The Tale of Ezra: Book 1

Chapter 1: Destiny

My name is Ezra, a 15 year old bozo who can't do anything right. Yeah that's what I've told myself the past 4 years, and now I'm about to graduate from Northbrook academy and go into the NGO(National Gun Organization). See there have been many conflicts happening in this world, wars and all that violent stuff. Our country Regalia has been one of the major factors in this war. We've claimed about 42% of this world and it seems our country leaders don't plan on stopping there. They're goal is to be the number one country and defeat all other opposing countries. And guess what, a lot of countries oppose our Regalia but most of them have fallen. There are a few that this country considers real enemies.

To ensure that we maintain and keep our position, the country has multiple academies to train kids in the art of swords, guns and all that weaponry. It's like school but you learn how to use guns and fight. Most of us kids do regular school and studies until we're 13, then the next 4 years we're trained to fight. Once we're 17 we're recruited by the NGO. The NGO consists of 4 major divisions, North, South, East, and West. Each division has their own specialty and some are ranked by the amount of strong people or whatever.

I didn't really care about that stuff, after all I was a pretty smart guy, I managed to get into the academy at only the age of 11. So I'm the youngest in the class, well I'm turning 16 next month while everyone else is 17 turning 18 in a year. I was a kid prodigy but I wasn't good with guns. I failed all my gun tests, to be honest the thing that really carried me throughout these 4 years was my smartness and knowledge of things. My strength was average, I wasn't the strongest in my class but I wasn't the weakest. The guys I hung around with were the strong cool guys, so people thought I was one of them. My best friend also hung around those guys too, but probably because I was there. He was like me but a little more talented, he actually knew how to use guns and was good with it. He passed most of his exams. He was a little bit younger than most of the students in our class, he was 16.

Now came graduation day, the day where we'd all get recruited into the NGO. So there sat me and the guys. We were all discussing what division we each wanted to go to and what we thought we would end up in. Trey, who was the leader of our group and probably the strongest in the class went first. "Yeah I'm totally getting recruited by the North Division" he said so proudly. The North Division was the best division and the division everyone wanted to get recruited into. You had to be both extremely smart and extremely talented in order to enter the North Division. I mean it was filled with extremely smart and talented guys. Jerry went next and said he wanted to either go to the North or East Division, but he wouldn't be mad if he got recruited by the South Division. "Where do you think you're going? Ezra." one of the guys said. I said carelessly "I don't really know" and I really didn't. Honestly I didn't really care which division I would get recruited into. "Nah bro, Ezra is definitely getting recruited into the West Division." Trey said. The West Division was the absolute worst Division, no one wanted to go there. I mean it was a NGO division but everyone knows that people from the west are just the people who clean up after the big shots. The west focuses mainly on investigations and cleaning up big messes. They usually don't fight on the frontlines unless it's a big war or something. People who get recruited into the west usually didn't do well in the academy or just barely got by. "Nah" Jalen said, "With his smarts he could at least get into the South Division" he continued. Honestly the South Division wasn't bad, it was only the 3rd and second to worst division but some great talent has come from the south before. But it was a middle class division and no one really wanted to go there. "Probably" my best friend Finn said. Finn was probably going to end up in the North or East, the East was considered the second best. They treat you like royalty there and you do have high status there as well. I looked up and then I saw...her, the girl I loved since the start of my academy days. Anna, she was literally the hottest girl I've ever seen and her body shape, everything. She had long black hair with brown highlights going towards the bottom. She wore braces which she was wearing for a couple of years. And she had beautiful brown eyes. That day she had worn a dress which really looked good on her. I mean everything looks good on her. She's not only the most beautiful but most talented person in our class. Yeah she was definitely going to the North. She wasn't physically bulked up or anything but she was very smart and strong. She was good with everything. She was the absolute best and was at the top of our class. But the thing I loved about her the most was her smile. Even with braces her smile is just the best.

My friends had seen me staring at her and then one of the slimmer guys Jimmy hit my back. "Man why don't you just go ask her out" "I can't" I replied "She's just out of my league" "Come on bro, you've liked her since the beginning of time, it's about time you ask her out, I mean we are graduating, and you guys are probably gonna be in different divisions" Finn said. "Probably" I followed up, "But I wanna be in whatever division she's in" "That's impossible man" Trey said. "Everyone knows she's going to the North, and you...yeah you probably won't be making it." Trey hit me with the brutal facts. Well he wasn't lying, even though I was smart I wasn't a good enough fighter. "At least ask her," Jerry said while nudging me. "What if she says no?" I said. "Well then she's probably not the one for you" Ethan said while entering. Ethan was that guy in our friend group, I mean he managed to date two girls from Anna's friend group. He was probably the coolest out of all of us. He would always say stuff to girls to impress then and actually had the skills to back it up. He wasn't as smart, but he was physically and athletically a genius. He had copied off of me in most of the written tests though, just like pretty much everyone else in my friend group. The thing about it though is that I'm in one of if not the coolest friend group in the class and I'm pretty much unknown.

Lunch time had ended, and it was time to go to the assembly hall. We were about to graduate, and they would call our names and say what divisions had recruited us. A person could get recruited by more than one division, usually if you got recruited by more than one division you were pretty special. If you were recruited by all 4, oh you were more than special, you were an intellectual talented genius. That would probably be Anna. If you weren't recruited by not even one division then you would be put on a roster list. Since divisions can select a limited number of kids from all of the academy, a lot of people usually go on the roster list. Even top people who were talented and did really well in the academy could still get put on the roster list, that would be because the division didn't have enough space for their selection. So if I'm not recruited then I'm probably going to be put in the lowest part of the roster list since I'm not very talented.

So there we were, we all sat down in the huge auditorium. This time the selection was happening in our academy, so kids from academies all over the country were here. Some of the NGO's top prospects. I'm pretty sure Anna was on that list of top prospects, so she would probably be one of the first names called up. There were at least 500 other students graduating here. I knew it would be a very long day for me because I would probably be all the way at the bottom of the list. The NGO commissioner had walked up to the podium to first quiet down everyone and announce the graduates. I sat back in my seat knowing that I wasn't gonna be one of the first 100 people called so I started to daydream about Anna. I usually daydreamed about me and her and what the rest of our lives would look like together. I mean hey I even thought of names for our kids. I know I know, I'm only 15, but I don't have anything better to think about. The NGO commissioner on the other hand looked pretty goofy, well at least in my eyes. He was tall, bald, slim, and a little skinny. He was also wearing a gray suit with a navy blue tie and white dress shirt under. Once the audience filled with students and teachers and also parents who came to see their children graduate and get recruited and say their final goodbyes, he started to talk. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our annual NGO recruitment and graduation. Today we have all of these fine young students who have committed 4 years of their lives in order to become the best they can be and join the NGO in defending our country. Today these young students will graduate and will get recruited by the 4 divisions. We hope you enjoy this and cheer and support our graduates who have worked hard over the past 4 years"

His voice disrupted my daydream a bit, but I still imagined her face. I could never forget it. He then went on to announce the first graduate. The person who would be called up first would be the number 1 person in this whole country. This person would be probably the most talented in this whole country because they were called up first out of 500 people. Then the commissioner began to speak again.
"And our first graduate, and the NGO's number one prospect and pick...Ezra Jackson.