- blue eyes, sandy brown hair that flipped perfectly over his face, and, of course, the body of a Greek God mixed with a a male model. And, naturally, he was a football player. Which is probably why Crystal wanted him so bad-- head cheerleader and football player make sweet little babies. Uh.

"I wonder if some people won't get paired because they are too lame," at this, Cystal gave me a look. I bit my lip, trying to ignore her and pretending to read. She snickered as her friends laughed.

At last, the bus arrived at school. Immediatly we were all redirected into the auditorium, a musty old percisnium arch in dire need of a paint job were the school drama kids usually hung out in the morning. I had my own little spot underneath the weeping willow were all the other introverts hung out and read in a nice, comfortable silence. Today though I attempted to read my novel over the senseless blabbering of teenagers, many of whom were spoiled as hell and living on their own because the government paid for teenage orphans over the age of fourteen to live in apartments behind the school. I had heard stories about all the crazy parties they through. Even bigger than those parties were the ones Josh held in his, ahem, mansion that his parents had left to him in their will. Unlike Cally, I was completely uninterested in parties.

"Hello everyone, attention please," said the school principal into the microphone. She was an old women who I secretly called Professor McGonagall in my mind. Her brown bun was tightly done as always and her moon shaped glasses sat on the edge of her nose as she stood at the microphone, holding a stack of notecards thicker than my calf muscles. The room silenced immediatly, unlike many of the other school assemblies we had had in the past. This time, everyone was anxious to hear.

"I will be going in alphabetical order of the girl's first names with the new couple assignments. Remember, every couple is considered legally married for the two years requirement to reproduce. Failure to do so will result in imprisionment. We paired you all based on compatibility and offer hormonal supplements to the homosexual community at our school in order to aid in reproduction. Good luck and may you all take pride in aiding our new world."

The way she said it was so mechanical-- as if I was simply performing a civic duty not giving birth to a child, having sex against my will. I broke into a nervous sweat, knowing my name would be one of the first called.

"Abby Walker is with Jordyn Miles," I saw Abby and Jordyn stand up, smile kindly at each other, and walk over to the rows of empty seats, sitting together. Abby was in my Biology class and I knew she had hoped to get Jordyn. Lucky. I didn't want anyone at this school .

"Adira Stevenson is with--" Oh crap, it was me already. My breath caught for a moment as my heart raced. Those two seconds Professor McGonagall paused seemed like an eternity, but when she finally said the name, my heart basically stopped.

"Joshua Fauxgard."

No. No this couldn't be it. I stood on shaky legs and looked over my shoulder, seeing Josh standing with an incredibly pissed off look on his face. That's when it hit me.

I was going to be forced to have the player's kid.