When I got home Lydia was already there, which meant something was wrong. Something’s always wrong when she’s home early. She has to work, so Marcy sleeps in while I go to the DR’s office. When I get home, I wake Marcy, and she goes with our neighbors who have theirs scheduled 10 mins after hers. Lydia simply gave me a glance, and walked into the living room where Marcy was waiting. “We’re going to the store.” Was all she said, but it was all she had to say. When our parents disappeared we developed an emergency escape plan. Whenever we needed to critique it, we would simply say “we’re going to the store” and bike to the nearest patch of forest, which is the store for us. The people in charge of the city know this, so no one is thinks twice about it. I should probably add here that they record everything. Every conversation, every little breath is recorded and kept at the library at the center of town. The recordings are officially known as the “security tapes” but everyone knows they’re not. The only place the never record is the forest. No one knows why, but again no one questions it, so neither did we. We parked our bikes and walked towards the woods, but as soon as we were hidden by the tree line we bolted, straight to our clearing. When we got there I was out of breath. “wha-what’s wrong?” I said between breathes. Lydia sat down on a rock before saying “He’s gone.” “Who’s gone?” “My boyfriend Derek, he’s gone” at that moment I forgot the slight burning in my lungs. This was bad, very bad. Derek worked for the “security” system of the city. When Lydia found this out, we brought him to a separate clearing and made a plan. Our plan of escape revolved around him being there to pass us through, and now he was gone. “What do you mean gone?” Marcy spoke up breaking me from my train of thought. I’d almost forgotten she was there. “He broke up with me before work. I was so distracted my boss sent me home early” As she said this, her previous expressionless face turned to sorrow, worry, and regret all at once. That’s when the first tear fell. Another strange thing about us is whenever one of us cries, at the exact same time, as if we are the same person, the other two of us cries with them. Whenever we cry, the first tear always falls at the exact same time. We all cried, right there in the clearing, all of us crying over Lydia’s loss. Besides being part of our plan, Lydia loved him. With of all of her heart she loved him, I could read it in her eyes, and I could feel it in the sadness of the air. Just then, suddenly she stopped crying. “We need a new plan, and we obviously can’t form it now. We should also try to plan our dreams.” “What do you mean plan our dreams?” Marcy said expressing both of our confusion. “If we’re going to keep as low as we need to, we should plan our dreams according to our life right now. I’ll start. Tonight I will dream of Derek coming and telling me he wants me back, since by now the entire city will know about the breakup.” “I can have one about the dance.” I tried to mention it casually but it didn’t work. Lydia and Marcy both stared at me, waiting for me to continue, but I had nothing else to say. “What?” “Nothing…” they both pretended to shrug it off but I knew what they were thinking. “What? It’s going to be the DR’s decision anyway….” Which was true, they were going to take over just before the dance, so they would pick who would go with whom. It’s supposed to be some kind of “right of passage”. Whoever’s in charge at the time picks the couples, and it’s basically supposed to be set for life. Sometimes they make bad decisions, like Lydia and Derek. People can date other people, but it’s very uncommon. Derek breaking up with her basically sentenced her to being single for the rest of her life, which meant Darcy and I would need to plan revenge later. “You realize you could manipulate who you get right?” As Lydia said this, while confused at first, Marcy nodded her head in agreement. “You could totally make them arrange you with your crush or someone similar” “Can we just go back to arranging our dreams?” and we did.
~le skip to dance~
I was so nervous. This was it, the night we were leaving. We couldn’t take it anymore; the pressure was unbearable, knowing if the DR’s found it, we’d be dead. They basically ruled this town now. I took a deep breath, and walked in. the building was huge, and was reserved purely for public meetings and events. This year’s theme was fantasy, and the decorations matched it perfectly. Clouds floated around the room, the color of cotton candy. There was an area for pictures, which was absolutely beautiful. An Ivy arch stood before a background of flowers growing on a white layered wall, with evenly placed squares for them to grow. More flowers dotted the Ivy arch, and a small patch of floor was covered in fake, but so realistic you couldn’t tell, grass that blended it all together. There was a stage were various bands played, with a sunset backdrop behind them. Music played of various genres, mostly dance music. At the center was the dance floor, and just, wow. There was a giant disco ball at the hanging above the dance floor, soft colored lasers hitting it at the perfect angle. The actual dance floor itself was covered in screens that showed the daytime sky, covered in clouds. The ceiling however, was decorated with the night sky, stars and everything. While I’m rambling I should tell you about my outfit. I wore my brown hair, down and very wavy. I added some added some blond streaks, to male it look cool. My dress was a hot pink fading to rose red at the bottom. I had on a little bit of eyeliner and a light pink eye shadow. As I walked over to the table of food for some punch, there he was.
