Foreseen, Book 1 Ch. 1

Chapter One
Rora sat in the windowsill, looking out at the fireworks blasting above Eido. In every shape and color they gave the midnight black sky a sense of beauty; something it rarely had except for stars and the moon. Over in Elizabeth Park there was a group of losers celebrating the eve of someone’s changing birthday. No one ever knew when their changing birthday would be till their parents told them a year in advance. The only two rules: It must be your thirteenth birthday at the youngest and eighteenth birthday at the oldest. If your parents didn’t approve by your eighteenth birthday, then the government swept their wishes aside and changed you anyways. Rora feared that such a thing would happen to her, since her parents seemed strict about the rules. She was already thirteen, she could do it anytime. Several of her friends were already changed and partying over in Eido. A few were still stuck in Alton, waiting for their parents to finally let them go, let them become pretty, let them become beautiful. It was a wish and hope that you would have since you were ten years old, the age you became a loser, an ugly, an outcast. And you would stay that way till your parents finally let you become beautiful.
“The time is now nine o’clock. One hour till shut down.” Malls, her room, reminded her.
“I know, I know. Send the protectors this request: ‘keep room 3-R2, tenth floor, powered till ten thirty, thank you.’”
“Yes ma’am.”
A tiny ‘ding’ sound went off, signaling that her message was sent. She turned back to watching the fireworks explode.
“I wonder if this was what war was like, except without all the colors.”
“Do not question war ma’am. It’s not healthy.”
“Hm. Whatever.”
Ten o’clock came and her room stayed on. She could hear some of the other losers grumbling as their e-walls shut down, windows blackened and lights dimmed. At ten twenty Malls gave her a message from the main protector.
“It reads ‘at exactly ten thirty your power will be taken. Please do not request otherwise. Thank you.’”
“Hm. Fine.”
“Shall I send that as a message to them?”
“No. Thank you.”
She changed into sleepwear and climbed into her bed as the power was zapped from her room. The lights above her head were dimly on so that she could see if she had to go to the bathroom. The shadow box that held her tracker bracelet stayed illuminated as well.
“Good night Malls.”
“The minute you wake up I shall too. There are new sensors you know.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I know. You’ve told me for the past week. Good night.”
“Good night ma’am.”
Rora slept till about three in the morning, when she was awakened by a knock on her door. A knock? Nobody ever knocks. You message me. She though cloudily, opening her eyes to see the door open a crack.
“Hello?” She grumbled.
“Psst. Rora, it’s me.”
“Keira, what are you-”
“Shhh! Hide me.”
In about five seconds the door shut and a figure tumbled to the edge of her bed. She could hear shuffling and sliding on the carpet, then footsteps in the hall. From under the bed, Keira explained.
“I was trying to sneak in cause I was out past ten. Right when I was flying up to my balcony they saw me. Of course I couldn’t go to my own room so I flew around the building to the shadowy side and came in the extra room’s window. It’s only a floor below yours so I jetted up the stairs and came in here till I can sticky pad my way up the outside wall. Kay?”
“No.” She hissed back. “Not okay. They’ll look in here! There are sensors in the extra room so that nobody steals anything. And they’ve added wake up sensors in here, which probably can sense someone coming in.”
“Oh. Ouch. Sorry, big mess up.”
“Yeah. Super big mess up!”
The footsteps in the hall grew closer and louder. Rora commanded the room to but a bed curtain around her bed, hiding Keira. Also, she had the walls spit out a bunch of unfashionable clothes that she had tried on in the last month. Then she closed her eyes when the door opened again. She sat up, trying to act sleepy.
“What the heck. I didn’t request my room to stay on.”
“We know and sorry. But one of your friends, Keira, was seen sneaking into the building. And sensors picked up somebody moving in here.”
“Oh, yeah. I sleep walk.”
Which, actually, was true. Keira had found her several times sleepwalking when she had sneaked into her room.
“Oh. I guess we should get better sensors then.”
“Yeah. It’d be helpful. They’d let some people get their beauty sleep.”
The protector chuckled. No loser or ugly needed beauty sleep cause they weren’t beautiful and sleep didn’t help that.
“Well, sorry. Good night.”
“Yeah. Whatever.”
Waiting till you could hear no more footsteps, she quietly commanded the room to take back all the clothes and the bed curtain. Then, as silent as she could possibly be, Keira sprinted from the bed to the window, throwing it open, she buttoned into the side of her hover shoes ‘sticky pads’ and climbed up and out, sliding the window shut with her feet.
“Thank you.” Rora whispered. “And good night.”
The next morning at eleven o’clock her room turned on, waking her up.
“I am commanded to wake up by eleven ma’am. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. I should be up by now anyways.”
