Submit (Book 1, The Karyln Trials)

Chapter Two

     I wake with a start. Slender hands grasp my shoulders, shaking with all the might that a fourteen-year-old has. My eyes flutter open and Millie yells in my ear.

"Ada! You're going to be late for morning inspection! It starts in just less than ten minutes!" I bolt into a sitting position and throw her off of me.

"Millie! Why didn't you wake me earlier?!" I run about my room, first to my dresser to grab the new plain white dress that Mother had made me for teatime with the Fields next door. I then sit down at my desk and look at myself in the mirror.

I let out a small shriek at the sight of my hair. While it air-dried last night, the natural beach waves of my hair turned into a jungle of tight curls that defied gravity. I start to rummage through each drawer when Millie reads my mind.

"You knocked it off the desktop." She hands me my plain black brush and we both attempt to control the beast. My internal clock ticks down and I huff in frustration.

I quickly use the brush to throw my hair up into a neat, tight bun at the back of my head like I usually have it for ballet practice. I can feel it in my bones that we have just about a minute left until the drones come for morning inspection and if we're not down there when they do, our lives will take a huge turn for the worst.

I rise from the chair and we both rush out of my room heading for the stairs. "Seriously, Millie! You always wake me up way before inspection so we can fix things like this."

I look at her as I round the banisher and start to descend the stairs. "I'm sorry! Mother or Father usually wake me and then I wake you. But nobody woke me, it's a miracle that we'll even make it."

We both make it down the stairs and bound over to where Mother and Father are already standing, ready for inspection. Father is on the right of Mother, I take my spot on Mother's left, and Millie stands, trying to catch her breath on my left.

We both manage to straighten our dresses and place our hands folded behind our backs just as the drones slip through the hatch on the front door. I release a tense breath and plaster a smile on my face for the cameras.

The two drones split from each other and start at opposite ends of my family. The white and silver one heads over to Millie and the black and silver one heads over to Father.

Both Millie and Father extend their right arms in front of them and both drones simultaneously scan their tattooed wrists. I subconsciously start to rub the globe and twelve black circles of mine and listen to the monotone voices of the drones.

"Malinda Jane Grace, eighth, nursing." The drone that scanned her bobs forward almost nodding politely towards her after spouting her information.

"Philip Wayne Grace, twelfth, tailor." The second drone dips it's head at Father and then both drones more inward ready to scan Mother and I.

Both of us raise our arms and the drones scan our wrists. I look at mine and notice that the skin of and around the tattoo has turnned pink with how hard I was rubbing. The bright red bar runs over my tattoo, unlocking the secrets of my ID chip underneath.

"Adaline Jewel Grace, twenty-second, performer." A life so complicated narrowed down to the six words that define my whole being. The drone nods and continues to hover in place, waiting for its partner to finish.

"Jane Amber Grace, twelfth, seamstress." The last story read was Mother's. Her life, read out in one sentence. That is what we have become, a name, a number, and a profession.

Both drones turn and leave through the hatch on the door they came in through. With our hands behind our backs again, we all let go of a collective breath and relax. I'm about to speak to Mother and Father when I'm whipped around and pulled back up the stairs.