“Honey, lunch is ready,” my mom calls, she did this every time she would make lunch, which was rare. Today had to be important, for her to make roast beef with vegetables. Well, as in make she bought it from the store and reheated it and added her own twist. At least she tried. My hair always gets in my face as I walk, for it being so short. As I descend the stairs, look at the mirror at the end of it. I sigh, wishing I could change everything that I see through it. My muddy green eyes, my round face that makes me look so chubby, and of course my short baggy hair always getting in the way. 

“Dear will you stop reading that thing, at the table, I want to see you eat,” Mom snapped at my father. He had a big whitepager in front of him, that told him all about the news, sports, and whatever else a man like my father likes to read about. The whitepager was quite low in technology, it came out in the year 3023, but I still find myself fascinated by it as well. How the paper can change every day with what’s new in the world within a second and the paper looks brand new every day. Once my father spilled poffee all over it and the next day it looked like it never had a cup of poffee spilled on it. I don’t know how he drinks poffee every day, it tastes horrid, yet addicting. My father puts down his whitepager and sends daggers at my mother as he eats his meal. He is a quiet man, which makes him all the more threatening and mysterious. 

“Tinsley, are you going to be taking your biker or going with your brother on the mobile commute to the education center?” Mom asks me her eyes on me with every movement I do. My brother was just like my father, quiet and keeps to himself, and he’s just 11 but acts more mature than me sometimes. When I was 11 I was talking my mom’s ear off about getting the new pair of advanced screening glasses. That helps you better see the screen and doesn’t completely expose your eyes to blue light. It would have helped me with my education, I didn’t get them.

“My biker is broken, and last time I road it to school I got in trouble for being late, and not using the commute instead,” I concluded, my biker was indeed broken. The system completely failed on me after I ‘accidentally’ rammed into a wall with it. In my defense, it was way too fast to control it at that point and for such a small thing. It won’t even move an inch, the poor hovering bike. I hear my mother sigh disappointed in me, she should be used to it now, I break everything I touch except for my commutator of course. That thing has my whole life on it, figuratively and literally. It is attached to me so how can I even break it or lose it? It’s on my left wrist, small and glued to my arm. Never to come off no matter what. It beeps, and I press my right thumb to its smooth surface and a clear projection pops out of it. Telling me I need to leave now if I want to make it to my education time with a warning little bell symbol. It also tells me I have missed several calls from Julia. Julia, how would I live without a friend like her? I press my thumb again to the commutator and it all disappears. I stand and motion my brother to come with me, he sits across from me at the table. With his beddy blue eyes, he stands and follows me, his sandy blond hair bouncing. My father is back to reading his whitepager finished with his meal, as my mother just frowns at her untouched food. We both set off to catch the mobile commute as my father and mother leave for their jobs. Our normal way of life.

We get on the mobile commute right as it passes our section, Section E. I get onto the bulky and run-down thing with my brother. Holding his hand tightly, for I don’t trust anyone around else. Their eyes wander everywhere, nosy people. The mobile commute can hold hundreds of kids all from Section E, kids from 8-16 years old, and still can move fast. For it has to, the education building is more than miles away from the sections of living areas. Our world is barely liveable, with past wars scaring the lands. Never having peace, even now, trying to rebuild this destroyed world.  I feel the mobile commute make vibration and then a loud boom hits and the thing is moving miles per second and we barely feel it. Although casually I get a headache after going on it too much, it’s normal for everyone. I can’t wait until I am 16 and done with my education, it would be a break from my normal cycle of living. Not to mention not having to take the mobile commute anymore. 

I am so used to it taking a good 10 minutes until we hit the education building. However, we stopped in 5 minutes with a squealing stop, the doors opening. There are officials at the doors looking annoyed by their job and for them having to be here. “Officials?” I hear someone by me whisper it to me. It’s Julia, her flaming red hair, how did I not notice her by me for this long.  “Something must be up because they don’t get out of their office building unless….something bad happens,” she continued to talk to me. I just nod looking at the Officials talking in hushed tones to the drivers of the mobile commute. Trying to look over others’ heads to listen in to their conversation, but I hear everything else but it. Then their heads turn to us, and the drivers look unhappy with whatever their decision was. They didn’t have enough time to battle on, as one of the drivers stood up there were 3 loud bangs and all 3 of the drivers were dead.