Chapter 1The timer on my watch ticks too slowly.I know the rules, and I know I’m not supposed to look at anyone else’s screens, but I can’t helpmyself. Is my watch broken, or does my brain find algebra so dull that it changed my perception oftime? I peek at Sasha’s watch. Her timer reads the same as mine.She sees me look, and looks confused.“What’s wrong?” She mouths.“Never mind.” I mouth, turning away. She looks at my screen at exactly the wrong time, just asour professor looks up from his tablet directly at our table. He clears his throat.“Sasha? Do you care to explain why you’re looking at Kaylee’s screen?” She looks up at him,startled.“Uh…” He sighs and takes a document from the side of his desk and fills it out at record speed,before placing it in the wire basket at the end of the table. I don’t see paper or physical documentsalmost ever, the exception being these documents.Sasha turns red as the class groans and the timers simultaneously vibrate on our wrists. Time togo home. I close the case of my tablet and put it into my bag, signing out on the keypad by the doorwith Sasha at my side and Caroline coming up behind me, and pulling on a lock of my blonde hairand smirking. Her own light-colored hair is in a high ponytail, straight and shiny.“I hate uniform, don’t you?” Sasha says as we exit the academy, signing out on what seems likekeypad after keypad. I could type ‘Kaylee 32126’ with my eyes closed. It seems like it would be tooeasy to fake a sign out. I know everyone in my year’s birth number, and we were all born in 321, so Icould sign out as anyone I liked.We checked our watches as they buzzed again, telling Sasha to go with Caroline to pick upclean uniforms for next week, and telling me to go the the Junior academy to collect my brother andsister. There are more keypads to sign in to there, but at least my siblings don’t have to try to figureout a keyboard every few minutes. I can easily do it for them. ‘Jackson 32804’ and ‘Cassidy 32934’have become almost as familiar as my own code. They are two polar opposites, just like our parentswere. Cassidy reminds me so much of our mother that it used to be hard to look at her. Jackson and Ilook like siblings, so much so that people often forget that Cassidy exists. I don’t forget, and neitherdoes my father.“Hey.” I say, signing in and signing them out, then resigning out for myself. The both say hi backand Jackson begins talking rapidly about his day as my watch tells me to go home.After about thirty minutes of walking, we arrive home long before my father will be.“I’m hungry.” Cassidy says quietly after Jackson finally finishes his story.“Me too.” Jackson says, hanging up both of their backpacks by the door and sits down insteadof running around. The lunch at their school is quite small, and its been about four hours of themrunning around and doing classwork. I was hungry too.The glass pantry had a full charge, and projected a full cabinet of food. But, per usual, thecabinet was empty upon being opened.“I’m sorry.” I said, closing it. “No extra food. Dinner will be in an hour or two. Do you think you’llsurvive until then?”, I say, dramatically fainting against the couch. Jackson laughed and pushed meoff as Cassidy ran around whacking him in the back cackling. It was easy to forget about time andthat it was Friday, Distribution Day. My watch buzzed angrily at me to stop playing and get changedbut I ignored it. Distribution day came to often to seem important to me anymore, and I think Jacksonand Cassidy felt the same. After ignoring it three times, a shock went up my arm that made me cryout.“Stop!”“Kaylee? What’s wrong?” Cassidy blinks her big blue eyes at me and looks scared. I hide myarm behind my back as the watered-down poison seeps gold through my veins. “Nothing,” I say, walking further into the hallway curving into the back of our house. “Come on,go get your Lottery clothes on.” Jackson and Cassidy run into their rooms and open their smallclosets. There’s only three outfits in each one, a school uniform, a Lottery outfit, and pajamas.Cassidy runs in, doing a cartwheel that makes her orange skirt puff up and landing on my bed. Irealize I’ve been staring at the wall for too long. I lift a long indigo dress from the closet and shooCassidy out as I change. I look hard at the white heels in the floor of my closet. I don’t have tie to findreplacements, so I slip them on and quickly fishtail my long blond hair. We have to sprint if we wantto make it in time, so we do. They seem to have unlimited energy, something I envy deeply. We makeit to the Lottery Center mere seconds before the bell rings. The screen shows a balance of 1/5,making it the third week in a row where the Contributions outweigh the Distributions. I pat my siblingson the head and watch as they scurry off to meet with their friends in their sections. I find Sasha andCaroline quickly, although everyone in 321 is in the same Indigo as I am. Sasha’s dress has a large,puffy skirt that she has to lift to walk in, which looks nice but doesn’t suit her. Caroline has a tight,short, dress that matches the vibe of her layered, shoulder-length blonde hair.My arm still burns as Caroline grabs my wrist and shakes her head, chuckling. “So this is whyyou’re late. You’re lucky the spinners are in a good mood.” I take my wrist back. “Yeah. I guess.”Sasha scrunches her eyebrows together. “Are you alright? You don’t look so good.”“I’m fine,” I say, pulling my hair out of the fishtail and shaking it loose. A microphone beeps anda man with slicked back black hair uncovers the lottery cage. He clears his throat and the Lotterybegins.“The first 5 lottery spins are contributions for years 310-325.” He turns the handle slowly and
five balls roll out slowly. He picks them up and reads them.“31336. 32323. 31732. 32528. 32109.” Sasha’s eyes flash up and she smiles, as the fifthnumber is hers. We push her out of the crowd. She walks up on stage and is handed a shiny bronzecard, and comes back to us. Caroline grabs it out of her hands and reads it quietly aloud.“Extra Lottery Dress.” Caroline hands it back to her and looks playfully jealous.“I’m so happy I can have an alternative to this awful thing.” Sasha remarks, nearly tripping onher skirt as she speaks.“Shush,” a girl in a blue dress says, rolling her eyes. “I want to hear the Distribution.”Sasha, Caroline and I shut up. We want to hear it too.“ This week has one Distribution, rated a 9.4.” I’m startled. Distributions above 6.0 are rare.“Ten days ago, 32802 was pushed into a river outside of boundaries. She drowned, and thedistributioned will face the same. Numbers from 01-36 in 328 will be eligible. My heart drops and I’mhappy I wore heels so that I could see Jackson’s face. He’s normally not great with numbers, but Ican tell he understands.The handle turns slowly and a ball rolls out.“3280-“ Oh, god no, please. “7.” I feel sick thinking how I breathed a sigh of relief as I hear thegirl in the blue start sobbing as a boy in a yellow uniform was grabbed by guards and led away.Sasha walked over quietly and attempted to comfort her. Jackson was crying and looked terrified.Poor little guy. I knew who the boy was, Jackson’s friend, Luke. And I recognized the girl as his oldersister, Alexa. They have the same shiny black hair but their eyes clash. They had an average sizedhouse with big windows. They have another older brother, Daniel, who I can see in a black uniformrunning his hand through his hair and chewing on his lip. I can tell he is holding back tears.The microphone beeps again and the Lottery is over. I wave goodbye to Caroline and Sasha andcollect Cassidy and Jackson. Jackson hugs me around my waist, staining my dark-colored dresswith his tears. I don’t mind. I know Luke is his best friend. Cassidy looks terrified too. I have neverand will never understand how giving an innocent person the charge for a crime is fair.This isn’t the worst distribution I’ve ever seen. Neah can be a sick society.