The Claiming

Chapter Two

Ten minutes until the Claiming.

Ten.

I stand alone in the public restroom, staring at myself in the cracked mirror. My hands clutch the off-white pedestal sink that probably used to be the color of pure powder. I glare at my mess of curly brown hair and wide brown eyes. Brown, brown, brown.

My dress might as well be brown, too.

I clutch my head in agony as a pounding headache scorches my temples. Calm down. Just calm down.

I can't calm down! I'm about to give myself away to a total stranger... or worse—someone I know. I can think of tons of guys from the boys' section of the Facility that would drive me mad, or guys that would just make me feel so awkward and out of place I would want to die.

But worst of all, I could be thrown into the Lower District where I'll be forced to have strangers' children for the rest of my life while wasting away in my own filth. I will never meet my children after delivery. I try to keep myself from wondering if my birth mother ever wishes she could see me today.

She's probably dead by now. Most of the Lower District women die after a few kids because of the lack of hygiene there. Complications aren't uncommon.

I've always been jealous of Alec and Chance. They have real parents, and they get to go to a real school in the Family District. There, they can meet people who have real families, houses, and more. I've only been to the Family District when visiting Alec and Chance at their homes with Riah. Beautiful neighborhoods with perfectly large two-story homes and front yards with bright white picket fences. They have it all.

I laugh aloud to myself, blinking tears at the faucet, when I think of the first time Riah and I met Alec and Chance, three years ago. The Facility had taken a trip to the town square where we could go the mall, the library, the pool, etc. Riah and I went to the library (I dragged her there), and we sat in the back in a little reading space between two tall bookshelves. The lounge chairs were set two across from two, a long coffee table set in between. We were sitting quietly, and I was enjoying my book while Riah sat in boredom, looking through a magazine. Ten minutes later, two boys sat down in the chairs across from us. I glanced up, noticing immediately that they were from the Family District.

It's quite easy to distinguish Facility kids from Family District kids. For instance, Facility kids wear uniforms at all times—dark pastel blue dresses for girls and shirt and pants for boys. These boys were wearing their own style of clothing: the one with the blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes wore a bright blue polo shirt that brought out his eyes, and perfectly new jeans. The one with the black hair and green eyes wore a T-shirt with a black and red plaid button-up over top, and his jeans were new like the blonde's.

They sat across from us with their own books. The blonde had a thick novel, but the black-haired boy had a comic book. I glanced over at Riah, and she was giving me eyes that said, "Aren't they hot?"

I rolled my eyes, though. The last thing I ever thought about was boys. The guys at the Facility were all pretty irritating (and they still are), but these guys changed our lives forever.

After five minutes of being in their company, Riah finally broke the silence. "Shouldn't you guys be in school?"

I wanted to face palm more than anything at that moment.

The blonde grinned at her. "We are in school. During lunch we can do whatever we want, so Chance and I decided to come here. Shouldn't you girls be in school?"

My jaw dropped. He was either taunting us with the fact that Facility kids don't go to public school, or he honestly didn't know.

"We're from the Facility," Riah said without a hint of shame. "We take trips every Wednesday to the Central District. Other days we do classes at our Facility."