Bright Side

Chapter 1

    I glance back at my brother as we race through the forest. The sun will start to set in a few hours and we have to get home to make dinner.
   
"Come on, Zath!" I call behind me. He seems to be running a different way than me. Oh well, I guess he will just have to be late.
   
"You try running with a sack full of dead animals!" He shoots back.
   
I look down at my sack full of herbs and berries, stick my tongue at him, and keep going. Tomorrow we have school, so we had to hunt and gather twice as much as every other day of the week.
   
I only have school once a week, on Wednesdays. Only the kids in Dependency 1 get to go a full five times a week. Well, they are also the only ones who have a school in their Dependency.
   
I live in Dependency 15 with my younger siblings and my father, but he works all-day in Dependency 4 as a butler. He leaves early in the morning before we get up, and doesn't get home till after we are in bed, at least on school nights. Every other night, I'm normally up. I really miss him. After my mom died six years ago in childbirth, he tried so hard to be there for my siblings but had to get a job eventually.

He was never really there for me when she died. He would hold me while I cried, but when I whipped my tears away he would get up and go about his business again. This included caring for my newborn little sister and four-year-old little brother. I'm kind of thankful for that though because my brother needed a lot of comforting from both my father and me at that time, and my siblings are my everything. I would do anything for them, even if it meant giving up my life.

I think I remind my father too much of Mom. That's what people say at least, that I remind them of my mother. I try to deny it[-my Mom was kind, loving, attentive, bold, and somehow popular. Meanwhile, I'm stubborn, loud, disrespectful, and definitely not popular. The only similarities between the two of us were that she knew her plants very well, was very close to Zath, was good at hair, and that we looked a lot alike. I am basically a spitting image of her with my long dirty blond hair and natural highlights from the sun and piercing, sky blue eyes. When she was alive, I had short shoulder length hair but I refuse to cut it now, that was always my mother's job.

I am pulled out of my thoughts by Zath running past me down a hill I avoided because I didn't know it was there.

"Hey Star," he says at me, "try beating me now!"

Only he and my friend, Mia Rose, call me Star. My name is actually Stella, but when he asked my parents what my name meant they told him "Star". He started calling me that and it just stuck. Most of my friends call me either Stella or Stel, though.

I look forward to the wall that surrounds our Dependency and see it is just a few yards away. I speed up, but it's no use, Zath beats me. He sticks his tongue out at me and I just roll my eyes.

We check to see that the coast is clear before revealing the hole/tunnel thing we use to sneak out six times a week. People are not allowed to go outside the wall, so technically if my brother and I are caught then we will probably never see the light of day again. It is one of the biggest rules in our country, the United States.
    In history class, we learned that our country used to be called the United States of America, but after the third world war, it fell apart and the United States took its place. Instead of a country where everyone has equal rights and is actually united, we have a tyranny where the amount of food your family is allowed to have is based on your social status. We obviously don't learn this in school. I only know this because of my observations and from what my friend Aya tells me, and she only knows because her family travels illegally.

My family lives in Dependency 15, so not many people get enough food. There are 17 Dependences. We are also ranked 609 of 609, meaning we are the poorest of all 609 families in the Dependency.

I glance over at my brother and crawl into the hole first, so that if the officers-aka the rats-are on the other side then they will only see me, not him, but he doesn't need to know that. The tunnel is pretty long and we have no clue who dug it. Obviously not the police or government because it leads out of town. We have never seen anyone else use it or disturb the bushes and plants we planted there to hide it.

When I reach the top I motion to Zath that the coast is clear, and then help him up. His hair is that perfect shade between blond and brown where you just can't decide its color. His forest green eyes are the same color as my father's, but unlike him, Zath's have life and happiness swimming in the orbs. He's really skinny, but not as skinny as me, I could never let that happen. His skin tone is just like mine, really tan in the warm months, and in the winter when the tan fades, just a neutral pale tone, but a little grey from lack of food.

When I get him out of the tunnel, we race back to the house. This time I win and stick my tongue, this time its his turn to roll his eyes.
"Come on," he mumbles. I laugh a little and follow him inside.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️(ᗒᗣᗕ)՞❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Happy_hoosier

Thanks so much for giving my story a chance! It means so much to me. If you have any feedback please give it to me so I can make my story better!

Remember God loves you!!

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