The Only One For Me

Just Before

POV Emma

I have waited my whole life for this day. All 16 years of it. My stomach hurts from apprehensiveness. I haven't been nervous really, until now.

I thought I had my number, but now I'm not so sure. I had thought that 100 would be a good one. It's a nice, even number, and I like that it has two zeros. I like repetition. It was the easiest way for me to learn during school. The more I heard something, the more it stuck with me.

I like reading the same books over and over. I read a variety of books until I was about twelve, and then I chose about 40 of my favorites and now I read those over and over again. I love reading.

Some girls struggle with it but it has always come naturally to me. I passed my reading exam with flying colors, along with my writing, home economics, math and science exams.

I struggled through my orchestra classes and squeezed by French and marriage studies.

In marriage studies we learned about today. This is the day when we leave everything behind. We girls throw everything we've ever known away and just blindly hope that our match can support us.

It works like this: girls choose a number 1-400. It doesn't matter what number you choose, or whether other girls have you're number, or how high your number is. You choose your number then tell it to the assiliant. Then you wait.

For boys, it's different. They choose from a bowl of slips of paper. No one can get the same number as you. The higher your social class, the higher you are in the picking of numbers ceremony.

Because their are so many more girls than boys in Matura, boys always have several girls to choose from.

Boys who's social class is so low that they don't get to be in the picking are called learning fathers. Girls who don't get chosen by a boy become learning mothers. They act as the younger girls and boys parents until the children turn 16.

Personally, I think the system is stupid. In the end, it's really just that the boy picking the prettiest girl. I am destined to be a learning mother, for I am no great beauty.

POV Charlie

Everything will be alright. These words ring through my head as I try to convince myself that they are true. They are the last words spoken to me by my learning father before the train doors closed off my view of him.

Everything will be alright.

I take a deep breath and stare out the window, the lush green landscape blurring across my eyes.

The train ride takes an eternity, even though it only took about 30 minutes to get to the city from my subdivision according to my watch.

The train stops, and I walk the rest of the way to the city hall, the whole time staring down at the map that was included in the choosing ceremony invitation letter.

When I finally reach the ornately carved structure, I nervously bite down on my lip and jog up the stone steps to the old building.

When I get in I don't have any idea where to go or what to do, making me even more nervous. I like to be prepared. It makes me feel in control. Luckily, I see a reception desk and walk up to it.

There is a woman sitting at the desk. This is not what I expected them to look like. Their hair is so... long. Their long eyelashes seem so alien, so foreign. Do they all have blond hair?

I probably should have noticed some other women on the way here but I was to busy not getting lost to really take in my surroundings.

The woman at the desk looks up at me and smiles. "You must be here for the number choosing, right?"

"R-right," I stutter. Why is her voice so high? Does she have a cold?

"So what you're gonna do, is your gonna head down those stairs and then make a left. You can't miss it."

I thank her and slowly start making my way down the stairs to the room where my fate will be decided.