Incandescent

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Maca, listen to Instructor please! Last time they hit you with a bamboo stick do you remember?" I say.

He nods. Grimacing at the memory.

We are outside of the building for Education and all the Year Sixes are already lining up to go inside. I kiss his cheek as watch him until he's in the building. In a few hours, it will be my turn for Education with all the rest of the Year Sixteens.

But today will be my last day and I will not return tomorrow or ever.

I kick a small stone and it clanks against a trash receptacle making a faint noise. I wince and swiftly check for Officials. None. Thank goodness! That could've been a whipping just like Thyme!

I walk back home and begin sweeping the main room and eating area.

"You look so responsible sweeping, Tea!" I hear the teasing voice of my friend Ginger. 

I see her leaning against the door. Her purple eyes playful. Her naturally freckled skin and brown hair in a braid just like mine a familiar sight.

I stick out my tongue. "At least I tidy up my home." I say back.

She sticks out her tongue. "Peppermint tea I smell?" She waggles her eyebrows at me. As if she even has to ask. I slide her an empty cup and pour in the hot water and peppermint leaves.

"Ginger you have peppermint tea with me every morning and you still have the decency to ask. What a surprise." I tease.

Thyme walks in with a new shirt but the blood from his wound still seeps through. I remind myself to go to the Square and trade sweet Chia a few of my passion fruits for some aloe Vera for soothing Thymes wound.

"Oh...hi Ginger..." Thyme says blushing. "I thought maybe you weren't here yet." 

She waves and smiles. I cannot believe she doesn't know Thyme has been liking her since he was Year Thirteen.

"Why aren't you out working?" Ginger asks. 

He flushes an even deeper red. "They've switched me to Packer ever since Willow broke his back and they needed an extra person to help put the crops into crates to send to the Blues." 

Ginger nods and finishes off her tea.

Thyme fixes a roof slat while I clean some vegetables Mother will use for supper. 

"I cannot believe you don't think Thyme likes you." I say behind my shoulder.

Ginger scribbles absentmindedly on a scrap of paper. "He doesn't, and even if he did, he shouldn't, he's Year Nineteen and I am still just a Year Sixteen-"

"For only a few days more." I interrupt.

She waves me off. "He cannot ask to court me if he doesn't even know whether ill be shipped off to the Blues and he'll never see me again."

I sigh.

I walk to my garden at the back of the house and Ginger follows me. She babbles on about silly gossip from others. I water my passion fruit and I hear a snap of a twig. I stiffen. But it's only Naomi. A green send by a Blue for their monthly supply of passion fruit. Greens think they are so high and mighty and they treat us pretty low but at least Naomi is not rude. I quickly hand her the small bag of passion fruit and she leaves a bag of coins by my gardening table.

I take the bag and slip it between my dress and my purple belt. I give Ginger a few coins. She smiles and slips them into her belt.

I continue to water my plants and a new Green walks up. He gives me a small smile instead of the usual sneer but I still keep my guard up. A Green can attack a lesser Region and not be punished for it.

"A Blue wishes to purchase passion fruit. You sell them right?" He says quietly. 

I just nod and begin placing passion fruits into the bag. I avoid eye contact with him.

"Aren't individual sale of crops illegal?" He asks, not in a malicious way, but of sheer curiosity.

I nod. "Officials have let me keep my passion fruit garden because passion fruit is almost impossible to find in Novus. And very expensive to acquire elsewhere." I still won't look at him.  

"What is your name?" he asks.

"Tea." I answer.

He clears his throat and produces a rather large bag of coins.

I shake my head. "I only charge minimum wage." I say quietly. I don't want to anger him.

He takes the bag of fruit and drops the bag of coins at my feet. "The buyer of this fruit has no issue with money."  he quickly walks away.

Ginger and I stare wide eyes at the bulging bag of coins. "We definitely will share this!" Ginger exclaims.

I separate the coins into separate bags and on the way to Education, Ginger and I pass them out to our neighbors. 

"Imagine if we were Reds," Ginger scoffs. "We would be fighting each other for the whole bag." 

I shush her quickly. Officials do not like it when regions talk about other regions. "It could start a rebellion." I think to myself.