The boy with the fruit snacks.

*This is actually something that happened to me, and I couldn't stop thinking or worrying about it, so I had to write it down.*

            “Hi, Miss, would you buy fruit snacks for my soccer team?” I stopped and stared at the tall boy of around 18 standing in front of me. The vacant, deer-caught-in-headlights look in his eyes and something about his voice told me that there was something wrong with him. His light brown hair fell past his ears, the edges sticking to his face with sweat. A tight, mottled pink and gray t-shirt accentuated his rail-thin frame; baggy jeans that didn’t quite fit made him look disproportional. Everyone who passed him avoided looking at him, politely declined his request, then pretended he didn’t exist. I stood there staring, wondering if I was being naïve for feeling so sympathetic towards this lone figure in a crowd standing outside a food market.

            “Miss, you wanna buy fruit snacks for my soccer team?” I smiled apologetically then shook my head ‘no.’ Averting my gaze from his figure, I hurried back to my car with my groceries. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I felt haunted by the image of the boy holding his box of fruit snacks, wondering why no one, including myself, had wanted to help him and his soccer team. It made me flinch as I recalled his facial expression when I too had refused to help: blank, too accustomed to disappointment to even care anymore. Although I wished with all my heart that I had bought just one fruit snack, I realized why I didn’t. I had been scared of the boy, scared of my own pity for him. He was off, not normal, and as much as I hated to admit it, that had frightened me. I felt ashamed and disgusted with myself. Even more than that, I was disappointed with myself. I drove back home, knowing that the image of the boy with the fruit snacks would haunt me forever.

NEW STORY! YEAH!

*So, this is the prologue and beginning of chapter 1 of that story I told you about from a while back. You know, the one that I dreamt about...you don't remember? You sure? Ah well, I guess I understand that...I have been terribly neglectful of this blog. Sorry about that. I'll try to be better (which really means I'll continue on the exact same way I was before.) Anyway, I haven't finished the first chapter yet and I'll probably add more to the prologue, but I really just wanted to get what I have out for you guys to read so I can get some feedback and ideas and good stuff like that. It's kinda bad right now and just a wee bit cheesy, cause I haven't edited it or anything, so you'll have to bear with me for now. Enjoooyyyy! :)*

                                                                            Prologue

            Screams and cries pierced the air as heat and smoke erupted from beneath the five gargantuan rocket ships that were lifting off. Thousands upon thousands of people were in hysterics, pointlessly begging the rocket ships to come back, to not leave them. A state of complete panic settled in the atmosphere as explosions set off and people realized they had been abandoned and there was no hope left for them now. They scrambled around, clutching their loved ones close, looking for any safe place; there were none. Some just collapsed on the ground in tears, all too aware that their death would soon arrive.

            Miles and miles away, in an indestructible, underground cavern, hundreds of people were hiding. Tears filled their eyes as they listened to the distant cries of their fellow humans. But nothing could be done now. All their fates had been sealed, a different future for each group- life for those who hid or fled, and death for those who had been abandoned.

  

                                                            Chapter One

            The dusty brown dirt crumbled between my fingers as I worked. Day after day, I did the same thing: I tilled dirt in the greenhouses connected to the living center. Section after section, I worked 12 hours a day, stopping only once for a ten-minute lunch break. But as tiresome as it was, as bored as I would become, I knew it was necessary to live. We all had to till dirt to survive; it was the only way to produce more oxygen on the moon.

            For each center in our settlement, there were three greenhouses, except for the living center. There were five for this one, since it was most commonly used and oxygen was most needed here. Each greenhouse was split into fifty ten-by-ten squares, and we were all assigned five squares for life, which we would till until we died.

            I sat back on my heels and massaged my aching neck and shoulders with my grimy hands. Glancing over at Darren a few squares to my right, I saw he had stopped working as well. He met my gaze and smiled. I quickly looked back down and continued working. We could get in trouble for slacking off, and the officials might grow suspicious of the two of us. Darren wasn’t my match and it was illegal to have an attachment with anyone else.

            At birth, a sample of our genetic makeup is taken and kept in the lab center. Every year on our birthday, we take another genetics related test. Each test, along with the original sample, determines which two members of opposite sex would produce the healthiest, strongest, most capable humans, and they are matched. Our matches are revealed to us when we are sixteen, since by that time our bodies are mostly developed, and it is required that we marry at eighteen. We are permitted to have one child and one child only, so as to prevent over-population. My match is Jasper, but my heart belongs to Darren.