Glaze

Chapter 1

If you didn't get my sarcasm, then get it now. My friends just made the whole situation a lot worse than it needed to be. Did I need the new attention? Yes. But what got me upset was that I needed my father's death to persuade them to give me the attention I needed. Is that right? Absolutely not.

I can't believe I got out of bed to go to school. My mom helped me get ready while Zoggs packed my lunch. Who knew a robot could be perfect at making sandwiches? Well, if yours isn't, then Zoggs is. I love eating the sandwiches he makes. It's...well...perfection. The blend of ingredients blended perfectly together no matter what kind of sandwich it was.

My mom dressed me in bright colors. She told me that if I wore bright colors it will seem like you're not grieving about it that much. But it only made me stand out.

I walked to my bus stop, lunch box in hand. The streets weren't good to be alone in, I always looked around constantly, just to see if Zoggs was still outside making sure nothing happened to me.

There was always a thick cloud of smoke and fog in the streets. Was this a problem for Zoggs? No. He could see perfectly fine in the weather. It was always naturally dark in Opland. Sometimes it was hard to figure out 12:35 in the afternoon from 12:35 in the morning. But it was still no problem for Zoggs. It's like he has some type of internal flash light or night vision.

It also never got too hot or too cold. The weather was always just mild. I think it was made this way by the Abbrobation. To create a comfortable temperature, yet a spooky feeling with fog and smoke was something they would most likely do. But I shouldn't worry about it. Not yet anyway.

The sidewalk was started to lean to the side. It has done it ever since. I had to tilt myself a certain way in order to stay upright. Abbrobation didn't pay much attention to the quality of the roads and sidewalks. They focused more on catching and killing the different people. Was it correct to rule this way? No. But no one is strong enough to override the Abbrobation. And no one wanted to. It was a sign to show that you were different.

There once was a riot against them a long time ago, but the riot didn't last long. The Abbrobation didn't even give a chance to listen to what they were protesting about. They were protesting the fact that they burned people without telling the reason. The result of that riot was every member who participated in it, even in the smallest way, was burned to ash. Just like my father. And the Abbrobation refused to say why they were punished in the way they did.

I start to see fuzzy images of things; people. Kids waiting for the same bus I was going on. I got a few steps closer and I could see a few colors of what they were wearing.

"Ziggs!" a voice yelled through the fog. 3 people break away from the group and run to me. The one in the middle hugs me tightly. A little too tightly I might add.

The girl hugging me whispered in my ear, "Are you ok? My dad told me everything."

"Yes, Tayina," I replied, "I'm fine."

Tayina's father works for the records of Abbrobation. There isn't any better paying jobs than that. Although he has mentioned he would rather work for a government that wasn't as cruel, but for the money it was worth it.

Tayina lets go of me, finally, and the other two give a look of confusion. The public were only supposed to know about public executions, not private ones.

"My dad died the other night," I slowly explain, "and somehow her dad found out about it."

"Was it the Abbrobation?" one with chocolate brown eyes and hair that matched.

"No," Tayina quickly say, "Kourtalor, you know death isn't always Abbrobation."

Kourtalor frowned, "But they are the cause of most deaths here. I can't wait until I'm 18. Then I can move away from this horrid place."