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Money can't buy you time, can it?
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Or, what if it could?
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Would you buy time, but instead with money, you buy time with memories?
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Would you do it?
Amanda//: 1
"Can you believe what was on the news last night?!" I yell, over the screaming noises of the cafeteria.
"What was it?!" Katelynn yells back.
"You didn't hear?!" I yell, stunned.
"They government is changing our currency!!" "That's it? So what is we use euros of yens, who cares!?" "No, not euros, yens, or whatever you said, he's making us use our memories!" "I don't understand!" "The government wants three girls and three boys from a random school district in a random state, with a random age, and he wants us to test the machines!" I was scared, what if it's me? "What the heck, out of the entire country, I'll give $50 if they choose us!" "$100?" "Sure, you're giving me $100 if they don't choose us. That is how much I believe it won't be us." She said as she shifted her books to the other side of her as we look for a seat to eat our lunch.
"It could be us, and we have an assembly today, after, um, lunch, and we're skipping free period!" "Aw, that ain't fair, it's our free time, we get to do whatever we want, I'm skipping it!" "It's a priority from the president!" We sat down and I bit into my egg salad sandwich. "Stupid laws!" She said and rolled her eyes. She flipped her pasta in her thermos and the sauce flew everywhere. "Stop!" She stops.
"The chances of it being us is, one out of infinity!" She says as we sit in a seat for the assembly. Mrs. Povada rolls a laptop on top of a cart onto the middle of the stage. And the large screen flies down from the ceiling. She taps the space bar on the laptop and an old fashioned count down pops up on the big screen. Ten, nine, eight, seven, Katelynn groans, six, five, four, three, my heart beats, hard and loud, two, ONE!
A guy in a black suit, wearing a thick, dark black glasses, pops up on the big screen, he looks like he's Will Smith in Men in Black, but his hair is a lot longer and wetter looking. "Hello children of The United States of America!" He sounded like a bad guy, "I have some exciting news," he didn't look excited, " I will choose three little girls, and three little boys from this little box!" He talked to us like we were babies and the box was not little it was huge, two of himself could stand up in it and still have a lot of room! "This box has the name of every single boy and girl in the country that are under the age of 18 and older than 8!" That could be me or Katelynn. "$200 if we are both chosen!" Katelynn whisper to me.
He jumps into the box and I hear a lot of shuffling and throwing of paper, and then his head flies up and out of the box and he is suddenly standing there again flicking off some extra pieces of paper and I read some names of those unneeded papers, James Harthrow, Karren Dunikins, Charles Finkin.
He’s holding six pieces of paper and her counts them, “So, little girls and boys, I will name six little kids and they’re randomized by school district, state, town, city, age, grade, it’s all random,” He starts to read the names, “ Baron Kings, Cameron Caiden, Sami Kells, Jonathan Crains,” He pauses and reads a name slowly, “Katelynn Rose Edwards, and last but not least Amanda Catherine Moon,” He pauses again and everyone in the cafeteria’s head swivels around and they all stare at us. My jaw drops and I nearly pass out, I start to sweat and panic, “ You- the people I read the names of- will report to Washington D.C. by tomorrow at 3:30, and you will take a plane from the airport located in your state’s capital, see you tomorrow.” The big screen goes black, and I stop breathing and my heart beat slows, I faint…
I wake up in the Nurse’s Office and she’s holding an ice pack upon my head. I groan and I see Katelynn is standing next to the nurse, “Is she okay?” Katelynn asks. “She’s fi-” “I’m fine!” I groan. Holly is paler as anything. “It’s fine!” I say. I stand up and leave the office after I say thank you to the nurse, “No problem,” She replies. I stop Katelynn in the hallways and say, “We get to leave school to pack early?” “Yeah, we need to leave now!” We raced up the stairs, eager to get to leave the school. I sat in the classroom waiting to tell the teacher we were leaving now. I chewed on my nails, completely forgetting about the $200, Katelynn owed me. Katelynn sat next to me and she pulled out her wallet and she ruffled through the dollar bills. "What was I doing with my wallet?" She asked herself. She shoved her wallet into her back pocket.
