Skylar sits on her usual stool by the door, drawing in a notebook. I get a peek at her notebook before she notices I’m here and covers the paper. It’s a dress. 

“You design clothing?” I ask, tipping my head to one side. Skylar nods sheepishly. “That’s really cool. Why don’t you pursue that?” 

“Coppers don’t design stuff. Only Bronze gets to do that,” She says, standing up. 

“I understand,” I say, as she starts to leave the room. “My sister has wanted to learn everything her whole life, but she couldn’t because we were Iron.” Skylar pauses. 

“So you understand why I’m stuck,” She says, holding her notebook to her chest. 

“You don’t have to be,” I say. “If you want to make those dresses, I can find a room here for you and make it your studio, okay?” 

“But who’s going to take care of you?” She asks. I shrug. 

“Maybe I’ll just take care of myself,” I say. “But you deserve to do what you love, instead of doing my hair,” Skylar’s eyes fill with tears, and she pulls me into a hug. 

“Thank you, miss,” She whispers. 

“You can call me Olive,” I whisper back, patting her shoulder. She wipes her eyes and curtseys quickly, then leaves the room. The sun sets outside my window, and I can see it clearly for the first time, because these windows are clean and spotless and whole. “You’ve gotta admit, the view is gorgeous.” I tell myself, then go put on the nightgown in my closet, crawling under the thick covers on my bed. 

“Mayor Mountbatten,” I say, answering the door. Jackson smiles and waves. “What are you doing here?” 

“I came to talk to you more about the contest on the mainland,” He says, and his kids Audra and Adam appear at his feet, waving at me. I wave back. “And Casey volunteered to babysit the twins.”

“Well, I hope she can handle them,” I say, letting him in. Casey appears in the entrance hall and smiles at the children. Audra and Adam run towards her, and she leads them off to play with a wide smile. 

“Looks like she can,” He says, walking in, his hands in his pockets. “So, where should we talk?” He asks. I shrug, and lead him through the hallways, and eventually find an empty room with a few chairs. 

“So, what’s the deal with the contest?” I ask, sitting down. Jackson sits down across from me, and folds his hands in his lap.

“Well, I haven’t discovered who the other contenders are yet, but I’m willing to guess that they are high born people,” He explains. “They’ll be coming from the highest subdivisions, and they’ve lived in those subs their whole lives,” I nod. “They will most likely know everything about you, and you’ll be going in with no education about them.” 

“That’s not scary at all,” I mutter sarcastically, folding my arms. 

“If you want, one of your neighbors, my nephew, is offering to tutor you for the next two weeks until the contest, so you won’t be going in unarmed,” He offers. I nod. 

“That would be helpful,” I say. “Can he start teaching me today? Because I suddenly have a lot of free time.” Jackson smiles. 

“He’s my older sister’s son, around your age,” He tells me, standing up. “They live in a Gold house on this block. You’ll be able to find it, there’s a large tree in the front yard, just that way on the road.” He points. I nod, smiling. “They’re Platinums, but they prefer this neighborhood,” He explains. 

“Thank you.” I say quietly. 

“Well, you’ve got to bring the island out of the dark somehow,” He says, then shakes my hand and leaves. 

“Olive?” The person asks, as I knock on the door of the house that Jackson gave me directions to. I nod slowly, and he shakes my hand. “Cai Edwards. My uncle said you needed tutoring.” I smile, and he invites me into the house, smiling. 

“Do you often tutor people?” I ask, seeing that the room he leads me to looks like a classroom, with several smaller desks facing a large desk. A green chalkboard is hung on the wall. 

“Yeah, I don’t want to have to rely on my parents for money,” He says. “So I have this job.” I nod. 

“I thought Platinums didn’t need jobs.” 

“Most don’t,” He says with a smile. 

I sit down at one of the desks, feeling overdressed, because Cai has the top button of his dress shirt open, and his silk vest is unbuttoned and hanging loose. I’m wearing one of the nicer dresses in my closet, a red one with gold stripes. I look like a circus tent. 

“I guess you’re not used to idling, being a former Iron.” I shake my head. He smiles and pulls a chair out from one of the smaller desks, and sits on it, facing me. “So how much do you know about the mainland?” 

“Only what they teach at the public schools, and I dropped out when I was thirteen,” I say. Cai whistles. 

