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word count: 2.2k
genre: dystopian au
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As soon as I heard the scream, I was awake and up on my feet. I quietly made my way to the window and looked out just as two guards dragged a girl down the road by her arms. Her legs were flailing and she was cursing at them. I tried to force myself to look away but I couldn't seem to.
As the dull street lights hit her face, I recognized her. She was one of my classmates. I didn't know her personally. In fact, I didn't know a lot of people. I wasn't a very talkative person and the only friend I've ever had was a boy named Eric. But he had gotten sick during The End and ended up dying.
In a way, I feel like the Court doesn't want us to have friends. I feel like they thought the worst. But I didn't know what exactly they expected us to do.
Did they think someone was going to rebel? You would think they wouldn't want to because of what happened to the last person who did. Talk about a public punishment. You would've thought we were living in the biblical times and we were watching Jesus get whipped.
I didn't consider myself a rebel. I was just a curious person. Perhaps a bit too curious. Of course, I couldn't tell anyone about the way I thought. I'd be punished by the Court. Or even worse, killed.
Life had been pretty rough in District 8. If you were eighteen or younger, you were forced to go to school six days a week with Sundays off. But school wasn't how it was before The End. You know, where you learned completely irrelevant information and was tested on it just so you could pass the class.
Ever since the world was divided into eight districts, school became different. They still tested you on your knowledge but it wasn't how you expected. The first day of every month, you would put on an all white uniform and sit in a large room with people your age. A teacher would pass out a test and you'd spend pretty much the whole day on it.
You must pass every subject with a seventy or higher. If you fail to do so, you are put into a special class until you pass that one subject. Then you can move onto the next level.
It doesn't make sense. Not to me at least. I didn't understand the point of it all. It was tiring to even think about it. They crammed so much into our heads, I was surprised that any of us weren't brain dead yet.
The sound of the siren blaring brought me back to my senses. Oh no, I thought. Another public punishment. I heard my older brother start to shuffle around in his room. I rushed to my own room and started to get dressed.
