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May 26, 2173

"Yesterday we had a question on our History homework asking us who the President was from the years 2092-2100," I begin. "I remembered seeing a History textbook in your room somewhere so I took it and looked through it for the answer.

I saw that my great grandfather, Nelson Cicely, was the president. I also looked at some of the presidents before him to satisfy my own curiosity, there was no information on them at all.

Maybe he doesn't want anyone curious like me trying to figure out what The Society was like before him. I looked at the laws that were written for The Society before him and discovered that the country was called The United States of America.

There was nothing wrong with any of the previous laws, I think that he just wanted a new government and a reason to start over. Maybe he wanted to be the first president of the new Society, I want to figure out what it was like before him.

Then in the middle of the night Ash came over to show me that Clary had the same textbook as you, so we looked at it and shook it out to see if anything was hidden in it and a manila folder labeled 'Clary Tate Records' was there." I finish so Ash can talk.

"We look through my mom's records and saw everything, including her death date." Ash begins. "It concerned and scared us both so Jess went to get Isabelle's book and saw the same thing.

We saw all the same information in there as we did in my mom's, then I just ended up sleeping over because it was too rainy to run home again.

So can you tell us how The Society knows all this?" he finishes.

My mom and Clary look at each other in shock.

"Why were you going through my stuff?" My mom asks furiously.

"All I needed was your textbook and I got all the information I needed. The real question is why are you hiding what The Society knows from us?" I say.

"The Society knows everything, they know your every breath, every disease you catch, when you die--everything, even when it won't happen for fifty years." Clary says.

"But how do they know?" Ash asks with his voice shaking.

"We don't know! Only The Society themselves know how." My mom says.

"What about America, what was our old country like?" I ask.

"In one word? Amazing. Your great grandfather changed it because he wanted to be remembered," My mom says. "he is remembered as the first president of the Society. People all across the Society are oblivious about what he really did--he changed the amazing country we had."

"Do you think America will ever come back?" I ask with my lip trembling.

"No, but now you have to forget everything I ever told you, we can get in huge trouble for just mentioning America to the wrong person." Clary says and Ash and I nod.

"Ash is going to come home with me now, goodbye." Clary states then she leaves with Ash.

"Go up to your room and read sweetheart we can talk about this more later." She says and I nod then go to my room and pull out my favorite book.

It is a very old book that was published around 2011--I think, it's called Divergent.

I am starting it over for the twentieth time, I start at page one chapter one.

THERE IS ONE mirror in my house. It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs. Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month, the day my mother cuts my hair.

I sit on the stool and my mother stands behind me with the scissors, trimming. The strands fall on the floor in a dull, blond ring.

When she finishes, she pulls my hair away from my face and twists it into a knot. I note how calm she looks and how focused she is.

She is well-practiced in the art of losing herself. I can't say the same of myself.

I sneak a look at my reflection when she isn't paying attention--not for the sake of vanity, but out of curiosity. A lot can happen to a person's appearance in three months.

In my reflection, I see a narrow face, wide, round eyes, and a long, thin nose-I still look like a little girl, though sometime in the last few months I turned sixteen. The other factions celebrate birthdays, but we don't. It--

My reading is interrupted by my mom calling me to help her make breakfast.

When I get to the kitchen my mom is holding a pan and asks me what I want to have.

"Can we make scrambled eggs and bacon?" I ask while pouting my lips and giving her my puppy dog eyes.

She laughs and says, "Of course, you know I can't say no to those eyes."

I laugh and take out the eggs and bacon then we start to cook.

A/N: Credit to Veronica Roth for the excerpt from Divergent.

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