San Antonio, Texas

Isabella

For fifteen years I have lived in this house. I shared a room with Emily, two person per room.

I walked out my room and headed to the front door. I met with my friend Jayden. We meet at the fence, Ms. Garcia told us to never go beyond the fence. But she never told us why. I sat down next to him.

"Hey Jayden." I greeted and gave him a smile. Jayden had brown hair, brown eyes.

He smiled back. "Hey Isa." That's the nickname he gave me.

"Do you ever wonder about this fence?" I asked.

He looked over at me. "All the time."

"Yeah, I'm gonna ask Ms. Garcia."

"She's not gonna tell you, trust me I've tried."

"Yeah, I know." The fence was eight feet high and surrounds the whole house. It's suspicious if you ask me. What are they trying to protect us from? Are we dangerous?

"Jayden, Isabella, it's time to come in!" Ms. Garcia yelled as she appeared at the door. Ms. Garcia isn't married, she's a short woman. She has dark brown hair and brown eyes.

"Awww, come on. We just got out here." I said. Man, she's a buzz kill.

"I know, but it's time for lunch." Ms, Garcia responded them walked back into the house.

"We're coming!" Jayden said.

We stood up and we both started walking towards the house. Once we got into the house we washed our hands, and joined everyone at the table. There are eight of us.

Then we have four maids. The maids do our cooking, cleaning, and other things for us.

Madison, Emily, Hannah, Samuel, Jackson, Ryan, Jayden, and me. Jayden shared a room Ryan, Hannah shared a room with Madison, and Samuel shared a room with Jackson. We ate lunch and finished it. At least the food was pretty good.

"Okay kids, it's time for your shots." Ms. Garcia said.

We all lined up for them. One by one Ms. Garcia give us a shot.

When I was younger I use to always ask why we got the shots, Ms. Garcia would tell us the shots are for vitamins, so they were good for us. But now that I am older, the whole vitamins thing doesn't make sense. It's not hurting us in anyway, but I do wonder the purpose behind it.

"Now you kids go up to your rooms and relax for two hours. I don't want to see any of you downstairs before that. I have a guest coming here for a meeting and I don't need any distractions, understood?" Ms. Garcia said.

We all nodded.

Telling us not to go downstairs for two hours, that sounds suspicious to me.

After that I went to my room to write in my journal.

I write about my day, sometimes I go back and read them. Emily came into the room also. She sat in her bed to read. I sat in my bed and wrote. Emily has blue eyes and blonde hair. She has really long hair that goes to her back.

The room was big enough to have two full beds, two night stands, and two desk with rolling chairs. We had one six drawer chest, and a closet with two doors. We also had a bathroom next door. Which I shared with Emily.

We had four bedrooms upstairs and four bathrooms. All of us children sleep upstairs. Ms. Garcia sleeps downstairs in the master bedroom. The maids sleep downstairs in their own rooms.

I finished writing in my journal than I decided to go downstairs. I put my journal in my night stand. I got up from the bed and headed to the door.

"Where you going?" Emily asked.

"Ms. Garcia said to not go downstairs for two hours. She obviously is hiding something and doesn't want us to find out what it is. So I'm going downstairs to investigate." I told her.

Emily looked interested in this. "No way am I letting you go alone. I'm coming with." She said as she got up from the bed.

"Sure. Just stay quiet."

"I will."

We headed downstairs. We heard Ms. Garcia talking to someone in her office so I listened. We could see them. The guy had dark brown hair and blue eyes. He had facial hair. He was wearing a suit. But they couldn't see us. She was dumb enough to leave her office door open.

"The fence is doing great keeping these kids in. But we need to do some upgrades. Like turning the fence into a metal gate. We can promise that the fence will keep the kids in still while we work on it. We'll keep the fence up, build the gate around the fence. So you have nothing to worry about Ms. Garcia." The man said.

Ms. Garcia nodded.

