The Choosing

Chapter One

Throwing my legs over the end of my bed, thoughts of the coming day filled my head. I couldn't wait to get out of the world I now lived in, but I also didn't know what was going to happen next. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes at the thought of staying with my parents but I just ignored them and got dressed. It's not like anybody cared about what happened to me anyway. Whether or not I would get away from them was a different story though. Today I was going to get chosen, or I wasn't. That's it.

Every year The Society chooses ten fifteen-year-olds to join them. Our town knows close to nothing about The Society. All we know is that they will train the teens they choose for some important task. It's said to be a hard job. I heard that some children don't make it through.

As I pulled my shirt over my head I thought of what could happen if I was chosen. This wasn't something I explicitly thought of before because it was more like a dream than a reality for me. It wasn't a secret that my parents didn't want me. To them, I was like the latest item that everybody had. My parents were materialistic and I was the latest item to be had. They never loved me and I never loved them. I wish there was more to be said, like an underlying level of me wanting approval, but that wasn't the case. They wanted me gone just as much as I wanted to be gone.

I gathered my light brown hair into a high ponytail as The Ceremony Rules stated I had to do. The Ceremony Rules and the Town Rules weren't that different, to be honest. Town Rules didn't allow us to have any explicit or creative hairstyles either. Our clothing also had to be the designated set for our age groups. My year's color was red. I had five red shirts, three pairs of black shorts, two pairs of black pants, and one red dress for special occasions. That's what all the girls had for clothes though, so it was nothing special. Sure, other girls had jewelry and the little bit of makeup that was allowed, but I was not interested in that stuff. It wasn't like my parents would get me any of that stuff anyway. One would think their materialistic nature would make them want to show me off, but it was more like they were ashamed of me. The last thing I wanted was attention anyway.

Today we were all instructed to wear the special Ceremony clothes that were given to all of the children of age. The clothes I was given consisted of a stretchy red shirt with my name and a weird number on the back, and black shorts that were made of a material I had never felt before. In addition to the clothes, I was given a pair of sneakers that were also red. I didn't like the look of them, but I didn't have a choice. I slipped them on and got ready to leave my room. Hopefully for the last time.

My room wasn't anything spectacular either. It was the same room every other child my age had, other than the few personal items I was allowed to have. If I was chosen I was only allowed to bring three of my items though. It was supposed to make leaving our families easier, I didn't need help with that though.

I stopped for a second and wondered what I would bring. I picked up the one thing that held meaning to me. I could never really place why it meant so much, it just did. I fiddled with the golden necklace in my hands. It was supposed to open but I could never force it to. Whatever was inside of the necklace wasn't meant to be seen I guessed. I ran my fingers over the engraved letters; N.C. They were initials, but I wasn't sure whose. They weren't mine. How I'd found the necklace was just as odd. One day it was just in my room. I never questioned it.

I shoved the necklace into the pocket of my shorts without a second thought. Might as well keep the one thing that ever made me the slightest bit happy.

I walked out of my room into the kitchen where my mother was receiving the morning meal. The Town provided all of our meals. I wasn't quite sure if every family got the same meal, as it was not polite to ask such questions. Being scolded about that made me think all families didn't get the same meals though.