A-Z Town

Seconds

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The unfair thing about being a second is that you can't have children. You can only get married. And if you're a second you have to have a job working for us. You can't just be normal, like the firsts. (We're really called originals, but why not firsts instead?)

"Zoey, hurry, it's 7:59!" Mom cries. "You're going to miss the National Anthem!"

Every Saturday, everyone in Alliaz stands up and says the National Anthem. If you don't, you get questioned and taken to court. From there, you either get sent home or to jail.

In most families, the boy twin is the slacker. But in the Zitelyn house, it's me. I HATE getting up. In Main, most kids SLEEP IN on Saturdays. All the more reason to hate Alliaz and long for Main.

I make it downstairs just in time. We have our TV on Channel One, just as always on Saturdays, and we say the Anthem.

"We'll stay here for-ever,
It's a new kind of free.
We belong here in Alliaz
We show our loyal-ty!

We love it here,
Always did, always will
We celebrate and cheer!

Oh, Alliaz
The ci-ty of love.
Oh, Alliaz
The city of the dove.

The city of freedom,
The city of rules
The city of perfection,
The city of our dreams."

I hate the anthem. It's horrible, if you ask me. But I zone out while we sing it, so I don't put much thought into how much I dislike it.

"Zoey, you should really pay more attention when we sing the Anthem," Mom says as she's putting our applesauce into a bowl.

"I do," I protest, slipping my fingers into the applesauce. Mom glares, but she doesn't fuss.

"You sing so quietly. Didn't Mrs. Stevens say you're a wonderful singer? Why don't you express that talent?"

Mrs. Stevens is our music teacher.

"Mom, for starters, she said I needed to work on my singing voice and then I could be a wonderful singer. Because I'm a horrible singer."

"Why do you say that? It's just Dad, Zack, and I listening. Why does it matter?"

"Because.... Well, the truth is, I just don't care."

I hear her large, dramatic gasp and the scratch of her fingernails as they grip the countertops.

"Don't say that!" she hisses, but I'm already out of the room.

"Applesauce ready?" Dad calls from over his newspaper.

"Always is," I reply. I go back to my room. Zack is doing homework. He pushes his glasses up his nose and studies me.

"You cursed," he says. "What did you say?"

"I didn't curse, I spoke my mind," I snap.

"That's cursing."

"Exactly."

He peers at me of his glasses. "You said something about the Anthem. I know you did. Zoey, the Group already warned you about that."

"Yeah, because they're creepy stalkers listening in on our conversations," I moan. "They're probably listening right now. YOU GUYS SMELL LIKE COW PLOP!" I shout.

A megaphone sound rumbles through our house. "We heard that."

"...of course they did."

"And that."

"STALKERS!"

No response. Just the screech of the tires of the Group's patrol van as it leaves our driveway.

"Cow plop? Zoey, they're obviously on their way to the Blue House to tell Mayor Murray. You should-"

"Mah, mah. Did you milk Zappleberry yet?"

Zappleberry is our zebra. Amazingly, she drank some cow milk and now she can produce milk. It takes like charcoal until you add a drop of real milk. Then it changes from black to white and tastes as good as any old cow's milk.

Every household in Alliaz has an animal with a talent. A zebra was the only 'z' we could get, even though she was talentless. But now Zappleberry's milk is famous all over the town.

And it drives Mayor Murray crazy. Because only goats and cows are to give milk, and zebras... Well, they ruin that perfection. But taking him away is going to ruin the perfection even more.

Jessa and her family have a jaguar. Jeristin doesn't give anything. But Sean Smith, the second S, is Alliaz's scientist-slash-inventor and he is working on a new medicine that they can give to Jeristin so they can skin him and his fur can keep growing back. Like a sheep's.

Did I mention that seconds are treated trashier than firsts are? Well, they are. People just think they can push them around. They're like our servants. Probably the only people that can't be bossy is children, just because of our teachers.

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Every two years we have a Sending.

Well, let me back it up.

Once you graduate twelfth grade, you are required to be an apprentice to an assigned second. Some graduates are teachers, some are bakers, and so forth. You have a year to become an expert at the job. Then you are required to marry to one of the people you graduated with. Then you are required to have your twin-shots (that is how we all have boy-girl twins) and the next month you are to have your children. They begin school five years after their birth. The month after your twins are born, you take up the job you were an apprentice for. That second who taught you is forced to a ship and sent to Main... And is to reveal nothing of where they came from or be put to death.

We have had many town meetings about the Sending. Many seconds do not understand it. They do not wish to leave their spouses (most of the time, but not every time) and go to a new, unfamiliar place. The Sending is the only reason we learn anything about Main in school, so when we get there we are not completely clueless.

Once you are married, your parents are sent away along with the seconds. You then become a second. Once your twins graduate you get sent away to Main. Every year, the people that were sent away are to write to their children so the kids know where to go when they arrive in Main. If they do not write that year, they are dead.

This has happened before. Mrs. Price's parents stopped writing three years ago. The Sending is obviously a sour subject for her, but she is not certified to speak her mind in that way. So her thoughts are kept to herself.

Well, I know I will marry Jessa's brother. And Zack will marry Jessa. It's sad, really, for a sixth-grader to already know who she will marry. But Justin is very sweet and I'd love to be related to Jessa.

One more thing: when you marry as a girl, your last name changes to the boy's last name and your first name changes to the boy's letter. My name will most likely become Jana. Your new name is one of the very few things you may choose when you marry (only if you're a girl.)

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