Crossing the Line

Prologue

Here we go...

Prologue

When I was younger, I laughed a lot. Almost everything could make me laugh, and if you told me not to, well, that would just make me laugh harder. I always played with any kid that was willing to play back, and when I wasn't with any kids, I was bored out of my mind. That's okay, though, since during the daytime, while the adults worked, they would send their children to this big building, full of kids, and as many adults. (Working at that building was their job).

There were different kinds of kids, too: the quiet ones, the crying ones, the loud ones, the laughing ones (me), the misfits. The misfits were the ones that just kind of kept to themselves. I remember wondering on so many different occasions why they were all alone. Did no one like them? We're we not supposed to talk to them? Or maybe they just like to be alone? But how could that be, how could they actually enjoy being alone? How could you be all by yourself but not feel lonely? I still don't know all the answers.

I didn't figure out what those adults in the rooms were for until many years later, until I could form a reasonable thought inside of my head without childish whims interrupting. They tracked our every move on big, wooden clipboards. As a four year old, I could not understand why or how their hands were moving so fast, as fast as lightening, or why they had to be writing things down when they could be having as much fun as us, playing with toys. So I asked the adult that seemed to always follow me around in particular, Trinity, why she wrote all that stuff down, even though I didn't know exactly what she was writing.

"It's my job, sweetie, I have to do it." She had tried to make me understand, using the simplest words she could think of. I still didn't get it.

"But why can't you just play, just for a couple minutes?"

"Sarah, do you want to be a happy grown up?" I didn't really want to be a grown up at all, since they never played, but I figured that if I had to be a grown up, I'd rather be a happy one than a sad one. So I shook my head yes.

"Well, then have to write these things down." She smiled down at me, and I could somehow tell by the look on her face that she expected me to understand. My brain could still not comprehend the meaning of what she mean, but I wanted to make her feel like she had done a good job explaining, so I just giggled and went back to playing.

Thirteen years later, at 17, I understand completely. They were watching our behaviors to determine our personalities, and to see who we would be compatible with when we were older. The reason for a big room full of kids? To see how we interacted with each other. At the age of five, the System (our new government as of 2514) matched children together, and at the age of 18, these people are married together. We don't have a say in it, but no one is ever disappointed. The System is always effective and efficient.

The person I remember most was a brown haired kid who laughed as much or more than I did. He was always the trouble maker in the building, and we pulled pranks on both of our adults on numerous occasions. I remember him so well because that's who I will spend the rest of my life with. Back then, he didn't have a name, he was just the kid who laughed like I did. But now I know him as Noah. We are 100 percent compatible. We laugh at all the same jokes, listen to the same kind of music, enjoy the same types of foods. In probability, if Trinity hadn't done her job right, and played with me, I might have been put together with someone completely different, someone that didn't laugh as much or as hard as I did and still do. I love Noah with all my heart, every fiber inside of me loves him. How could I not? I've been told to love him since before I started my schooling. We grew up together, and we will die together, too.

The thing is, all of the adults, even my parents, don't really love each other any more. I mean sure, they had kids together and they still take walks or bike rides together, but they don't love each other. In the living room, they sit on opposite sides of the couch. They don't go on dates to a picnic or a fancy restaurant. I don't want to be like that, all alone like those misfit kids in that building. I want that to change, at least for Noah and I. But how can I do that, after It has worked so well for every other family? How can I change almost 100 years of the System's success into something even better?

~.~.~.~.~

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