The Perfect society

Chapter 3

After distracting myself at the arcade I get a text from my parents, we're all having dinner at one of the restaurants on the ship. I sigh at the thought of having to dress up for dinner and the very real possibility that my mother will force us to take at least a hundred pictures. I wince at the thought of her camera flash. I put my phone in my pocket and turned to the others.

"I have to head back, we're having dinner soon."

" You guys gonna order in? Or put on nice clothes and go to a restaurant?" Max smirks as if he can practically picture me in an uncomfortable dress faking a smile at dinner.

"I wish it were the first one but nope, mom actually wants to make a public appearance in society today."

"That sounds nice. Max, we should go out for dinner tonight too, we can use it as an excuse to get to know the neighbors." Emily's eyes are practically sparkling in excitement at the idea. She seems to really like the idea of dressing up and going out for dinner, my mom would definitely rather have her for a daughter than me.

"Then it's settled. I'll go tell my parents and you guys do the same." I start making my way out of the arcade and they follow. Emily is already going through what she could wear while Max is talking about all the different foods he's hungry for. I tune them out and continue down the wide halls to the elevators.

I've never taken this elevator before, the walls are made of glass giving us a good view of the universe around us. I've never been really into space before but seeing the sight of hundreds of stars surrounding us in this vast void is hauntingly beautiful. We watch as the elevator takes us further up the ship exposing more stars and distant planets, the view is breathtaking. No one has spoken since the ride started, almost as if speaking would take us out of this moment. The elevator stops and the doors open, hesitantly we walk out into the hallway only to be greeted by rows of windows displaying the same view we saw in the elevator. White walls facing rows of windows showing a sprawling galaxy. With little fluorescent lights lining the ceiling.

"What is this place?" I look down the hallway but there doesn't seem to be many rooms on this floor, I spot what looks like a big pair of double doors to our right and start to walk towards it.

"Sky, wait!" I hear Emily yell after me as I start to be able to read what that door says. I stop in my tracks as I read 'restricted area trespassers will be forcefully removed'

What could they possibly be hiding on this floor? The elevator we took was kind of in a corner tucked away from the rest of the floor, we just kind of stumbled upon it without thinking. Maybe it was put there because you could easily overlook it, it's basically hidden in plain sight.

I walk back over to the others and usher them back to the elevator.

"Let's just go, we're not supposed to be here."

"What did the door say?"

"Probably that we're not supposed to be here and they'll kill us if we get caught."

"Emily is technically not wrong about most of that. Now let's get out of here before we find out how they'll remove us."

We go back into the elevator and stare out the windows as the elevator slowly makes its way down to the ground floor. No one says anything like we're still processing what happened. My head is filled with even more questions, something about this place just feels off. I noticed it ever since I heard of this stupid lottery, the concept to the workers that the whole environment feels uncanny. Like if aliens tried to simulate everyday life on earth from clips of memories and media, it feels too perfect and that makes me feel sick to my stomach.

The elevator finally arrives at the main floor and we quickly make a beeline out of there. The thought of being spotted by one of the workers was terrifying, I know the sign on the door was just a warning but I really didn't want to find out for myself.

We walk back to the suits and try our best to act like nothing happened, I quickly greet my parents before rushing to my room. I close the door behind me and sink down to the floor, I place a hand on my chest and feel my heart racing. I take a deep breath before pulling myself off the floor and onto my bed. I try to put all the thoughts of what happened today to the back of my mind and walk to my closet. I throw the doors open and start to rummage through the rack of clothes. I don't even know what restaurant we're going to and I also don't think I told my parents that the Choi family would be joining us. I rush into the living room and find my parents sitting on the coach.

"The Choi's are coming to dinner with us." I loudly announced before turning to go back to my room, I almost made a perfect exit before dad called out to me.

"The Choi's are coming? We don't even know where we're going yet."

"They don't care."

"Honey, we also didn't set a time."

"What about in the next two hours?" I look at the clock and see that it's currently 4pm, having dinner at 6 seems reasonable.

"That's not enough time to get ready." I can see the panic in mom's eyes as she glances at the clock.

"Then you better start getting ready now." This time I'm able to walk back to my room with no interruptions. Out of the corner of my eye I can see mom's figure running into her room, two hours is more than enough time for her to get ready but she has a habit of being indecisive when it comes to picking what to wear.

I close my door and get back to picking what to wear. Since we don't know what restaurant we're going to, I have to dress in a way that would be appropriate for any restaurant. I think about all the fashion lessons mom gave me over the years, especially when I was asked out on my first proper date. If I don't know where we're going I have to make sure I don't dress too casual in case we go somewhere fancy but it can't be too fancy in case we go somewhere more casual. I need to find something I could wear to a café and a 3 star restaurant.

I go to my drawer and pull out a black skirt. It's my go to when mom forces us to go somewhere fancy and I don't want to wear a dress. The skirt itself is nothing special but it acts as the perfect base for an outfit, if I pair it with a nice top and some jewelry it can look really nice. I go to my closet and pull out all the nice shirts I own, mainly clothes I have for interviews and birthdays. I try pairing the skirt with a few tops but I stop at a nice purple top with a bow detail on the front. It's pretty simple but the details on it match the skirt more than the other shirts.

I go over to my dresser and look through my jewelry box for anything silver that would look good with the shirt when I find a simple butterfly necklace and matching earrings. I added some tights to the look along with my black dress loafers before I started applying some foundation on my skin. I was never all that good with makeup so I tend to keep my looks very simple. I put on some cream blush and shimmering eyeshadow. I top it all off with some lip tint and gloss and do a once over in the mirror before spraying some strawberry perfume my friends gave me as a birthday gift last year. I Check the time and see that it's almost 6pm. I join my dad in the living room and we wait for mom to finish getting ready.

10 minutes later mom finally emerges from the bathroom, unlike dad who just threw a dress shirt on with some plain black pants and loafers, mom is dressed to the nines. She's wearing a flowing pink dress that makes it look like she's wearing an upside down tulip, paired with a gold flower necklace set with matching earrings and ring. Her pink heels match the details of her gold clutch, if we're going to a taco place she'll definitely be overdressed but something's telling me she has no intention of going somewhere casual.

We Hear a knock at the door and take that as our cue to leave. Dad opens the door and greets the Choi family. Max and Emily are wearing matching dress pants and white tops, while Mr. Choi is wearing a more put together version of what dad threw on. Mrs. Choi and my mother both look like they dressed up to avoid going to a casual restaurant, they look like business partners about to go into a meeting. We make our way into the hall and to the elevators, the parents walk in the front while the kids stay towards the back. With no real destination in mind we walk and talk about potential outcomes for the night, best case scenario we all get along and the dinner goes smoothly. Worse case scenario our parents find out where we were today.