Chapter One
I am swimming freely in a lake. No one sees me, hears me or disturbs me. I am in this world all on my own. Front crawl and back, breast-stroke and butterfly. As swift as the wind, as agile as the mockingbirds fluttering above me. The water twirling my hair in all directions, my arms and legs slicing trough the water. This is the life. This is my life.
BANG! Mrs. Arnolds slammed her ruler against my desk. “Miss Knight. I am not here to teach you. That is what the computers and robots are for. I am here to make sure you’re getting your work done. So could you do me a favor and make my job the tiniest bit easier by actually doing your work?”
“Yes Ma’am.” I reply half-heartedly still thinking about the lake I will swim one day. That’s what I will do when I finally get out of this place. When I can leave here and never look back.
The rest of the period is a blur. Probably because History is my least favorite subject and Mrs. Arnolds is definitely my least favorite supervisor. But when the ‘SCHOOL IS NOW COMPLETE. PLEASE TAKE YOUR REQUIRED BUSES HOME. THANK YOU.’ Notification popped into the middle of my computer screen, I was thrilled to finally leave that class, and so I did. And now I lay in the meadow just beyond the village thinking about life, about my future and what it may or may not hold, and about how I pretty much have nothing to offer the world. I’m just another human being living on this planet. I’m a good kid. I attend my daily classes; I’m never late, do my chores, take care of my job and am always present for dinner.
“I thought I might find you here.” Said a familiar voice coming from behind me. As I turned around to see who it was, my best friend Dylan took a seat beside me. He glanced up at me and grinned. “I heard about the incident with Mrs. Arnolds in class again today, so I came to make sure you were okay.”
“Truthfully, no. I am not okay. I have no idea what I can be when I get older, what I’m going to do with school seeing as it is torturous to attend that dragon’s den everyday.” I blurted out. And now that I have, I can’t hold the tears back from coming. As they start to pour out of my eyes and run down my face, Dylan put is arm around my shoulder to let me know he’s here for me no matter what.
“Everything is going to be okay. Okay?” Dylan said. But his comforting words weren’t doing much. Not that they ever really did.
“Dylan, everything isn’t going to be okay. I’m not good at anything. You can hunt and you have patience. I’m not smart. You are. And you’re future is set for you already. Your dad is the owner of the robot factory. You’ll take his job when the time comes. You know that.”
“Yeah, that is true. Well, the part about me at least. But you know, sometimes its not so great having your life handed to you on a silver platter. Sometimes I want to do my own thing, make my own decisions you know?”
I shrugged. Yes, I did know. I knew exactly how it felt to want to something different and more important with your life. But in this day and age, that isn’t possible.
“And the part about you,” Dylan said pushing me from his chest so he could look me in the eye. “You’re wrong. You are smart. Not book smart, but you are definitely street smart. And you are really good at singing, making people smile, and you’re really creative.” Dylan said with a reassuring smile.
“With where we live, street smart doesn’t count, and singing? We have robots for that too know. Same with creativity; nothing I’m good at actually counts in this world.”
“Yes, but you can manage my father’s factory with me. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
“I would. It’s your job.”
