The Compass Wars

Chapter One- Early Birds

"Leo? Leo. LEO. LEO! LEE..."

"What?!" I grumpily asked as I rolled over on my warm, cozy bed to face my twin sister, Cassidy Clark. As much as Cassidy, better known as Cassie, likes to prank me, she usually has a good reason to get me up at- I checked my bedside clock- 6:00 in the morning.

"Good morning!" She chirped back.

"Why am I up so early?"

"You don't remember? Really?" Cassie had an utterly surprised look on her slightly freckled face, "It's the big day!"

I was confused.

"Our birthday?"

She laughed like I was being the most stupid person in the world.

"No, genius, the other big day."

I was now completely perplexed. I thought of National Compass Day, Needle Day (our capitol city's holiday, and North Territory Day (our territory's holiday), but it seemed like it was a bit early in the year for those. Then it hit me.

"Oh. You mean the day we start working in The Market."

"Yes!" She jumped with joy, probably glad that i had figured it out.

Cassie and I live in The Compass, a four-territory country. We happen to live in the North Territory, in the Needle, which is our country's capital city, and the haad of the government. We studied the history of the previous country in this area, the United States of America, and the Needle is located a place that was once called Montana. It was a state, which was like our territory, only smaller.

The Market is a chain of small shops in one of the few buildings that was rebuilt after our country's founding war, and since Cassie and I just turned thirteen, we get assigned a shop to work at. In the Needle, after six years of school, every person gets assigned a starting job at The Market, to keep employees at the shopkeepers' disposal, and so we get a prep job before our choice job when we turn eighteen. Cassie and I also get to finally leave the dump of an apartment that was given to us when Grandpa died. We had lived with him since our parents died, and when he died, we moved in here. Grandpa had been survivor through It, the disaster that had, in one way or another created The Compass. He used to tell us stories about It, and maybe sometimes he exaggerated a bit. It is lonely without him.

I pulled myself out of bed and stumbled over to the closet at the other end of the room. I opened the door and searched through piles of clothes until I came to my red cotton t-shirt, and pair of crumpled, but decent-looking blue shorts. I went into the small, tiled bathroom, brushed my teeth, took a shower and put on the clothes. I stepped out of the bathroom and one look from Cassie told me that I had sone something wrong. Or, knowing me, probably more than one thing. Then she began her lecture.

"Okay, so first. What are you wearing? Second, why is you hair wet and spiky? And lastly, what is that white slime on your shoulder?"

"Well," I answered, "I am wearing clothes. I just took a shower, and what white slime on my- oh yuck!" I looked up, and perched above me in the rafters of our tiny apartment, was Marvin, Cassie's human-footed black-and-white pet Feagle, apparently happy with where its accident had landed.

"Oh," said Cassie in a small voice, "BAD MARVIN! IN YOUR CAGE! SHOO!" She waved him out of thr rafters and back into his covered, metal cage. His muffled squawk slipped out as Cassie clicked the lock closed. She turned to me.

"Don't know how he got out. He was in my face this morning and woke me up with his squawk. Must have been up earlier than me even. I'm surprised you didn't wake up. Don't just stand there. Change your shirt. And you might want to change your pants. It's winter, and we're going to get our first job, so look nice."

After that long direction, all I could manage was "Okay." And as she had said, I changed into a gray linen button-down top and black jeans. Cassie made me comb my hair, and by the time we left, I looked like I had been vacuumed, bathed, washed, scrubbed, combed, poked, prodded, preened and thoroughly cleaned. Ugh. Another day in the hands of Cassie.