Chambers

Chapter One

I awoke with a jolt. My ears were filled with the song "Be our Guests" from Beauty and the Beast. It was playing at a creepily slow tempo and sounded very monotone. I looked around to see that I was not in my bed, nor even my room. The room was as bright as the sun with all the lights shining. Around me was a plethora of other beds. The beds were placed as close together as they could to leave room for mobility. I had no idea where I was. The beds each had another child who looked to be my age. I am a fifteen year old female. I noticed that everyone else had been awoken too. We all just stared at one another. No one said a word, nor moved. We all sat in our close corridor beds silently and awkwardly.

A voice then came over the intercom. "Attention!" the voice boomed. "Everyone please report to your chambers to get dressed and get your assignments! You can find your chamber number on your left arm." We all looked down to our wrists. I was tattooed with the number 623. We all stood and began to our chambers. I was nervous as could be. What the heck are they going to do to me?

I proceeded to find chamber 623. I walked in to the chamber and was told to get in line for decontamination and makeover. This kind of scared me of what they were going to do. I was in line behind a boy who was vey pale with blonde hair. There was a girl behind me with super curly hair. Since we were in the back of the line, we had some friendly banter. The boy said his name was Caspian and the girl was Jessamine. I told them that my name is Aspen and that I am fifteen. They both are fifteen as well.

"Do you even know why we are here?" asked Caspian.

"No idea," I replied.

"I wonder what they are going to do with us," said a worried Jessamine.

We were then directed into what looked to be a room full of steam. A woman told us that this is decontamination. She said that we will each be in our own little room where we will be stripped down to our bare skin. I walked into the little room to be greeted by two women who looked to be in their late twenties. They had me remove all of my clothes, including my undergarments. I was then directed to toss my clothes down a chute.

"Will I get my clothes back?" I asked the women.

The one who had her blonde hair pulled up into a bun said, "No, you will be getting a uniform."

After I was finished decontaminating I was quickly wrapped up in a robe. They brought me to a room that was full of chairs that you would find in a salon. Each chair had another boy or girl in them except a few. They sat me down and put this huge contraption over my head that instantly dried my hair. They then began to chop off my long locks of dark brown hair. My hair was styled into a mid length bob that was a bit longer in the front than the back. This infuriated me, but I kept silent. There was nothing I could do now. They then began on my face makeup with a light foundation that matched my skin tone almost exactly. Then came some shimmery grey eye shadow. The last things added were winged eyeliner and mascara on my upper and lower lash lines. My makeup look was complete. They said they want us to look natural, but I don't see what is natural about shimmery grey eye shadow.

I was then directed to wardrobe where they would dress me in my uniform.  They gave me a pair grey skinny jeans and a grey long sleeve. Along with a pair of white socks that came a little past my ankles and a pair of grey converse. They also gave me some other clothes including grey, white, and black tops; grey and black pants and skirts; and one grey three-quarter sleeve dress. There were also multiple pairs of socks and underwear along with a grey, black, and white bra. They finally gave me a pair of grey dress shoes.

I was then granted with a grey duffle to put my clothes, a small bag of makeup, and a hair brush along with some other products for hygiene. I was then directed to the cafeteria for lunch. Because it had been quite a few hours of makeovers, it was now 11:30am. We were told to sit with the other teens from our chamber. I sat down next to Caspian and Jessamine. Caspian's hair had been died black and had been given contacts to replace his glasses. Jessamine had her luscious curls chopped off into a pixie cut. It kind of suited her personality. Jessamine's eye makeup was identical to mine. We were all pretty much wearing the same outfit.

Sitting at our circular table were two other boys and a girl. One of the boys introduced himself as Tyrus.

"They buzzed off my hair," he said.

The girl then introduced herself as Nadia. Nadia said her hair was brown, but they died it blonde.

The boy with caramel colored skin with his hair shaved on both sides, but long on the top said, "Hi, I'm Damian."

The servers brought us veggie sandwiches, a glass of water, and a small bowl of fruit. We then chatted amongst ourselves about what had happened.

"So did all of you just get here this morning?" asked Tyrus.

"Yes," we all stated.

"Were you here before?" I questioned Tyrus.

"No," he said. "Just curious if you were."

"By the way, I never caught your name," Nadia directed to me.

"My name is Aspen," I said.

"I assume that we are all the same age," announced Damian. "I'm fifteen."

Caspian answered with, "Yep. Are any of you not fifteen?" Everyone shook their heads in disagreement and then sat waiting for someone to pick up the conversation.

"It looks like we better be finishing up," said Jessamine as she carried her plate up to the cafeteria workers. We all took our last bites of food and took our dishes up.

We heard footsteps gradually getting louder. Something or someone was entering the premises. We all began looking around the room. The noise then came to a stop and our attention was directed to a big man with heavy boots.

"Everyone needs to report to their chambers, and I mean now!" he boomed. My friends and I quickly glanced at one another, and then back to the man.

"You've got three minutes to get there or else you will be punished!" the man shouted. Some of the other kids began to look flustered. "Well what are you just sitting there for? Move!"