Impractical

The City

1:2

The brown grass in the cracks between gravel crunched beneath my feet as I walked to the bus stop. My feet were bare, and so was everyone else's. Everyone around me was like robots, uncaring and unchanging. I always walked the same route to the bus stop every day, but I was just copying every person who goes to school around me. All women were watering their grey plant, as they did every single other morning since they got out of college. When a women graduates, they would get one plant, and that was it in their front yard. Also when they graduate, they have to get married to a man of their father's choice and have one child. I shuddered just thinking about it, but there was no other way to get a husband. There was no such thing as love in the city. My mom had explained to me what dating was and love but it simply didn't exist anymore, and I accepted the hard truth.

The red sun was high, and the sky was now blood red instead of the eerie purple sky during the night. For me, it was always hard to sleep during the night. A cart pulled by three dark horses would always roam around the streets, picking up people who didn't fully embrace the 'practical' system. These were the people who accidentally made mistakes during the day, which I had made many of. Luckily the headquarters knew I was loyal to them (at least not in my head) and I had managed to not get picked up yet. The people who broke the rules (impracticals) were always picked out by the surveillance cameras, sometimes months before getting picked up by the cart, so no one ever saw it coming. They would always be begging for help from the houses they passed, and the cart always passed by my window that faced the street.

My worst fear is that I would hear the cart creak to a stop, that I would hear heavy footsteps stomp up to the door, and then the dreaded knock. A dark figure in armor would burst into my room and grab me while I screamed for help, but none would come besides my parents and what could they do.

It wasn't my fault I  couldn't embrace the system, I  couldn't help it. My mind wouldn't let me be a mindless drone, and for that, I always feared I would be taken into that dark cart to never be seen again.

I snapped back to the real world so I wouldn't fall out of step of everyone else and get noticed. All of the boys near me were wearing loose red pants and hoodies over their heads and all the girls were dressed like me. Every kid went to the same school, it was the one at the very edge of the city. It was about a two mile walk, so I always had plenty of time to think on my way there.

I hoped no one had tried to escape from the city again. There was a giant canyon surrounding the city and the only part of it that had enough jagged rocks at the bottom to hold onto and climb down was the stretch right beside the school. The only problem with that was, since there were jagged rocks, no one ever survived the journey. The professors always showed us the 'scene' at the bottom of the canyon if we were being bad. He would take us outside and force us to look at it, but I seem to be the only one who was even bothered by it. The lesson in it was to remind us there was no escape from the city and we would have to live like this forever, so we may as well listen. Of course, the teacher's definition of being bad was breathing out of turn, so any time there was a disturbing scene at the canyon, we would see it. After the first time, I always closed my eyes so I could sleep better at night.

I finally arrived at school with the same 17 professors as always, one for each grade, including college, standing in front of the school. I walked to the seventh professor of the seventh grade (whoever came up with that was real creative that way). He had balding grey hair and was probably in his mid-sixties, and he was no taller than me. I don't know what his name was, as all the teachers had us address them as 'sir' (there was no such thing as a girl teacher), because it was impractical to learn someone's name. It was also impractical to see how they fully look, which was where the hoodies came in. Every child had to wear them constantly, for looks did not matter, the only thing discerning the genders was the skirt and pants. Looks not mattering also applied to buildings. The school was one story, all grey, with 17 doors lined up on one side and 34 windows on the other side. In an adjacent building there was the cafeteria, which was set up the exact same way so I never saw anyone in the other grades.

My professor led us to the seventh door (of the seventh grade with the seventh professor) for another super exciting day of absolutely nothing. Since it was a new school year, we had to learn a new chant. Every grade has a different one, and they get longer every year.

Last years' was: The city is whole, the city is the only, the city has no escape, the city is perfect and uniform, the city is connected, and above all, the city is united. It was the most ridiculous chant I had ever heard, and I have to memorize these after I see it once. I could barely memorize last year's and this year's was bound to be harder.

The professor wrote the new chant on the board and commanded us to read it, and it went without saying that if one of us messes up, he'll show us the scene if there was one at the bottom of the canyon.

Along with the rest of the class I started to chant,"The sky is purple and red, the ground is brown and grey, the buildings are black and grey, the hor..." The teacher jerked his head towards me and stared at me hard, and the whole class followed his lead. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I had had so many punishments for being out of line, that I just didn't care anymore, but I stared straight ahead without moving (just for the sake of not getting picked up by the cart).

Naturally I had coughed trying to say horses. Like I wasn't going to screw up, I always did somehow almost every day. The key is not getting noticed. All the time I trip on sticks or pieces of gravel, but I manage to not ever be seen, or when I sneeze, I've learned to muffle it so no one hears it (the freaky robot people don't even do so much as twitch their noses).

The professor pointed at the door, and I got up and started to go out, but when the rest of the class started to follow, he motioned for them to sit back down. I walked out the door on my own and the professor followed.

Once we were outside the professor spoke to me the same speech I had heard from all of my other teachers when I said the chant wrong or couldn't memorize it (which was very often).

"You were a disruption to class and we both know you are acting impractical. Now, go back to class and repeat the chant correctly." Luckily, he didn't actually think I was an impractical, he thought what I did was simply acting impractical. Big difference. One of them gets you in trouble and merits a small punishment, and the other is rewarded with a lovely trip in the cart during the middle of the night to wherever the heck those people go. The urge to roll my eyes at the professor was even stronger, along with a nice cuss word I learned the other day. At least there was no scene at the bottom of the canyon that he would force everyone to see. 

When I felt like I was about to die of hunger and boredom, it was finally lunch. The professor took us across the courtyard in a straight, single file line and we entered the door straight across from the classroom. We entered the grey cafeteria room with a buffet line full of grey, chunky gravy and chicken with a burnt outside and raw inside. I got into the line, and as the troublemaker I was put last. The school ranked every student based in their behavior, so naturally I was ranked worst, along with a boy who stood right in front of me, and the rest of the students ranked the same... perfect. The school simply put the girls first in line and the guys after.

Unfortunately, during my time waiting my stomach rumbled. It wasn't very loud, but the boy in front of me heard it, and what he did almost threw me off my feet. He turned his head a little and smiled. Actually smiled. Like for real. I had only ever done that myself, thinking about random moments that never happen.

Luckily, none of the teachers noticed my unusual stomach conditions or the boy in front of me who smiled. That was about the most interesting thing I had ever encountered, which was saying a lot about my normal life.