Listed: Book One of The Listed Trilogy

Chapter Four

Listed

I wake up with my head resting on the window sill, and I look lazily through the window. I watch in confusion as kids in Opes come pouring out of their homes in dark clothes. It's Monday, shouldn't they be in school? My eyes widen. The Listing! It's today!

I rush into my room and put on my black dress shirt and pants, my finest clothes that I only wear on the days of the Listings. It's traditional to wear black on the Listing day in the west, and I tie my hair up in a black pony-tail holder, a strand of my white-blonde hair falling out onto my face. I brush it behind my ear, and look into my mirror, which has a broken corner and a layer of dirt on it. I look into my blue eyes, and I make sure I look decent. I wipe my hands on my pants to get rid of the sweat, and run outside.

The gate is open to everyone, since the Listings are in Opes. I find Marco walking with his mother, and I look away, not wanting to talk to his mother again.

I find my way through Opes, finding myself in a line. The line moves slowly, and when I get to the front, a woman sits at a gray table. She has short black hair in a high pony, and she wears a black uniform with a badge that says "Jillian Ross: Admission Officer" Obviously from the military.

Jillian takes my wrist, and folds all of my fingers in except for my index. She take out a scanner, and holds it directly above my finger. She presses a button, and blue light scans my finger up and down. When it's done, she holds it over a book full of names. She presses a button, and the blue light hits the paper inside a box. The scan finishes, and an identical image of my finger print is in the box, imprinted in blue. The woman rubs the image, and it doesn't smudge or fade.

"Name?" she asks. I swallow.

"Athena Duncan." I try to say it steadily, but it instead comes out meekly and quiet. She writes down my name with a pen next to my finger print.

"You may enter." she says without looking up. I nod, and walk inside hesitantly.

The atmosphere is so hot it's hard to breathe. I look around, and find an empty spot in the sea of people. I make my way to it, bumping into someone more than once, and find myself next to Marco.

"Marco?" I ask.

"Hey Buddy, what a coincidence seeing you." he says. I swallow. He sees my discomfort. "Hey, about my mom last night, she-"

"No, no, it's fine." I say.

"No, you don't understand. She's suffering from amnesia, and she can barely remember anything. I'm sorry if she didn't treat you well last night." he explains apologetically. My eyes soften, and I look into his eyes.

"Marco, I'm sorry. I didn't know-"

"No, you didn't, I expected you to be upset." he says. Then he turns to look at the stage, and I know the conversation is over.

I see Salandra Vasquez walk up onto the stage, her high heels clopping with every step she takes. Salandra is one of the people who takes in one of the Listed. Since there are fifty states, one child is Listed from each state. She gets to take in the child from our state. She comes each year, and reads the name of the Listed child. She then takes them to the government headquarters, and takes care of them in a special apartment with all of the other Listed children. It's her job to watch over and mentor the child until the next Listing. Then the child is left to navigate their new life themselves. She always wears red, in honor of the apples we sell. This year she's wearing a red pencil skirt with at least ten layers, and a dark red dress shirt that has so many small layers, that it gives the affect of rose petals. But the main event is her hat. She's wearing a red floppy hat, with apples on the very top and apple skins creating the lining. Her wavy red dyed hair is down, and her cocoa brown eyes look over the crowd.