September 1, 2202
Cassie's POV
Annalise Springster is digging the heels of her hand-painted shoes into the ground.
"Come, ON."
I tug at her arm while she forces me to drag all her weight. "This isn't cute Annie."
The students around us stare for a moment then continue to head in the same direction Annie and I are headed, hustling all the way. I drag her a few more feet before she manages to escape from my grip. Falling flat on her back, she sprawls in the grass with her limbs stretched about her.
"I think I'll just stay here," she says squinting against the sun's brilliant rays.
The students continue to stare but many of their paces have slowed down.
"It's a beautiful day," she says with a bit of sarcastic melodrama. "It's a shame we'll have to be in school for half of it." Supporting herself with her elbows and forearms, she sits up halfway. "You know you're one of the only reasons why I'm still giving this place a chance right?"
"Oh, shut up," I tease offering her my hand. "You know that's not true. You were born to be here."
The Springster family is one of the founding families of Greensboro. They were making a life for themselves here before Greensboro was even Greensboro. Their names sat in our history books next to the Proctors, the Murphys, and the Woods. Every Springster finishes high school at Greensboro High. Every Springster goes to college at one of the three top universities in the country. Every last one.
Taking my hand in hers, Annie pulls herself up. Once standing she brushes the green blades off her clothes, and I help by pulling her loose-fitting sweatshirt down to hide stains of the same color on her butt.
When we near the front door of Greensboro High, the all too familiar metallic smell reaches my nose and lingers there. The doors slide sideways allowing us entrance, and we approach the security check. I quickly swing off my backpack and give it to the robot next to the scanning room. Before walking away, a cold hard hand on my shoulder restricts me further.
"Phone, please."
Oh, right I forgot.
The robot the hand belongs to is supposed to be one of the humanlike models but she has none of the warmth that even Karla possesses. Looking into those frosty glass eyes, I can see no light or spark, though everything else looked real and alive.
I'd love to see the day scientists manage to make the eyes look human.
I tug my phone from the back pocket of my jeans and promptly tuck it into the side pocket of my bag.
"Thank you," she says indicating I was free to go, but she doesn't let go. A slight uneasiness creeps over me while her icy orbs burn a hole through mine.
"Alright, Sandy. That's enough." The command comes from my right. Sandy lets go. "Sorry, Cassie. She's new."
Jerry the security guard.
Jerry lays a grisly hand on my shoulder and scooches me gently to the scanner room. "She's just trying to get used to new faces is all."
"Oh, ok well—" The door slams behind me and I'm in an all-black...pitch-black room. The drop in temperature and lack of light is jarring.
"Alright Cassie, you know the deal. Hands down. Stand still." His voice echoes from somewhere in the darkness.
"Got it!" I know he can see and hear me from his office on the other side of the room. Bright green light emerges from every direction targeted at me. It does a quick sweep from the top of my head to my shoes, the light bending to match every curve on me, from my hips to the wrinkles on my shirt.
"Alright, all good, Cassie."
A rectangle of light appears opposite the way I came in. Beyond that light stands Jerry leaning over a panel of knobs and staring into a screen that appears pitch black. I am handed my backpack by another android.
"Alright Annalise, make sure you keep those arms still."
I look over Jerry's shoulder at the screen that had previously been black. Now, at its center is an outline of Annie that looked as if it had been colored in by someone on acid. She was a technicolor of seemingly random splashes of neon oranges, reds, yellows, greens, and blues. The green light sweeps over her but seems to linger on her head before continuing downward.
"Are you trying to blind me?"
"I don't control the light sweetheart." He looks at another screen to his right and, reflectively, I move back to avoid catching a shoulder to the eye. The second screen contains a carbon copy of Annie's figure. Next to it, are words too small for me to read from my safe nosy distance, but Jerry examines them closely before turning back to the screen with technicolor Annie. "Anything on your mind, Annalise?"
"Besides thinking this is an insane invasion of privacy, no, nothing new."
"Alright, come on out." He pushes a button opening the same door I came through and in comes a slightly disgruntled Annie. She grabs her bag from the same android and puts it on her back before gesturing for me to lead the way out.
"Hey, Cassie can you give us a minute?" Jerry queries not looking at us but concentrating on the next technicolor figure.
"Yeah sure," I say a bit confused.
"Don't bother waiting up. I'll send her to homeroom with a note."
Annie and I exchange looks and she gives me the, "I don't know what this is about either" look.
I nod a bit awkwardly and shoot her the, "Just text and I'll come running" eyes before leaving.
On the other side, the hall is nearly empty as most students have already settled into their homerooms. The main hallway is lengthy and cold. Its color scheme is monochromatic shades of blue, which I am told is supposed to help us keep a calm mind before and in between classes. All the classrooms are monochromatic, each one corresponding to a different subject—tech, green—the arts, yellow—language arts, red—math, white, etc. The soft patter of my feet seems of bounce off every wall.
I pick up my pace, watching the room numbers fly past me.
