Not everyone can agree on something. Whether it be your friends, or a couple politions. I even know a whole country that disagreed - The United States of America. Before my time, it was divided by failed arguments. States took sides and it became another civil war. The only problem was that they needed more soldiers. That's when they made a deal with the state of Texas. Anyone under the age of thirteen or unable to fight lived there. People under that category were underaged children, women exprecting children, a parent raising children, the old, and the disabilied. Kids over thirteen were shipped off to fight.
Now, you're probably wondering - who the heck am I? My name is Ari Matthews. I'm thirteen years old and this is my story. You might as well pay attention, because I'm only telling it once. After that, you're just going to have to wait 'til you're old enough, and make your own story. Now, I'll start with the beginning of my saga.
I was hanging out beside the fountain in front of the school. Of course, school had already let out for the day, but I was waiting for a friend to finish with after school activies. The town I lived in was the biggest: Austin. Texas was known as the Blank district, and Austin was known as the Blank town because that's where the recruiting happens. Recruiting was when a child picked the army they would fight for.
I leaned against the concrete ledge, getting impatient. The wind whipped my hair angrily. Finally, the doors opened and students poured out. Quickly, I spotted my best friend, Calista. She was wearing her uniform and carrying her violin case.
Calista, to me, was not like your average girl. She's average height, and pretty skinny. Her platium blond hair was always in her face, hiding her bright, green eyes. Her cheeks are splashed with freckles, and her skin is pale. Calista was never one to branch out and talk to people that often. Always hiding behind her hair. It wasn't until she pushed me off the monkey bars, and broke my arm when we became friends.
"Hey, Meer!" I called, waving my arms. She spotted me, and smiled. She weaved through the mob of kids to reach me.
"Hey, Ari. You ready for tomorrow?" My smiled faded a little, and I nodded slightly.
"Yeah, sort of." Tomorrow was recruiting, and you know every teenager can't wait to pick an army and fight your fellow citizens. Sound like fun! "You know what? Let's forget about that. We're going to spend our last day together - you, me and Matthias." Her smiled returned, and she nodded.
"It's going to be some much fun-" She was inturupted by a boy being pushed into her. She fell forward, bumping into me. I looked up to see a boy our age being bullied by some other kids. One guy was already trying to break up the fight, but was knocked aside. I moved in front of the attackers, a defiant look on my face.
"Dude! Seriously, we're going to war tomorrow and you're acting childish! Leave this kid alone, and grow up!" The boys glared at me, but obeyed. I turned to the victim. I somewhat reconized him.
I'd seen him around school. His jet black hair was sweeped to the left and his brown eyes were full of worry. He was smaller than most kid, skinnier and scrawnier, making him an easy target. His pale skin showed red marks from punched and kicks. Jacob Ryder didn't have a good life.
"You okay, man?" I asked, helping him up. From what I heard, Jacob's dad was dead and his mom was MIA. His little sister, Mikayla, was abducted by a group of rouge soldiers. I've seen him go to the Boy's home a couple times, so he must not have any other family.
"I'm alright." He replied, dusting off his hoodie. "Happens a lot, but I'm tough. Bullying my just shows everyone else what jerks they are. But, thanks....Ari." He finally looked up and saw it was me. He gathered up his books, and ran away towards the Boy's home, waving as he ran. That's when I remembered the other boy, the one who tried to stop the fight.
Sage Giovanni was General Perseus Giovanni's son. He didn't agree with the war, like a lot of people, and tried to make peace here in Texas. If you saw him, you'd probably say he was one of the rich kids, and you'd be right. He always wear pricey clothing from his mother, and has a sword hanging on his belt. His curly dirty blond hair was always a mess, and his blue eyes reflexed fatigue.
"Now, if you keep trying to be the mediator in fights, you'll get beat up as much as Ryder." I said, crouching in front of him. He was tending to a minor cut on his knee. He smirked and shrugged.
"It's one thing I can do that will make a difference here. My life apparently means nothing to the armies." I nodded and helped him up. "Well...I congradulate you on stopping the fight, and thank you for helping me." He patted my shoulder and walked away, scooping up his things as he passed by them.
"Well," Calista said inpatiently, "Are we going to go?" I smirked.
"Yeah, let's go!" We grabbed our stuff and ran off to the woods, laughing as we pushed each other.
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"I heard you broke up a fight at school this afternoon." Matthias said, untying his boots. I shrugged.
"I didn't like it. Kids like Jacob get picked on because their parents aren't here to protect them. Kids like Sage try to make peace because their dads are attempting to do the same thing."
"Your dad is doing that too, Ari." Matthias stated. My father happens to be General Steven Matthews, but my family doesn't want to be treated any different just because my dad has a high rank.
