I Am A11

Chapter 7

B35

"An announcement to the people living under the rule of the Descendants!" a man shouts from a stage in Central Square.

I push my way towards the stage, elbowing to make up for my petite stature. Grandma follows, not needing to shove. 

Sometimes I think my grandmother and I are opposites. She, dark hair and emerald eyes. I, fair-haired and chocolate eyes. My grandmother is a big woman, loud. I am small, but fiery in most ways. We look nothing alike, but I love my Grandmother. My sharp tongue matches hers.

"Listen up! A bloodline will be investigated. To confirm the Descendants suspicions, each one of you will have a blood sample submitted."  Talking erupts. I look at Grandma. She looks at me. We've never had to do this. But we do know it's for our best, so we look back to the stage.

After some of the chatter dies down, the man continues.

"An Official will come by your dwellings to take your blood samples tommorrow. A non-working day will commence tommorrow, as this process may take all day."

We all look around excitedly. We don't get unplanned days off every day. The man starts repeating his words, no doubt for the next flood of people.

"Get the cloth we need for 37's new dress. Okay? I need to head home to start our dinner." Grandma says in her raspy voice.

"Alright...15." The word feels odd in my mouth, though I have to call Grandma 15 in public.

Grandma gives me the coins to trade for the bundle of fabric and I head for the booth selling fabric, but the one that we usually buy from is closed. There must have been a death. In our community, there is no sickness, no reson to take a day off, but for deaths and tommorrow.

When I get to the second nearest cloth booth, I see the boy I met the other day, Y24, manning the register. No one is waiting to purchase, so Y is reading a book. Not the small ones we get in class, an actual book! I walk to the register. Y doesn't seem to notice.

"What book is that?" I can't contain myself any longer. He has a book! A real live book!

Y looks up. "Oh! Sorry, I didn't see you." I nod at the book. "Oh, this? This is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." he says.

"What's a Harry Potter?" I ask, confused.

Y laughs. "I don't get it. What's funny?" I say, somewhat startled by his absurd reaction.

"It's a name." he says. "You know, like instead of B35, I don't know, Valarie, or something." I feel the heat rushing to my cheeks. We're not supposed to talk about names. That's why we have numbers.

"Is that an allowed book?" I ask, getting angry.

"Why? I'm allowed to have my own opinions, right?" he says, getting slightly angry himself.

"Can we just talk about something else? I need a peice of fabric 3 yards by 3 yards, please." I say hurridly.

"Sure," he says, reaching for a fabric roll, "How old are you anyways? 12?"

"No. I know I'm short, but, if you must know, I'm 16." I reply, "I bet you can't be more than 3 with how mature you are."

Y24 laughs and shakes his head, "No. 16 too. 17 in October."

He hands me my fabric and I hand him his coins.

"See you around!" I say as I walk away.

~~~

The next morning, I wake up to Grandma banging pots and pans together, saying the Officials are nearly on our block. 29 nearly falls off her bunk. I am the first one in the bathroom. I take as short as possible, I'm ready for my day off to start. I race through getting ready, nearly choking on my bacon, a rare treat.

I'm waiting on the couch when the Officials knock. I jump up to get the door, but 32 shoves me. I shove him back and race for the door. 32 trips me and I sprawl. Nana tells us to stop and gets the door. Only the five of us live in this dwelling. The rest of our family is spread over the block.

"Hello, I am Z20. If we could do this as quickly as possible, your bloodline is very large. Could I see... 15?" he calls us each up, in numerical order, it's fairly quick.

"Alright, now we're done, but around 5:30 in Central Square, they're announcing the results if you'd like to see. Thank you for your time." Z20 leaves with the rest of his crew.

I grab my bike helmet and yell, "Beat you to the peir!"

I hear Grandma yelling behind me, "Be back in enough time to catch the results.

I run out the door and hop on my bike, 32 and 29 trailing close behind.

I laugh as I outrace them. I pull my bike to the pier's bike rack and hop off. 29 is trailing a few feet behind and 32 is much farther back.

29 and I are jogging side by side. We call it a tie and sit on the edge of the pier.

"I've got a stupid joke for you." 29 says, smiling, "Why can't T-rex's clap their hands?" she asks. I shrug, and 29 says, "They're extinct!"

I know it's a dumb joke, but I can't help it. So I laugh. And I don't just laugh at the joke, I laugh because I have a day off, because I've met Y24, because there is nothing to worry about.

But then, one second I'm laughing and the next I'm being submerged into water.

I come up laughing at 32. He's crouching on the pier and I tug on his leg. 32 falls into the water, and comes up smiling. "Now you're dead!" he says, and he tackles me. We spend the next few hours just laughing and swimming and splashing around.

Around 4:30 I say to the others, "We should probably go back and change. Race you?"

"Alright." 29 says. We grab our bike and start pedaling. My legs are a little sore from biking all the way here and swimming, but I hardly feel it.

Today was the best day ever.

~~~

We're standing in the crowded square, waiting for the woman onstage to start speaking. 37 just can't seem to stand still.

"Stop fidgeting." says Grandma, straiting 37's little jacket. I know she's nervous, but we cannot afford to show love to our family in public.

So I drop my jacket on purpose. As I'm crouched down dusting it off, I whisper to 37 that she shouldn't be nervous, that it's all right, that we're safe. We're okay. She calms down considerably.

The woman onstage starts speaking. She has a relatively loud voice, but she uses a microphone anyways.

"Thank you for your cooperation today with the blood testing." she says, "I know how you are all eager for the results." She pauses here as the crowd murmurs an agreement. "The Descendants suspicions have been confirmed. The Bloodline of 'A' still thrives in our community."

The crowd gasps. Even citizens my age and younger, who do not know why we don't have an A bloodline, know they aren't supposed to exist.

The woman waits for the noise to die down, thewn she spaeks again, "If your number is called please come up on the stage, this means you are paret of the A bloodline."

And she starts listing numbers.

"S24, R24, Q75, P12, P13, P17, P90, N63, M76, L37, K07, J24, J87, J09, H46, G12, G36, F99, F06, F5, F17, D45, C91, C32, C01, B32.."

I gasp and look at my brother. My stupid, mischevious brother. His face is white. His eyes are wide.

And then I look at 37. She is so small. She looks shocked too.

I look at 29. Her hands cover her mouth for a second and then she throws herself at 32 and wraps him in a hug. I can hear her crying on his shoulder.

And then "...B35..."

HAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!