Sprawl

Chapter Four

The bonfire/fertility function celebrates the coming of age of girls that are turning sixteen years old that year. I am one of them, and so naturally, I am quite excited. The tradition is to borrow the dress of your mother's coming of age bonfire. However, some girls buy their dresses in the town square. Only the wealthier girls get to do that though, the one's whose fathers are usually higher level Commissioners. My father, though I rarely get to see him except on special occasions such as this, is only a level twenty Commissioner. There are fifty levels. You gain a level the harder you work, the more dedicated you are, and the amount of wives and children you collect. Seeing as father has only fourteen kids, he is at quite a low level. He'll marry another girl soon though.

The bonfire is a chance for us young females to acknowledge our growing up, and for the Commissioners to pick out future wives. Everyone that lives on the Compound comes, as the whole thing is a real party. You must dress your best, and it is the only chance that females ever get to wear makeup and let their hair out of the mandatory braid.

Seeing as my birth mother was dead, I was allowed to rifle through my other mother's dresses and pick my favorite. This is a real treat, I tell myself as I look through them. I pick up one, sigh, throw it onto the bed, and look at the others. A lovely deep teal colour caught my eye, and I move the other dresses aside and pick the one that I know is perfect.

It had a cinched waist with a cream coloured satin ribbon that is to be tied in a bow at the small of your back. The neckline was not too low, a scoop neck. The entire bust was covered in a lovely off-white floral stitching. The skirt of the dress was plain and not puffy, and so I would need to wear a petticoat. The hem had the same stitching as the bust.

I nod my head approvingly and smile at my choice. It was perfect and I loved it. I wondered which mother's dress this was...

Carefully, I put all the dresses back into their order and took my choice back to my room. I tried it on in front of the mirror and was very pleased with the results. The bonfire was tomorrow and I was so excited to see Nicholas that I thought I might burst. I had to get out of the house for a little walk to calm my nerves.

I shed the dress, placing it delicately into my wardrobe and changed back into my frock. Sauntering down the stairs, I told whichever mother that was nearest to me that I was going out for a quick breather.

I faced the dirt road in front of me, happy that I had chosen the perfect dress, and extremely excited about the next day.

Concentrating on kicking a pebble along the road I did not notice the group of boys ahead of me until I was a couple meters away. When I finally noticed them, I identified them as Nicholas's friends. They were a bit rowdy, always making trouble in classes. Of course, the teachers were all girls except for the principal, so they rarely commented.

Attempting to walk around them and avoid them completely, I accidentally tripped over what I thought was my pebble, but was really one of their feet.

Their snickers rang sharply through the air.

"What a little klutz" One of them said. A sneer plastered on his face.

One of them nudged me with their feet. I got up begrudgingly, dusting off my frock. I eyed them as I fixed my braid. One of them with red hair swaggered up to me.

"What you lookin' at you little bitch?" He spat on the ground next to my feet.

"N-nothing, I was just go-"

"Shut up." Red-hair boy said. "Dirty girl." He gave me a rather violent shove, and I nearly toppled over again.

Rage coursed through my veins. Despite everything, and how respected the male gender may be, their treatment of females needed improvement. My face scrunched up and unfortunately my anger seeped into my voice.