The Only One For Me

In the city of Matura, boys and girls are never together. They go to different schools, live in different districts. Girls don't have fathers, boys don't have mothers. They don't know anything about each other — until they turn 16. Each boy and each girl choose a number, 1-400. For girls, it doesn't matter what number you choose, if another girl has the same number as you or how high your number is. Girls choose their own number. It's different for boys. Boys pick a number from a bowl. No one can get the same number as you. You don't get to choose. The higher your social class, the higher you are in the picking. The assiliants son, for example, would pick first, the assistant assiliants son next, and so on. A doctor's son would be the 100th picker, a business man's son the 200th, a baker's son the 300th. Some boys don't even get a number if their social class is too low. The boy and the girls with the same number get paired up, and the boy then chooses who he will marry.