Limited

It was the morning of June 4th, and the end of the school year was fast approaching. The quiet suburb of Clastenburgh felt like a desert around this time; in fact, it was so sultry that the flowers had wilted, and the birds were all huddling under whatever shade they could find.

Kordell Seigel woke up that morning to his blasting alarm and reached over to turn it off, nearly tipping over his lamp. The first thing he did, before saying a word, was pick up his phone to check his word limit for the day.

Prior to turning five years old, the people of Clastenburgh are free to speak as much as they want, but starting on their fifth birthday, each day at midnight, they are given a specific word limit for the day, at random. Before the age of 15, if they run out of words, they won't be able to speak until the next morning (if they are lucky enough to even get any words). Yet, starting on their 15th birthday, they are still able to talk, but are charged 50 cents for every additional word. The government felt this was the best way to instill a measure of responsibility as kids grow older. Having the teenagers and adults pay for extra words, is meant to keep them accountable for their own actions. If they don't pay what they owe by the next day at midnight, they can't speak until they pay off the full balance. The majority of people would learn sign language at a young age, to make communication easier, but it is not mandatory.

Kordell had never gotten less than 10,000 words per day, which he always boasted about. Kordell was quite talkative and always interrupted others; he often exhibited a sense of arrogance and self-importance. It was because of this that he didn't have many friends, and the friendships he had made would never last long, usually about a week. Today was different: today was the day that changed everything.