She called for breakfast and ate a jelly and butter sandwich on toast, along with a naturally sweet fruity drink. And so her day began.
“Malls. My schedule please.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Her e-wall displayed a big copy of what she had placed in the box and what the protectors might have been told to program in. It read ‘send message to parents, check on Keira, and go to first driving class at two’.
“Wow. My first driving class is today.”
“You’ll be thirteen and a half tomorrow. The government is hoping you’ll become beautiful by your fourteenth birthday.”
“Yeah. I do to.”
Quickly she sent a message to her parents telling them her daily plans and hopes to become beautiful. She sent a similar one to Keira and went on the world mat in search of her fellow loser friends. Eido, the section where beautiful people lived, had a separate world mat so that losers and beauties wouldn’t talk. Beauties could always visit, but rarely did. By one fifty she had messaged her friends several times, had a few chats and was bored out of her mind.
“Ma’am, your driving lesson is in ten minutes. Shall I call someone to pick you up?”
“Nah. My hover shoes are fine.”
“Very well.”
Rora fitted her hover shoes over her normal shoes, put on the controller pads and flung herself out her window. There was no need to check out at the protector’s desk, they had a copy of her schedule. She flew above the dorm towers, which were ten floors high, and eventually came to the metal track that circled Elizabeth Park. Flying down, she landed with a bunch of other losers waiting for there fourteenth birthday.
“Hi.” The older pretty said. “I’m Skyer and I’m your instructor for the beginners course. Any questions before we get started?”
“What will we be driving?” One kid asked, not even stating his name.
“A special safety hover car. It’s made especially for these classes so have no fears about getting hurt. Any others?”
Nobody said a word, so he smiled and moved on.
“First make sure the car has strapped you in. The straps are clear, as to not hide fashion and please everyone. You will feel them slightly tight against your chest and abdomen. Then check to see if the seat is adjusted to your height, that the sensors are clear of any junk and that the nothing has been sent to the car’s world mat about not driving or unsafe areas. Okay?”
They all nodded, trying to act like prepared, smart losers.
“Great.” He had some real cheeriness, but faked some more, making him seem rather stupid. “All right, first I’ll show you the pedals and switches and you’ll ride beside me. Then, under my supervision and with the pedals programmed to low you’ll all drive along the track once. Is that cool with everyone?”
“Yeah.”
“M-hm.”
“Totally.”
“Lets get started then.”
And so it began, making Rora more nervous by the minute. She was shown how the car worked, it’s foot pedals, turn on switch, finger print unlock sensor, music box, which buttons made which windows go up or down and which hooked and detached the safety straps. Finally, after everyone else had gotten to take a turn driving, Skyer fixed his eyes on her.
“Rora? I don’t believe you’ve done the driving sample yet.”
“Um, no.” She practically squeaked. “But I-”
“Are you sick?”
“No.”
“And no doctor has informed us of any injury or mental disorder. Therefore, you must. It is required.”
She gulped, but nodded and went over to sit in the drivers seat. Before stepping in, he buttoned something into his e pad, a smaller version of an e wall and mainly used by older beauties instead of eye connectors. He programmed that I complained and avoided. Now the protectors will give me a talking to and won’t leave my room on late for a week. Dang it. Finally everything, including her driving sample, was completed and she went back to her dorm tower. Once there, her window would not let her in and Malls calmly told her that the protectors wanted to have a talk.
“I don’t want to talk to them. It’ll wait unless it’s really important.”
“Ma’am, they would not have programmed me to stay shut unless it was important.”
“Oh please, they just like torturing me. Now, let me in. I’m tired of this baby stuff. I’ll message them once I get in.”
“No.”
“Ugh. Fine.”
Flying back down to ground level she was greeted by a frustrated looking protector with crossed arms. Without waiting for her to talk, the protector lead her inside, checked her in and showed her into a room that was all white with a lightly tanned tile floor. She sat down at a desk with an e pad made into it and motioned for Rora to sit across from her.
“Now.” The protector started, trying to sound nice. Her voice echoed off the walls, making Rora hear what the woman said three times instead of once. “I have been notified of your avoidance of your driving sample. Explain that please.”
“I didn’t want to. I was nervous. I’m used to hover shoes, not hover cars.”
“You understand that everyone possible must learn the skill of driving. Otherwise, you will grow up without the correct knowledge of getting around. To become a beauty you must learn. And how many older beauties do you see wearing hover shoes? None, because they are not made in their sizes and they have grown used to the comfortableness of driving.”
“Then I’ll just get my wall to make some in my size. I don’t want to drive. I just don’t.”
“How do you get around when it rains? Snows? What about windy days? Your hover shoes don’t protect you from all the elements of nature, do they?”