114....136
I hook a left and pass the Mayor's Office on the corner. Out the side of my eye, I see the man himself pacing the room with his eyes downcast. He is on a phone call.
His blonde hair is tousled back like the crest of a wave, and he is dressed very casually in sweatpants and a T-shirt. This is the Greensboro High way. Come as you are, learn as you are.
He only gets better with age.
He looks up at me and smiles. It's only then that I realize I had stopped walking altogether. He says one last thing to the person on the other line before opening the door of his office.
Don't stare.
"Hiya, Cassie." He leans against his desk inviting me in. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Yes—err no. I mean...." I close my eyes out of embarrassment.
Lie.
"I've been working on my valedictorian speech and I would love your help with it because...you're such a great speaker." The words pour from my mouth almost incoherently.
He smiles and laughs a little, "You aren't valedictorian yet."
Right.
"You're right," I laugh nervously. "Sorry I even asked." I head for the door.
"Wait," he says and I comply.
"I said yet." The smile doesn't disappear. "I would love to help you. However, I only can after you have been guaranteed the spot. Come see me after that."
Excitement replaces the nervousness. "Thank you-thank you so much," I stammer.
"Of course. Now go ahead to class before you miss something important."
I nod and leave closing the door behind me.
That worked out surprisingly well.
Annalise's POV
I've been sitting in this office for at least 20 minutes waiting for Jerry to tell me what's up. I wait with my legs crossed and my eyes trained on the back of his skull.
"I have class," I state the obvious as a reminder.
"You've only been here three minutes. Just give me a second to finish up with the stragglers."
Instinctively, I tug on the ends of my hair. My body becomes a little less tense, my mind more at ease.
This morning I woke up with a million different phrases jumbling my brain. I was used to the jumble, but this morning, it was a lot worse. I felt panicky all the way up until arriving at Cassie's house. I woke her up as I always do...intrusively, except this time I decided to give a courtesy knock first. Before doing so, a flood of the sweet flowery perfume she always wears swept from the space underneath her door and into my lungs. That was all I needed to sort out the madness in my mind. She and my dad are the only people who have that kind of effect on me.
The last few students meander through before Jerry finally turns around to face me.
"I'm going to ask you again. Do you have anything on your mind?"
I just look at him.
He continues as if I have given a response, "It's the stress thing I know. I was able to get that much from your readings. That's become typical from you, but the response today was a bit strong. Also, there was something else I saw..."
Come on, Jerry. Get on with it please.
"The program picked up some anger, hostility even?" He looks at me expectantly.
"Yeah."
He purses his lips. "You never make this easy Annalise. I understand wanting to conceal your feelings about your"—sensitivity enters his tone—"anxiety, but this new reading doesn't appear to be that. We put these things in place to help, not hurt..."
Here it comes.
"Is everything alright?"
I toss my head back in obvious irritation.
"You never ask the right question. Never specific enough." He looks at me blankly. "Yes, I'm alright."
"Then, there's nothing troubling you?"
"I didn't say that."
"But you're alright?"
"Yes."
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
"Let me help you out," I say leaning back in my chair. "Ask me, 'Are you content with the direction your life is going in right now?'"
"Annalise, please cut the—"
"Come on, Jerry. Humor me a little before I go to class." I grin.
He sighs. "Are you content with the way your life is going right now?"
I wait a moment pretending to reflect, but I already have the answer. I had asked myself this question a million times since the start of sophomore year. The frequency of this question's appearance in the jumble of my brain has increased since the end of the year meetings junior year. At this moment, it stands at the forefront of my mind.
"No." My lips form softly around the word as I say it. My gaze doesn't leave his.
"And..."
"You didn't ask me to elaborate."
Jerry turns back around to his screen as if he's had enough. I don't leave just yet. A small voice rings out in my head. It's not the normal unconscious one that guides my usual decisions. This one, though, I recognize and have recently become more and more familiar with. It creeps in at the moments it finds most opportune, never telling me what I should not do, but always what I should do. It is a sweet talker, a master saleswoman, a politician. It is a defense attorney and I am the judge.
Just do it. Tell him.
"I feel like," I start slowly. "I feel like My future is out of my hands. Well, the near future, at least. This school harps on looking towards and planning for the future, but I haven't had a sure say in it since sophomore year. My life has been laid out for me up until medical school. And then what?"
He doesn't say anything in response: does not even turn back around.
"I think my parents are expecting me to fall in love with the idea, my mom more so than my dad, but...I don't want anything to do with the medical profession, really, or science, or math, or tech...."
"You can always change your mind once you get there."
"But can I?"
He faces me again. His eyes say "no" and his mouth says nothing.
Seeing that the conversation is over, I stand and grab my backpack.
"It will never be that easy." I assert. He scribbles onto a piece of paper and hands it to me.
I am on my way out the door when Jerry says, "I sent your readings to Mayor Muller. You know how that goes. Don't be surprised if he calls you in to check on you today."
"I don't think he will."
He'll go straight to my dad.