Me

Chapter 1

"WOOHOO!" Metal doors fly past as the medical cart speeds down the hallway.

"AHH!" I hear Reyna scream behind me as Dillon pushes the cart she's on past Zack and I. They turn sharply around a corner and I hear shouts from adults. Zack turns the corner violently and almost sends me flying into a wall. Zack, all of a sudden, digs his heels into the ground, stopping the cart. Scientists are sprawled on the ground against the walls, slowly collecting any files or papers that fell. Dillon and Reyna are helping some of the scientists to their feet, including Head Geneticist, Dr. Samuel J. Falkman. The older man stands up straight, a clipboard in one hand and a stern expression on his face.

"What were you four thinking?" he asks, calmly. It would be scarier if he yells. His greying hair is messed up from having to jump to the side of the hall quickly. "You could have gotten one of us killed. I want you four to go back to your dorms. I'll have people clean up this mess."

When Dr. Falkman gets angry, you need to listen. He has severe punishments for people who disobey direct orders.

"Come on, let's go," Zack says. As soon as we turn down two hallways, we start talking again.

"What an ass," Dillon says. He's 15, like us. He has dark brown hair and green eyes. He's really tall. Just like they wanted him to be.

"I know, right?" Zack agrees. Zack's hair is platinum blonde, and he has bright blue eyes. He, like Dillon is tall.

"You can't really blame him. He has a lot to worry about," Reyna points out. Reyna has light brown hair with natural highlights, and is the shortest of us. Her eyes are a beautiful brown.

"Well it's not like we did anything bad. We were just having fun. There's nothing fun in the recreation room anyway." The recreation room is a fairly large room filled with boring stuff that the scientists think we like. There are old arcade games, a couple of pinball machines and a pool table. The pool table has at least three missing balls.

We walk in silence for a minute before Zack calls out, "Race you!" All of us take off running down the halls, taking a right, a left, another left and another right. At the end of the hallway is a door. Dillon touches it first, followed by Zack, then me and lastly, Reyna. Dillon opens the door, which leads into the recreation room.

The floors are wood and the walls a dark blue. There are TV's that act as windows, playing the same video over and over again. It helps us keep track of what time of day it is. Currently, it's evening, the sun can be seen through the window on the left. It's kind of cool how they did it, one 'window' faces east while the other faces west. The lighting is different on both screens, simulating real windows.

On the back wall of the recreation room are two doors. Each door leads to a short hallway, which leads to four doors. Behind each door is a large room with four beds, separated by partitions, a kitchenette, a table with chairs, a sofa and a TV. There are also 'windows' on one wall. Each room has a bathroom attached.

Reyna and I take the door on the left, while Dillon and Zack take the door on the right. The second door on the right is the room where Reyna and I live with two other girls, Carolyn and May. They're both pretty nice and Reyna and I are friends with them, but we don't normally hang out.

When we walk in, we see May sitting on the couch, watching a movie. "Hey Reyna, hey Jaz," the girl greets us.

"Hey May. Where's Carolyn?" I ask.

"Reading," she answers. That's what Carolyn is always doing. She never really leaves her bed unless she needs to take care of buisness or if she's being tested. She changes every month. Currently, her hair is black and her eyes are green. The scientists use us for testing once every two weeks. Carolyn's being tested on appearance. They switch up her genetic coding and it shows on the outside. It alters her height, her facial features, her hair and eye color, and her skin tone.

That's what they do here, in this facility. The San Francisco Genetics Testing Center. They grew us from embryos. They took an egg from a donor and fertilized it with sperm, growing it in a chamber that mimics an ovary. We have a mother and a father, we are human, but we are being tested. They made us look the way we do by altering our DNA. They use us for testing gene-based medication, or giving us certain traits. Every two weeks, they check us for any mutations or anything that they didn't do.

I grab a pair of pajamas from the drawers under my bed and go into the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I look in the mirror at myself, knowing that I was not naturally born like this. They made me 5'4, they made me have dark brown, almost black hair. They made me have hazel eyes. They made me the way I am now.

I change into my pajamas, and walk out of the bathroom. I climb under the covers of my bed and drift off to sleep, listening to the sound of murmuring and a movie in the background.