“Looks like I’m starting from scratch, pretty much,” He says with a laugh. “You’re good with long hours here, then? I’ve got food and stuff.” 

“If I’m at home for more than an hour, I end up causing some sort of trouble, so I shouldn’t be there unless I have to,” I explain. Cai laughs, shaking his head. 

“You seem like you’ll cause trouble anywhere, but okay,” He mumbles. “We can start by learning about the other Divisions,” He says, and stands up, drawing on the board with a piece of white powdery chalk. “There are six other divisions, each very crucial to society like Metal.” He writes on the board. “There’s Light, in charge of electricity and power. The current governor, Solomon Connolly, is from the Light division,” Cai explains. 

“Solomon Connolly…” I mutter to myself. “That’s fun to say.” Cai laughs aloud, his eyes wrinkling as he grins. 

“Yeah, don’t let him hear you say that. The guy is dead serious,” He warns, then circles everything he’s written about the Light division. He then tells me about the other five divisions, Life, Sky, Stone, Fire, and Water. This is going to take a while.

“Quiz time!” Cai says, putting a piece of paper facedown on my desk. I groan, and stare at him. “You wanted to be tutored. This is what you get.” He hands me a pencil, and I turn over the paper. “You’ll do fine. You’ve been listening well this past week.” 

Cai pushes his glasses further up his nose, and goes back to sit behind his desk, tossing a baseball into the air and catching it several times. I get to the first question. 

How many Subdivisions does each Division have? That’s easy. Six. 

Which Division has won the Governor’s Pageant the most times? Light. In fact, everyone thinks they’ll win this time. That’s encouraging. 

I finish the last of the questions, and set my pencil down, looking around the room. My eyes fall on Cai, and I observe him. He’s about my age, maybe a little older. 

He has chestnut brown hair, and he’s related to dark-haired Platinums so it makes sense. His blue eyes stare out the classroom windows, as he rolls the baseball around in his hands. His eyes fall on me. Oh, no, I was staring.

“Are you done?” He asks, as I duck my head in embarrassment. 

“Yeah,” I answer, and he picks up my test, reading it over. 

“One hundred percent. Perfect score,” He says with a smile. “Except, you didn’t put your name on your paper, so it’s really a ninety-nine percent.” I grumble and gesture around the classroom. 

“I’m the only student you have who would be taking this test!” I say, and Cai laughs. 

“Just because you aren’t required to try your best doesn’t mean you shouldn’t,” He preaches, tucking his hands in his pockets. He sits on top of the desk next to mine. I roll my eyes. 

“When’s recess?” I ask. Cai laughs. 

“Humor’s not going to get you everywhere, Olive,” He tells me, twirling a pen in his hand. He writes something on my paper, and puts it back down on the desk. In a red pen, he wrote a 99%, and circled it. 

“Did you have to use the mean red pen?” I ask, looking at it. He nods. 

“You get purple pen if you get a hundred percent,” He informs me. 

“I don’t like purple that much.” Cai shrugs. 

“Blue, then,” He says. “Let the blue pen be your incentive.” I stare him down, and he laughs. Cai checks his watch. “Class dismissed.” I smile and stand up, waving to him on my way out. “Get lots of sleep,” He says, and I walk out of the house. 

The sun starts to set, so I make sure nobody is watching, and start running down the street, holding the hem of my skirt up so I can run better. I catch a glimpse of Cai smirking at me through the window. I roll my eyes and keep running. 

When I get inside to dinner, my hair windswept, and my dress wrinkled, Mom frowns, but keeps her eyes on her pasta. Casey waves at me, and I sit next to her Dad smiles. None of us talk. It’s too echo-y in here to have a normal conversation. It’s so quiet, being a Gold. How do they ever stand the silence? 

“How are your lessons going?” Dad asks, obviously as uncomfortable as me. I look down at the doodles on my arm. 

“They’re going fine,” I say quietly, poking at my pasta.

“That’s good,” He responds, and then it’s silent again. Casey stares at her plate, then speaks up. 

“If you’re the governor, Olive, will you make things right for us?” She asks, and looks up at me. “I hate that everyone is separated on this island and we’re all fighting.” 

“I’ll try,” I say. The silence returns. I finish my food and stand up, walking upstairs to my room. Skylar is gone in her studio, as usual. I change into pajamas, and lay down on my bed, yawning. The world goes dark.