Chapter 1

I wake up. I'm on the bottom bunk of a bed. I think it is the one I saw the flash of me crying on.

"Shhh, she's awake." Whispers boy with a deep voice.

"What the hell happened?" A girl whispers, whiny. "We should take her to our advisers right now."

In my peripheral vision, I see the boy lift his hands up to his head "Oh my god. No, we can't let them know. We'll get kicked out."

I close my eyes from a deep headache. "Where-" I take in a long breath. "Where am I?" And breathe out. I feel so dizzy. My head pounds.

The boy takes my hand. "Luna, can you hear me?"

His startled eyes meet mine. Wide and full of worry. Hidden behind his calm face. His hair is brown and his face is pretty. Why is this boy I have never seen so worried about me? "Luna you're at our bunk. Listen, we just got home from the party you had a concussion, or I think. You're ok. This is all my fault I just thought-"

I shoot up. Letting go of his hand. "What's happening? Where's Haven and Taylor?" Then a blond boy comes in and a girl behind him.

The boy looks so concerned when he sees me. "Oh my god, Luna are you ok? Zyan, go get her some water." The blond boy asks.

The guy who held my hand, I guess his name is Zyan, sprints out of the room for water. And the whiny girl follows him. The boy who just walked in and sits right next to me on the bed and lays and hand on my forehead.

The girl who just came in with him with brown hair to her shoulders asks, "Luna you ok? You look terrible."

I didn't realize until now I was laying back down. I just feel so out of it. Like I'm not really even there. Looking around I finally put together that I must be in a hospital, but Ferris does not have a hospital. Oh no, something really bad must have happened for them to take me to another town to get treated. I put my hand over my face and when I lift it up I see a huge A taking up my wrist where the F used to be.

"Why is there an A?" I almost yell at the boy sitting on the bed. I'm assuming he is a nurse.

"What?" He looks at me confused.

"The A..." I look down at my wrist. I can't even form words.

"Luna where is your head?" The girl asks harshly. Crossing her arms looking me up and down.

I get worked up now and sit up again. Instantly regretting it because the headache comes stronger than ever.

"Where is Haven?" I say raising my voice. "Where am I?"

The boy and the girl next to him both look at me, speechless. Then they look at each other.

"Luna... we have been living here for a month."

32 days earlier...

Tap. tap tap. I always know it's time to get up when my room echoes the sound of pebbles flung at my window. Haven is downstairs expecting me. Slowly I get up. My bones ache, from being seated on our uncomfortable, cramped couch last night. My body craves to stay in bed, but I really never want to or should let Haven down. I open my window, trying to be quiet, but it screeches loudly from being at least 200 years old. My window faces out towards the street. The back of our house is at the gate of our town. Haven is in the road. He squints looking up because the sunrise is so vibrant.

"Give me a sec, Haven." I sigh, still grumbling on the inside about having to get up.

"Why? I've been up since 5 this morning," he announces loudly, purposely to alarm me. Then he raises his eyebrows, as the tips of his lips slip up. He is so much happier in the morning before everyone arises, before we remember how revolting our town is.

"I was watching the speeches. You would have known that if you watched it. It was part of school," I shoot back. A look of disappointment goes across his face as if I just pushed a little kid into the street, making me instantly regret my last comment.

"Lun, you actually think any of them would really care if you did your schoolwork." I don't know how to respond. I mean he's not wrong. "Go and wake up your sister," he changes the subject.

I attempt to silently enter Taylor's room. I go into a closed-in, tiny room, surrounded by gray and uneven walls. The second floor of our home has 3 bedrooms, just barely big enough for a bed and a dresser in each. Taylors and my dad's face the back of the house. We thought giving dad a room in the back where the bright sun didn't fry you awake would make him want to sleep at home more.

Even though I've gotten yelled at for not knocking before. I take another step on the cheap wood floors that have hundreds of creeks in them. They are dark and rusty. A lot of the time it feels like they are going to fall through.

To my surprise, Taylor is already up. "What took you so long, Luna?" she says jumping up, and of course she is already ready to go.

"Haven's downstairs, will you tell him I'll be down soon?"

Taylor hops down the stairs while replying, "Sure, don't take long or we will be stuck in the line." Then shuts the door a little too hard. I hear her and Haven greet each other. Taylor makes some snarky comments about me being the last one out the door again.

I shove a spare outfit in my bag and run my fingers through my thick hair that's as black as Taylor's heart. At least that's what Haven said jokingly a few times. I gasp a bit when my hair stops right after my collar bone. I forgot I cut it yesterday. Because it is short now it's free to topple in much bigger waves than before. I stuff my feet into my rubber black boots that go up to my knees. They are made to walk in mud, but they work for Ferris.

"What took you so long?" Haven says with a smile.

"Oh, can we just go already!" I grin changing the subject.

We start to stroll off down the gravel road, my boots crunch as I look at all the brown concrete houses. Every one exactly like the one next to it. All with the same layout. Most with graffiti on them. No, all with graffiti on them. All tore up. All with murky ash outsides. Even one of the many billboards is torn up. Dream big, work hard, and get into aleph. It reads. Now a couple of letters are missing.

"What did you think of the speeches last night?" Haven asks as I'm gazing down the road. The road is about 20 feet wide and all gray gravel throughout the whole town. It really wears down your feet when you're walking miles every day, but sooner or later you get used to it.

I dart my eyes to him, giving him a scold. He should know better. He shrugs with a smirk.

"Does it even matter what we think, Jess is going to win, she is making sure all six towns vote for her," Taylor says, a lot calmer than I thought she would. Her body is not calm though. She is stomping with her shoulders hunched over and fist clenched. I would think she was mad if this was not her normal disposition.