Matthias finally got his shoes off, and was tugging off his shirt, leaving him in only his shorts. He dived onto the lake water, swimming like a swan. Matthias could be mistaken for a sixteen year old. He's pretty tall for his age, and as skinny as a stick. With light brown hair, soft blue eyes, and a babyish face, he looks like a kid on steriods.
Might as well describe myself, so you get a picture. Now, I'm a tall, dashing, beautiful guy. Well, if you ask girls at school, they'd say I was a dork. I have short, dark brown hair and strange blue-gray eyes. I pretty short and pretty small. Most of the muscle I have is in my legs from running track.
Calista was floating in the water, wearing shorts and a tank top. Her hair was gliding gracefully behind her head as she snapped her arms to her sides to move. Once I was undressed, I jumped into the water, doing a cannonball. I landed right next to her, causing her to scream. She surfaced and laughed. "Ari Steven Matthews!" She got a little violent and dunked me. I kicked and grabbed her hands, pulling her under. Mattias grabbed us both by the ankles and pulled us under.
After I was air-dried, I quickly pulled my shoes and shirt back on. The sun was set, and the stars smiled down on us. Great. It was past my curfew. "You guys remember our deal?" I asked, unsticking my shirt from my wet skin.
"Yeah, totally." Matthias said, trying to get water out of his ear. "We're going to be in the Blue Army." With four armies in the country, it's hard to keep track. So, they're sort of color coded. There's Red, Blue, Green and Yellow. All of them have a different cause, like Blue is fighting for the old America. Green wants to decrease population by killing off the useless. Red wants to raise all prices, and we're talking about five or six dollars a gallon for gas. Yellow is the odd ball, nobody knows what their cause is unless you have family in that army.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow. Dress sharp!" I waved good-bye and ran back to town, and off to my house.
My house isn't the nicest. It's only two bedrooms. I share one with my little sister, Terra. Sure, it gets annoying, but after a while, you get used to it. Our town isn't like the old ones, with the cities, and cars. It's...down-graded in the past few years. All the houses are simple, and they're no big buildings 'cept the recruiting center. All of the houses are on small streets, like in country towns you see in movies. Not everyone owns a car, and it's very rare to see a hovercar.
I creaked open the door to find my sister watching TV, and my mother setting the table. "Hey, Mom." I greeted with a sheepish smile. She only shook her head with a small smirk. My mother isn't one of those old mothers. She's pretty young. Of course, most women have their children in their twenties in this time.
My mom's name is Esa Matthews. She has curly, light brown hair and warm brown eyes. She never wears make-up, but she's just naturally pretty. Her arms have some muscle from being in the army for twenty some years. My favorite thing about her is that she always smells of vanilla.
"You're late, young man."
"I know, I know, but I was hanging out with Calista and Matthias, it's our last day as being kids." She set down the last plate and walked over to me. She ran her fingers through my thick hair, and kissed my forehead.
"Don't remind me. I hate having to lose my baby boy." I smirked.
"Mom, I'm not a baby." She grinned.
"Well, I need my baby boy and baby girl to wash up, dinner's ready." Terra groaned from the living room, but obeyed.
Once we were washed and eating, I started a conversation. "What's Dad like?" I'd never met my father. He had to go back to war when I was only a year old. Terra was only a newborn.
"Yeah, I've been wondering that too!" Terra piped in, filling her mouth with spaghetti. Her light brown hair was in a ponytail, and her brown eyes were focused on Mom. Mom only sighed.
"Well, he's the nicest, most thoughtful man I've ever met! Met him when I was at the shooting range. I was using a bow and arrow. Before then, I was only used to guns. He showed me how to do it, you know how on TV, guys would come up behind a girl in golf. After that, we started dating and then we were married. When I was pregenet with Ari, we had to move back here. After Terra was born, he had to go back to the Blue army." I nodded, connecting all the dots in my head.
"What does he look like?" Might be supirsing, but I'd never seen a picture of him. Mom scooted out her chair and went to fetch something. She returned with a picture frame.
"Only picture we have of him, so I keep it safe.." Inside the ornant frame was a picture of two people. One of them was a younger version of Mom wearing a white dress. Next to her, with an arm around her waist, was Dad. He was wearing his military uniform. He had close-cropped ,dark brown hair and blue-gray eyes like me. His face had a little stuble on it, but he had a kind smile on his face.
"Wow, I do look like him!" I commented. Mom just laughed.
"Yes you do. Now, off to bed, you have Recruiting tomorrow!" I groaned, and put my plate in the sink.
"Good-night." I kissed Mom on the cheek and ran upstairs to our bedroom.
I plopped on my bed. It was in the farthest corner of the room, blocked off by a curtain. I don't have many belongings, but what I did have, I took real good care of. On my bed side table, hanging on my lamp was my medallion. Mom gave it to me for my sixth birthday. She said it was Dad's. It was about the size of a quarter, and made of bronze. Ungraved in the center was an eagle. I stared at the symbol, before turning off the light and closing my eyes.