We walk to the city center, a huge three story building with stairs leading up to it. We walk up the stairs. "Hi Luna!" A familiar voice calls. "Hey, Axel." I call back to a boy with dark hair and bright blue eyes. In our city, there are always two boys and two girls born on the same day. Dawn, Axel, me, and another boy named Kai were all born on the same day. On our thirteenth birthday, we will be matched up to become partner pairs.
Last year, the Government assigned our pairs. I'm to be paired with Axel, while Dawn will be paired with Kai. Not to mention but the four of us have always stuck together- for jobs, schools, ect. Tomorrow we'll all be thirteen. Axel and I will live in a house together. I run over to Axel and hug him. Dawn follows. We enter the city center. Inside, old magazines and books are shut away in cabinets, a little museum of things of the past. Screens fill the room and to my left are the technology group, working with monitors and wire and fabric.
To my right are doors labeled with different birth groups. I see our birth group and we walk inside. Four chairs are set in a row, a screen at the front with a woman teacher at the front. Kai is already sitting in one of the chairs. Kai smiles when he sees Dawn. They exchange a hug and then we sit. "Today I will be telling you about the life of partners. Please watch the screen." The teacher says. The screen lights up and images flash of happy couples living in houses, and working together. "Our community is made to be a happy, unified place. With the celebrated couple partnership, we can continue working together. You are the foundation of our community. This responsibility is taken as an honor. Tomorrow, when you turn thirteen you will be partnered. You will move out if your birth parents house, and you will live and work the rest of your lives in peace with your partner. And most importantly, you will start a family with your partner."
The teacher tells us. "After you are partnered at city hall, you will go to the city laboratory, where you will go through instructions for starting a family." She continues. Kai raises his hand. "How do you start a family?" Kai asks. "I am restricted not to tell you. You will learn when you are at the city laboratory." She tells him strictly. She instructs the class monitor to turn on the lights and the room brightens. We get up from our seats, each thanking the teacher for the lesson. We exit the room, standing back at the city center. Dawn runs to the cabinets of old books and magazines. She has always been interested in history. She opens a cabinet and pulls out a slim, glossy magazine, covered in dust. She blows the dust off it and we all stare transfixed at the cover.
The cover shows a woman so small she might as well be a skeleton, no fat clinging to her arms whatsoever. Her eyes are covered in black stuff and purple covers her eyelid. Her eyes are super small. "Look how small her eyes are. People got paid to look this ugly. It's so... Weird." Dawn says. "Yeah." We agree. Ever since technology increased, the human race started to look different. It started with eyes. Looking at screens increased the eye. As passed down from generation to generation, eyes got even bigger. With the sun flares, skin eventually adapted better to sunlight. Eventually, we all looked alike, but not the same. In the world, almost all people have tan skin. Not pale, not dark. All eyes are either amber color or brown. Same for hair, except a rare few including Dawn and I are born with golden or blonde hair. Everyone is about the same size, not too big, and not too small.
