Unity

**Chance's Birthday Special** (+ Anarchy Announcement)

A/N: It's Chance's birthday today and I wanted to celebrate that and didn't really know where to put this so... here it is?? *Flings this at you* Take it! (Anarchy news at the end of the chapter)

Chance sat on the ground, attempting to read Herman Melville's Moby Dick with a small pocket dictionary and notecards carefully placed next to him. Every few seconds he would open the dictionary or carefully translate a sentence on a notecard into simpler language and nod. His younger sister was sitting with her back to their family's bookcase and sketching carefully in a blank-paged book she'd half-filled. Her long, silken black hair kept falling in front of her gray eyes, causing her to shove it back with her left hand. The two were perfectly happy to continue their day in this manner, content in the company of the other but not speaking.

There was a sound from the door. They both looked up, then at each other. Then the pair stood up and pushed their projects into a low shelf on the bookcase. The door opened.

Their father, a very tall, well-built man with thick glasses sliding off of his nose and long brown hair tied in a ponytail behind his head, stepped into the room. He supported their mother on one shoulder, as she was in her calmest state, drugged sleep. Her short black hair just managed to cover her face. The two children scurried to help their father.

"Thank you," he gasped as they guided her onto the couch in the living room, four bookcases surrounding them like a cage. "She was on the verge of a panic attack at work today so I gave her something."

"Is she okay now?" Chance asked, pushing his own glasses further up his nose.

"As she'll ever be," his father sighed.

The children looked at their mother with concern. Melody reached out and pulled loose hair behind her mother's ears, exposing a bare face with no makeup on it. Their mother thought makeup was poisonous.

Their father opened the bag that had been slung over his shoulder and took out the contents, four books, one leatherbound, two hardcover, and one very water-damaged paperback. He placed them all in different places on the bookshelves, in line with his categorizing system. Then he went back to Chance and gave him a fifth, smaller book, also a paperback.

"Your mother wanted me to pick this up for you," he said with a sad smile. "She insisted you start reading Shakespeare with this one and nothing else would do."

Chance looked down at the book's title, Romeo and Juliet, and then back at his father. As with all of their family, his father's brown hair, the same color as Chance's, was obnoxiously drifting into his field of vision. Chance blew at it, sending it backwards and causing his father to smile.

"Why today?" Chance indicated the book.

"Ah." His father's face grew dark. "She... She said that a good man begins his journey with Shakespeare... as soon as he turns fifteen..."

Chance's faced scrunched up into confusion and hurt. Melody went to his side and leaned her head against his arm.

"But Dad..." Chance glanced at his mother on the couch. "Today's my twelfth birthday..."

"I know." His dad sighed, putting a hand to his forehead. "She also thought the book was glowing when we found it."

Chance's mother stirred in her sleep. His father sighed again and moved to pick up the woman, bridal style.

"I should move her to the bed," he muttered as they left the room.

Chance stared down at the book as his sister silently hugged him, burying her head into the middle of his torso. They were both shaking. They knew it was only a matter of time until the sickness in their mother's brain was too much for her. She'd probably be taken away. And since it was proven to be genetic, they would be taken away right after.

Chance placed one hand on his sister's head and kissed the top of her raven hair. He had no idea what they were going to do. 

A/N: Okay, that's it for that. Vote if you thought Chance's family was neato. (I apologize) Melody, his younger sister, is nearly nine years old in this. Also, both of his parents are private book collectors/restorers. They find old books that families/people have kept or that have been found in the ruins of the previous civilizations, and they buy them and fix them up. That's why most of the books Chance reads are classics, because they were the most frequently reprinted and therefore most commonly found. 

ANARCHY ANNOUNCEMENT: Anarchy is coming out on September 7th, the first chapter and the cover are already done, all I have to do is publish it. It will publish every other Wednesday unlike here because I wanted to balance my week a little more evenly. There will be 21 chapters of pain this time so I hope you enjoy. I will put a link in this book as soon as I start publishing and uhh... yeah. Happy Birthday Chance!