The List

Chapter 1: The List

This chapter is unedited.

Chapter 1: The List

This was the morning every person in the world talked about. The one everyone awaited. They loved this day; for some reason thinking it was something to celebrate.

It wasn't.

I walked out of the studio with my hood up. The photographer had taken some photos of me with my father's 'The List' shirt on- which was becoming a popular trend. Honestly, it made me sick that people loved this day. But, they didn't know any better. My father kept the truth hidden behind the fame and fortune the Listers would get for a whole week. The week that could possibly be their last.

As I walked down the busy street, I passed many teenage girls in sky-high heels and tiny purses, all in bright and bold colors. Groups of them huddled in their short puffy skirts, tight blinding tops and backcombed long, fake hair, looking at the Holographs that strutted the streets. The particular one they were looking at was me.

The flickering beauty was wearing pink heels that matched one of the girl's- which she triumphly pointed out- and tight metallic yellow leggings on her fit legs. The shirt was one I saw alot lately- a white, ripped t-shirt with the one-of-a-kind falcon stamp that always certified The List on it, as well as my father's handwritten "The List".

The Holograph me stopped to pose in front of the girls and smile at them, like I did in the studio to the camera, before turning the other way and strutting down the street.

I continued towards home, which was just a few blocks away. But I couldn't help but pick up on the excited conversations of the people who shoved passed me. One man was too caught up looking at fake spoilers of the list this year on his Escreen- a glass that you wore on your eye like a contact lens and could use the Internet and Television on- to noticed me, and I had to run out of his way. Another girl was talking on her Holopad to a holographic image of what I guessed was her mom, yelling about how she wanted to spend her last bit of allowance on a List tee. Her high, skinny heels almost squished my foot.

The sidewalk wasn't the only thing busy. The roads were getting so backed up that people were honking, screaming, yelling, and even using their car's features to get them high in the sky to fly to wherever they were going.

Did I mention I hated this day?

By the time I reached the start of the tall black gate that guarded my home, the sidewalk in front of my house was packed with screaming fan girls. The gates official opened at noon for the reading of the List, and the town gathered on our manicured lawn in front of our white mansion. There were always a pack of girls who loved to be at the front.

The girls were standing right in front of the scanner that would let me inside, and if I went there, they would either trample me or sneak in.

Sighing, I backed up around the corner, into the dark part of the street.

This wasn't the first time I had to do something like this. I knew what the outcome would be; it happened every year. I was surprised there weren't guards on the other side of the gate to help me over.

Taking a running start, I launched myself at the large gate, my hands gripping tightly onto the vertical bars of the very unclimbable function. I was probably the only living person who knew the secret to climbing this gate, which is why no one else ever succeeded to get over. My flat silver boots kicked against the bars, while I shimmied myself higher, trying to control my clammy hands. The gate was a good three stories, but by the middle, there were horizontal bars that people could put their feet on.

Except I knew not to touch the trapper bars.

Instead, I did the one thing no one would ever think of doing.