Pecola || camp nano

|| four ||

four

That Monday morning before Pecola's finals, the first thing came out of both Pecola and Huey's mouths when they heard the alarm go off was "Damn."

They simultaneously yawned and stretched before rubbing the sleep out their eyes. It was really time to get up already. Damn. That slow Sunday of relaxing and lounging around in bed had gone by too, too fast. Unfortunately, now they had to start the work week.

"I'm so tired." Pecola stretched and yawned again only to roll over on her side with her head resting on her hands. When she opened her watery eyes again, she looked at the time on her phone. 7:15. She had her final at 8 then work from 9 to 5. Her mother and Nana hadn't lied when she said growing up to be an adult meant you worked until you die.

"Aren't you tired?" She yawned again before turning over to look at a yawning Huey.

"Of course, I am. I'm always tired." He sighed. "But if we're not working, who's gonna pay the rent, put food on the table, keep the lights on..."

She groaned, agreeing with him before sliding out of bed. Now to start the day.

"Ugh," Huey's face was scrunched up when she turned around to look at him, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Of course, my AIDC would just have to malfunction today." Huey groaned, rubbing the place between the ashy piece of skin between his thumb and index finger where his government issue microchip was located. "I'm jealous. Yours has never malfunctioned. Everybody else I know who has it in their hand has had to get it replaced."

"No, I'm just lucky, I guess." She doesn't look at him as she gets her clothes and gets ready to hop into the shower. She tried to change the subject. "You still remember your number right?"

"I memorized it." He rattled off the number like it was second nature. "HBBMEAG1989524. And you never had to replace it yet?" He sighed, thinking of the extra trip he is going to have to take to sit in the waiting room of the doctor's office just so they could remove the chip and use that large needle to put in another. He just knew he was going to cry from the pain. "Who did ya'll?"

"I can't remember that. It was when I was a baby." She still doesn't look at him. "But the doctor who did it was amazing because I never had to get it replaced. 24 years and counting. That is so amazing. And Tae's has either. And that will be 28...going on 29 years and counting for her. We are so lucky." When Pecola lied, she tended to go on talking for more than she had too.

She didn't want to tell Huey the truth because he would insist that she also take off from work just to also get her AIDC chip implanted into her hand, which is something she was trying to avoid for as long as possible. She doesn't want to admit she and her sister had to memorize their number and info from an early age and always pretend their chips were broken and in need of replaceable whenever they had to get anything from the government pertaining to their working history and benefits as well as renting, banking, and other financial pursuits in Eagleland.

The AIDC microchip had replaced the social security number back in the late 1980s because the chip could not be easily lost or stolen like the social security card. Also, the AIDC chips were easy to check since they were always on the person. The government claimed that the AIDC chip benefited Eagleland's native and naturalized citizens because it gave them the freedom to not worry about losing their identification cards as well as let them know who and wherever everyone else was in the country.

However, Pecola and Tae's Nana had always been suspicious of the government, even more so when she thought about how the microchips could be used for surveillance. Therefore, Nana had removed the microchips in her granddaughters' hands when they were in elementary school. Pecola remembered Nana saying as she dug the microchip out of her with tweezers, "We already got cell phones? Why we need another thing tracking us?"