"Well, she did claim she wants to try to stop the drugs, fights, and try to clean up the other 5 towns" Haven adds, egging Taylor on.

My sister clenches her hands, "Of course has no interest in changing Aleph. And we all know she is just saying that to manipulate her way to the top. She's just saying what people wanna hear and once she is president she is going to go back and do a bunch of shady stuff. " She starts raising her voice "She doesn't really want what's best she just wants every other town to be as squeaky clean as-"

"There's no one there," I mutter, cutting her off. We all spurt for the entrance of the showers.

The showers are a semi-circle around the corner of town. Behind the showers are the woods. Then a gate that shows you are at the end of Ferris. The building was bright white. Well, was.

Haven goes through one half and me and my sister the other. We take our full 10 mins in the shower until it shuts off. It feels too exceptional the showers are only open on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Previously they were on all the time every day but people started partying and drinking there. So they had to shift the rules. This is the only spot in this town where they enforce the rules. Everywhere else there are rules. Like at school, do your work, don't skip, don't fight. But no one cares or listens... When we get out of the showers I always recognize how dirty I was before.

When I get out Taylor is toweling off her brown, smooth, straight hair. Which takes time because it stretches down to her stomach.

We go out through the back and see Haven. He is standing upright with a beam and his hands in his pocket. He has a very strong jawline also, but everything else on his face blends together, other than his smile, which no one could ever overlook. Haven is in black jeans and a gray shirt. I'm also wearing jeans, but mine are tighter, and my boots come up to my knees. There is a pitiful pond out in the back from where people have demolished the pipes that supply the shower and it has leaked. Haven starts to skip rocks, probably to have something to focus on, while my sister is ranting about something.

"I have to go. Dad will not do anything other than hide out in that bar all day or go to his 'friends' house." I nod faintly, even though this makes me really glad on the inside seeing her leave from her 20-minute rant. 

On the way to school, we walk past the mayor's house. If Taylor joins us she usually starts grunting and mumbling, people stop and stare because it looks like she's gone out of her mind. That's the real reason I'm glad she's leaving. But I'm relaxed in the grass, watching Haven. This is the only clean grass in this town. The only grass. The only mellow place. Our town is dirty, not poor. Although people do struggle to live sometimes. Most of the time it's because they brought that on themselves. People here are just reckless, don't think. They get in this cycle where our town is bad since they think it's bad they ruin it like no tomorrow.

My sister interrupts my thoughts. "Have to go, see you later Luna. You two have fun." She strides out. Looking like an elf next to Haven because he is so tall and to be fair she's pretty short. Haven comes and perches himself next to me. We look fixedly out into the tiny pond on a patch on grass. And the woods beyond them. The leaves are autumn leaves are a beautiful collage of brown, orange, and a few reds. It's beautiful. I tend to appreciate beauty especially since we have so little here.

We gaze at the pond then he turns, "She's a tough one."

"Who, Taylor?"

He smirks. "Yeah, where did you get your genes?"

"I'm tough like her," I say much more defensively than I mean to.

"I mean yeah, when it comes down to it, but you don't rant loudly every morning about how awful things are for you when they are just as bad for your little sister."

I shrug. "I don't mind it"

"Okay... sure" He raises his eyebrows at me. He knows this is not true. I break from his eyes.

"Different moms I guess" I sigh.

"What no way, really?" He takes his hand and makes a mind blow gesture. I roll my eyes and let out a puff of air. My whole life people have always been shocked to figure out we are related. Taylor is short and has a curvy figure. I am quite the opposite in figure tall and thin, but I also have big hips. We do have some similar facial features, pronounced jawlines, noses a little too long, and round eyes. But even our eyes are different. Hers are heavy brown. And my eyes are light blue.

"Are you watching the elections tonight?" He asks.

"Yeah, are you watching with me and Taylor, right?"

"Yep," he glances at his watch "We should go, school starts soon."

"Since when are you the one to be on time?" I say in a kidding tone but on the inside serious, because I know he has trouble sticking to any rule.

"Come on, Luna."

We arise and walk down the street. By now the shower had a line 3 blocks long, most people stopping by before work. We stop at a water fountain since this is our only chance to drink until after school. When you arrive at our school you can't even make out a single brick from the wall because there is an extraordinary amount of graffiti on the entrance. Our school is bulky, it ranges from grades 1-12. There is a front yard made up of complete dirt and a gate around the whole school about as tall as me. Haven and I have to split up. We are both 17, but I barely missed the cutoff so he is a grade above me. When you first walk in there are halls going to the left and right for high school students and a hall straight down for junior high and younger. Walking in instantly takes me out of my mind. Shuttering my mind with anxiety.

"See you after school right?" Haven turns to me. "I have an amazing plan!"

"Yeah, see you." I utter. He turns around and walks down the hall getting pats on the back and warm greetings. This is his world, not mine. I rush down the hall. I turn into a different person in school, keep my head down, mumble a few words only if necessary. I curve to my right into my classroom. I settle in a chair in the last row.

Hearing the footsteps of my teacher walk up to me, I lift my head. "Get up early for the showers today?" He whispers but he is standing so far the whisper is so loud he might as well just shouted it.

I have explained to him about the shower trips I do with Haven and Taylor. I nod. "Yeah, you?"

He laughs really loudly, "I have a newborn; you think I could leave the house without my wife on my back?!"

I know he doesn't mean it. "Well if you ever want you're invited." I half-smile.

He smiles back then suddenly looks at his watch, and he shuffles back up to his desk. I appreciate Dax (or at school Mr. Dion). He's one of the only two people who get me here.

Before school starts every day we stand to say our pledge of allegiance.

"If I work hard, dream big I can make it to Aleph.

No person is to low to work their way up,

I can do it, we can do it."

All lies.