The kids in the Dark

Chapter Two- Same Day

I dropped the card. My mother looked at me in worry, but before she could even begin to ask me what was wrong, I was bolting up the stairs.
I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. All I could do was stare at the walls in front of me.
Kids around here wait their whole lives for this. They cherish their card with their life, they follow it unwaveringly. I am supposed to be happy. I know girls that would kill for this. I have been handed a perfect life. A wealthy and well-off husband and three healthy children. What was I so upset about?
Linda Cronenberg from my school got hers a few weeks ago. She never gets married or has kids and she works as a gas station attendant. She cried for weeks.
Sammy Ables got hers too. She gets to become a brain surgeon and will have one kid. Her husband will become an engineer. She will have it made.
I have a great life ahead of me. Why am I crying?
"Honey? Sweetie what's wrong?" I hear my mom call from behind the door. She cracks open the door and steps inside, sitting down next to me.
"What's the matter sweetie? There's nothing wrong with your card..."
"I don't want to live that life, mom. That's not me. I'm smart, I can get a real job."
She opens her mouth to speak again, but I move quicker
"I won't live that life. They cant make me"
I see her face harden. "Now Christa...you know they do this to make sure that everyone has a job and life ahead of them. You don't have a choice, and I won't have you running away or any of that nonsense. This is what you're given, you'll have to live with it."