"The government is paying for it, so don't worry about costs. The government is trying to keep everyone safe from these kids. The fence keeps everyone safe from the kids, not the other way around. You're being paid ten thousand dollars a month. So keep doing your job by giving them shots to prevent them from using their power."

Emily and I went back upstairs, to process what we just learned. We walked into our room and closed the door behind us.

"That was a lot." I spoke.

"I know right. Especially the part about us having powers." Emily responded.

"I did not plan on staying here for the rest of my life. So is finding out about this, just motivated me to want to escape." I asked Emily.

"I agree. Don't get me wrong, this place is nice and all. But we gotta go explore the real world, outside of this house. If we don't leave soon, the government will upgrade the fence and we'll be trapped here forever." She told me.

"Yeah, that does sound bad. I can't wait till we escape, we can find out what powers we have once the shots wears off. I knew those shots weren't for vitamins." I replied.

"Yeah I agree, something about that wasn't adding up. Should we right letters to everyone about what we discovered and have a meeting?" She asked me.

"Sounds good." I replied.

I wrote a draft, after Emily agreed it was good. We wrote six more.

Dead reader,
This is Isabella. Emily and I discovered some news that we would like to share with you. The fence was built to keep us in because we have powers. The shots we get at lunch everyday prevent us from using our powers. We need to have a meeting asap and discuss if we're leaving this place or not.
Sincerely,
~Isabella and Emily.

"We will deliver them after dinner." I told Emily.

"Yeah." Emily agreed as she put the letters in her night stand and I did the same.

"Let go eat dinner, and please act normal."

"I can do that."

We walked to the dining and joined everyone for dinner. As I ate I began thinking. We never really leave the house. If we do leave we can only go into the front yard.

We are taught by private tutors. We can't go beyond the white fence. They deliver us food by truck. I wonder what's out there. We deserve to escape and be free. We deserve to discover our powers.

I wonder how we got these powers. I want to know the truth, the whole story. I want to know everything.

After dinner Emily and I delivered the letters. We told them to not let Ms. Garcia see them and that we would have a meeting tomorrow about this.

Berlin, Germany

Aiden

"Hi, I'm Aiden. I'll be your waiter for tonight. I'll start you guys off with drinks." I said to a couple.

"Will take a bottle of Chardonnay." The man said and I scribbled that down.

"I will be back with your bottle of Chardonnay." I nodded at them and went to the kitchen.

I worked at a fancy restaurant, just as a start until I get a better job. I rather get a job as an engineer, because that what I got my degree in, but the opportunity for that job hasn't showed up yet.

I bring the couple their wine and take their orders. Then I take the order to the kitchen so they can start working on it.

I serve other tables in my section in the meantime. I notice that the couple finished their wine.

"May I get you another bottle?" I asked.

The man nodded. "Can I ask you a question."

"Sure." I answered, wondering what he was going to ask me.

"Do you like how much you get paid working here?" That's an odd question.

I've only been working here for two weeks. It's better than nothing. "I do, but I feel that if we had solar panels installed that we could make a whole lot more as waiters. We get paid $7.25 an hour and the rest of our check comes from our tips. Why?"

"You stand out, you look like you don't belong here, like you could be spending your time doing something," he paused as if to find the perfect word. "Better. But you are good at your job, by the way."

He was right, I didn't realize that he was watching me.

"What are you offering?"

He told me that they're looking for smart people who like building things with technology, Engineers. Then he gave me his card. I had three days to think about it.

I finished my shift, the same guy who gave me his card also tipped me with a hundred dollar bill.

I went home and ordered Panda Express. I was in the mood for some fried rice and orange chicken. I looked at the card the man gave me.

Cosmosis; it read.

It was a tech company as he said. It had a phone number. He said I had three days to think about it. I was seriously considering this because being a waiter was boring.

Soon my food arrived and I dig in. This was needed, orange chicken is the bees knees.

Then I got ready for bed and drifted off to sleep. I hope this job is what I am looking for.

~Dominique