Labyrinth of White - The Moon Trilogy - Book #1

Chapter One:

The suburbs of Monterey, California, the year 2051

The mail had come. Clarity had been waiting on the front step for nearly an hour, impatiently tapping her fingers against her leg. She was ready the moment the mail car drove off. She rushed to the box, opening it and snatching the letters out with a lightning-quick hand. The letter was here. She put the rest of the mail back. That wasn't important right now. Right now all she could think about was reading the letter that remained in her hand.

This was the moment Clarity had been waiting for. After four months of waiting patiently, she finally held in her hand the letter that would decide her fate. She had written to Greenharrow University four long months ago, and now she ripped open the envelope. In a flash she had the letter in her hand.

She eagerly scanned the paper, her eyes moving faster than they had in a long time.

Clarity was very smart, having graduated high school at 15, and every other grade had been graduated early as well, leaving her the youngest in every class. She had hardly waited after finishing school before sending an application letter to the most prestigious college she could afford. Everyone there would be like her. They would be the tops of their classes, and probably as young as her too. She might actually fit in for once.

Her parents were behind her all the way, and had written small letters of recommendation along with her application form, and she was sure they would have paid for her if they had been wealthy enough. It wasn't like they were poor, but a nice school like Greenharrow would put a serious dent in their funds, and so she was left to apply for scholarships, and if that didn't work, she would have to somehow earn the money for herself. She would have asked her friends for support, if she'd had any friends.

She read as fast as she physically could, and after reading the whole thing, she was devastated.

She hadn't made it in! She frowned down at the paper. She had been so excited. Her whole life, she had been the top of her class. She'd graduated early from every single grade. Being the youngest in every class, she'd never made many friends, and she had a feeling they thought she was weird. She'd always received odd glances, as if people didn't want her there, and she had to leave or she'd end up getting beaten up. Her education had made her an outcast her whole life, and just when it might have given her a chance to fit in, it had failed her.

She thought back. What questions did she fill in wrong to get rejected? Was she just not good enough? Had she ever been good enough? Had she failed the tests? She couldn't see how she had missed the questions. They had seemed so easy when she was filling them out, but now she didn't know if she'd done anything right. After all, she had been rejected. She was always rejected.

She knew that there had to be something other than just the fact that she was smarter than everyone else, but she could never figure it out. Was she just weird?

According to her mother, she wasn't ugly or anything. She'd always said that "Anyone with eyes the color of marigolds can't be ugly." That was her favorite flower, marigolds, but Clarity didn't think her eyes were that color. They were more of a drab brownish color, in her opinion.

Was that the reason no one liked her? Was she ugly? It had never occurred to her that that might be the case. But it just didn't fit. She knew plenty of people that looked quite similar to her, and they were the most popular person around. She couldn't puzzle it out, so she gave up.

She sat silently in the front hallway, still holding the letter. She had been so excited that she couldn't even wait until she was in her room to open the letter, preferring to get in open as soon as she could, which entailed barely getting back into the house. Her day had already been a roller coaster of emotions, and she had only woken up less than an hour before.