Colors

Unum

I awoke to a loud noise just outside my door, and rubbed my eyes as I sat up in bed. Then, my lip quivered and my whole body shook. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I begged myself not to cry. Strong girls don't cry, I thought to myself as I remembered my training in the past years.

Everyone in society has a color. Then, when the people want to have a family, they move to gray to raise their families until both children have entered adulthood: both children turn thirteen. Every color symbolizes your Temperament, Personality, Disposition, Makeup, and Spirit.

Reds are passionate, provacative people. They have a "devil-may-care" Temperament, fiery Personality, laidback Disposition, sexy Makeup, and lively Spirit.

Oranges are unusual, unique, and usually very plastic. Oranges and Pinks get along great together. Oranges have a bossy Temperament, powerful Personality, calm Disposition, slim Makeup, and little to no Spirit action. (Many people joke that oranges can be so cruel that they have no souls.)

Yellows are bright and optimistic. They have a talkative Temperament, bubbly Personality, happy Disposition, naturally skinny Makeup, and healthy Spirit.

Greens are intelligent and independent. They have a smart Temperament, quiet Personality, calm Disposition, average to skinny Makeup, and normal Spirit.

Blues are the "teamwork" color. They also work together and have formed a sort of democracy in their section of the city. The Blues are also very bright people. They have a modest Temperament, kind Personality, peaceful Disposition, usually average or thin Makeup, and above-average Spirit. I know, unexpected, right?

Purples are imaginative and slightly childish. Everything about them is fun, and they don't take anything seriously. Purples are usually heavier in Makeup and are always cheerful, so they get along well with the Yellows. Nothing else is needed: you can grasp the rest of the description.

Pinks are soft-spoken and caring. They have a parent-like Temperament, nurturing Personality, patient Disposition, all different Makeups, and average Spirit behavior. The Pinks settle the Oranges down, and are opposites in almost every Trait. However, opposites attract!

But I have a problem, and I've known it since I was taught the Color system. I don't fit in anywhere. I'm not sexy, unique, overly happy, super intelligent, cooperative, imaginative, or caring. I'm me. I just go with the flow, wherever it may take me, only the spirits know. And you know what they do with the ones who don't fit in on their thirteenth birthday?

They're classified as Blacks.

Blacks are sent to the Death Row, where some sick-minded adults go and watch them killed for fun.

Today is my thirteenth birthday.

I awoke to a loud noise just outside my door, and rubbed my eyes as I sat up in bed. Then, my lip quivered and my whole body shook. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I begged myself not to cry. Strong girls don't cry, I thought to myself as I remembered my training in the past years. Every year, from your ninth birthday, you are tested to see if you can survive the challenges. Only the strongest survive. When you turn nine, you are hung upside-down over a pit of boiling lava for half an hour before being rescued. When you turn ten, it's the obstacle course, where you have to jump on rocks to avoid boiling lava (the recurring torture!), go across four monkey bars, and crawl through a cramped, tiny cave, where you have to race to finish line (a slow time to reach the finish is also out). At eleven, you face a simulation: you are in a library, and the windows and doors are barred down. You have to find a way to escape in under ten minutes, and every minute, the room gets smaller and smaller. The floor drops out below you if you stay in the same place for over ten seconds, and if you fail the simulation, you're sent to the Death Row. At twelve, you face your biggest fear live and in person. You, the unsuspecting twelve-year-old, fills out a seemingly innocent All About Me paper beforehand. I'll never forget that day. My biggest fear, I wrote, was being beat up and not being able to do anything about it, being frozen and place, stuck where I am and witnessing this incredible torture. And so they injected me with paralytic serum, and observed me as I was placed in a school building.