“No.”
“But what do? How do you get around on those stormy days?”
“Someone drives me. In a hover car.”
“Exactly! But wouldn’t you like to get somewhere, anywhere, without waiting for someone else? Without depending on our community of drivers, you could go anywhere, anytime. You wouldn’t have to bother with directions and you can just go out for a drive if you want. You wouldn’t have to waste driver’s time’s either. They have families too you know.”
“I know.”
“And remember, you are perfectly safe in our beginners car. It is pre-programmed on speed for you and all you have to do is guide the steering wheel.”
“What if I went off course?”
“Then Skyer would reach over and in the entertainment section he would program the car to find the metal road.”
“What about crashing? I’m at tree level you know.”
“All you or Skyer would have to do is flip the on-off switch and the car would turn off almost immediately. And remember, no other hover cars are allowed on that specific road.”
“Sometimes losers fly on it.”
“But they fly higher, for the thrill and to not get caught they avoid open regions. And even in the shaded ones, Skyer could report them and their shoes would get turned off for the next few days.”
“Still, I could crash into one of them.”
“They’d be away from you in half a second and the outside will sense a body coming towards it and soften, as to not hurt them. Really, you had nothing to avoid.”
“Fine.”
“Will I be hearing about this in the future?”
“No.”
“And why?”
“Because I will keep your thoughtful advice in my head. I will remember I have nothing to worry about or fear.”
“Good. It’s a warning this time, but next time your room will be turned off at nine.”
The protector unlocked the room and let Rora go to Malls. The last part, right before ‘good, it’s a warning this time’ Rora had been taught to say at school. Whenever a protector or even your parents talked to you about not doing something, you answered with two sentences similar to what she had said. Finally being allowed into Malls, she flopped down on the bed.
“That was so stupid! I just protested a little about the driving sample cause I’m not used to it and I spend like, fifteen minutes, talking about it with some dumb protector.”
“Ma’am,” Malls responded, somehow calm, “Protector’s are here to keep the dorm tower safe and orderly and it’s their job to make sure you cooperate with everyone else. And that includes finding out why you were hesitant with your driving sample. They are not dumb. They are merely doing their job.”
“I know. But still, I don’t get why they have to make such a big deal out it. I just didn’t want to do something. Isn’t that normal?”
“They were just making sure that something wasn’t seriously wrong. Some people make excuses that are so true and so bad that they must be referred to a mental doctor. That’s why protectors question you. They want to make sure you don’t need to go to an emotional or mental doctor.”
Rora didn’t even respond to that. She knew Malls was only a programmed robot of walls, one that had programmed emotions, explanations and overall talking, but she knew that they were so uniquely formed that they seemed to have personalities. And they would talk to you, agree or disagree, fight, calm you down or correct stuff like grammar. It annoyed her.
“Stupid scientists. Why’d they have to create stuff so smart?”
“Actually, the scientists of this generation build upon what others did in the past. They improve things. For example, in the past rooms rung certain bells and merely performed tasks. Now, as you can see, they take long, confusing and difficult commands and can easily respond to others as if almost human.”
She groaned. Why’d they have to be so smart too?
The rest of the day passed normally. She chatted some more and messaged around about the stupidity of the protectors and their concerns about her not wanting to do the driving sample. Apparently Skyer or the protector that had talked to her about her excuses had messaged her parents. They have dutifully messaged her in return. Their message read:
Rora, dear, we were worried when we first heard about your driving class. We should have warned them that you are slightly paranoid of trying new things, and then they would not have wasted their time so much. But we stay firm in our beliefs of now having you changed yet. So your thirteenth and a half birthday will not be spent in a surgery room. Keep taking the classes, for we want you to be ready whenever we truly decide.
Lovingly,
Your parents
This, she felt, was extremely unfair. Even though a thirteen and a half birthday was not major, not important, it still meant she was beyond old enough for The Operation. Ever since your seventh birthday you were educated in the ugliness of the human race and how these true hero’s of beauty worked to make it a fair world. And from that day forward, you hoped and dreamed of the world first beyond the park belt and then beyond Alton. You dreamed of the day that you woke up and found yourself, for the first time ever, beautiful.
“Ma’am, it’s five till ten. No messages for staying on late are accepted now. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, it’s fine. I’d rather go to be a little early anyways. Remind me of what I have to do tomorrow.”
“You must send in a report summarizing what you did today in driving class. A daily update to your parents would be nice and Keira is having a party for your thirteenth and a half birthday.”
“Why?”
“She says it’s because she’s your friend and you rarely go to parties unless they’re for you.”
“Oh. Message her thanks in the morning.”
“Very well. Good night ma’am.”
“Good night.”
Then everything shut down.