Separate

Chapter 6 - The Cedar Tree

The bonding dance would take place in a large vacant mess hall near the top of Prime District. The level was only a few off from my family sector, so it took only three minutes to get there from my dorm. Father would have me ready an hour before it started and we would be the first to arrive, every single time.

The room had almost as many windows as the WOS did, but they only faced out towards the North side of the station. A dance floor was set up in the middle of the room where the kids would dance to music that had gotten extremely irritating to me over the years. My father said it was called "classical music" before our time, but my question is where did all the other versions of music go? My guess is that my father abolished them because they're too unsophisticated and vile.

I met McKenzie near the entrance and we both hit the punch bar almost immediately. Of the three girls in my sitting group, I could relate closest to McKenzie in her love for food and also her curiosity of the outside world. We would often catch up on our fascinations at this time because of Julia's absence. I could trust her with anything, and I knew she'd support me.

"I went back to the auditorium again." I whispered, stuffing down a breadstick. She was the only person I could break my etiquette in front of. She thought it was hilarious.

"C Level?" She replied, her eyes widening in excitement. For some reason, she had this odd fascination with anything that went against the rules. Of course, she could never even attempt such a thing; both because of her status in the station as well as her inability to get away with things like I did. I so badly wanted to bring her on my little excursions, but I knew I'd end up getting her locked away in Westside.

"Did you see the boy again?" she giggled, covering her mouth to be polite. "Was he ok?"

"Yeah, his name is Matthew, he came up to me." I replied, smiling back at her. "He made me this."

I showed her the little paper doll he had made, and she looked at it with strange curiosity.

"Is this like a colored pen or something? It doesn't look printed?" She asked, staring at the strange object.

"Yeah I guess," I affirmed, yanking the doll from her grasp and putting it back into my dress in fear of someone seeing it and confiscating it from me. "He has some weird contraption thing that had multiple colors on it. It was super cool!"

She smiled back at me and held my hand. "Do you like him or something?" she asked, her voice even quieter than ever.

"What? No! I could never..." I mumbled, almost inaudibly. She frowned at me, and then perked up as Julia and Grace entered the room. She immediately broke off the conversation, as she normally did in Julia's presence, and began hugging the two with great excitement. Julia waved to me, and I politely waved back. Ever since what happened all those years ago with telling me her family's story, Julia and I seemed to have become better friends. We would listen to each other and respect what we had to say, even though I still didn't necessarily like the things Julia was interested in.

The other girls began to file in, all in their fanciest dresses and high heels. We all greeted each other with our formal and traditional kiss on the cheek and exchanged excitement about this month's dance. We usually never interacted with the other girls in our grade, and restricted ourselves to our own sitting circles. Now that I think about it, there was never any rule about switching circles, but the thought never even crossed my mind out of fear of what Julia might do if I were to suddenly "change friends" one day.

The music began to play, and all the girls lined up in front of the stage and awaited the boys arrival. They entered in their egotistical way that made me want to hurl every time it happened. They were all dressed up in their formal suits, ties, and sleek tap shoes. The first to enter was the boy called Thompson, the one Julia was so obsessed with. He was a short kid, nearly the same height as me, who seemed to be wearing a suit one size too small on purpose to show off his biceps. It didn't take long for Julia to squeal with excitement at his presence, and she could barely resist the urge to jump out and smother him.