The teacher commands us to leave. We pack our bags and leave. "Good-bye girls!" The teacher yells to us through the hallway, "We will put a plaque with your names on it to honor you, " she tears up, "You were outstanding students, great at science and, and everything, don't die out there! Don't die, for me and your friends!" She huddle the other students into the classroom.
After we wait for the bus to pick, only us, up, I say, "Die? We have other friends besides us? What does she mean?" "She's a teacher, remember? Teachers think every student there, are all friends!'' "Yeah! But die?" "Maybe she knows something we don't!" She stares ahead, "Maybe she doesn't know, we don't know, maybe we will!" I shove her and we both laugh.
The bus pulls in and the doors swing open. "Come on in ladies!" Says a kind looking bus driver. We hop in and the bus speeds off to my house. We sit in silence, the bus driver turns on music, and then shuts it, seeing we don't enjoy it. We get off, thank the bus driver and run into our houses.
Katelynn//: 2
We were chosen for something government official.
Scary. It just scares me to have to do something that the whole country depends on me to do. I run up my stairs, and I slam my bedroom door shut behind me. “Honey? Are you home? Why so early?” I hear my mom say, she taps lightly on my door, I burst out into tears. My mom slides the door open and slowly walks in, “Do you want to tell me what going on?” I look up at her with puffy eyes as I choke out, “Did you watch the new last night?” She gasps in panic, “It wasn’t you was it?!” I nod, slowly but surely. I cry some more, she throws herself down on my bed and she hugs me hard and tight. “Just remember, I always loved you!” She whispers into my ear.
We hug and cry for a little while. “Mom?” “Yes, Katelynn?” “Ms. Hankin said, ‘Don’t die, for me, for your friends,’ what does that mean?” Her face goes pale and she has a tight, sour, grim expression on. I want ask, ‘What is going on?,’ but she seems like she has too many things to tell me. “The.. the govern.. government, has.. declared that, tha… that at least, four of the six american children will… will… will…” She chokes on her words, and cries in between, “Will, d, d…” She causes a dramatic pause. “Die!!!” She lets the words sink in to my mind, they burn into my skull.
Brave, I thought, be brave.
“Not if I can help it!” I yell, a shaky, scared edge to my voice.
My mother slides her hand to my cheek, “Just don’t let be you! Or, or Amanda, or-” “Or anyone else!” I scream. I pull myself away, in anger and disgust. I run into my bathroom and lock the door and flick on the light, waiting for my mother to leave my room. She does, two minutes later. I open the bathroom door and lock my bedroom’s door. I slide down and sit, my back against the door.
I sigh and stand. I run over to my closet, ‘what should I bring?’ I think. I grab my short white dress, I shove it into my black suitcase, I grab my iPhone, 1-(949)-439-7660, “Amanda?” “Yup!” She sounds happy. “Do you know what might happen to us?” I ask her, “Yeah!” She sounds happy, still. “Never mind, anyways, what are you wearing to opening night?” “Kakis!” I snort-laugh, “Really!?” “No!!” She laughs back. “I’m wearing my black dress, you have the same one, in white!” “That’s what I’m wearing too, not yours, my white one!” “Awesome! Kay, bye!” “Bye!” Dead air on the other end. She hung up. I grab two white tee shirts and two black ones.
"Katty-Lynn?" Uh! Mom. "Kate? Fine, give me the silent treatment, we'll, I made some white chocolate cocoanut cookies for you! I'll leave them here in front of your door with some hot cocoa, oh and I bought you some other things too, just for you!" I hear her place a plate on the wood floor and I hear her heels clatter down the stairs. I swing open the door. The smell of the drink and the cookies fill my nose, I can't resist it. I grab everything she left for me and I lock the door again. I devour three cookies and leave the rest for after packing. I sip the cocoa slowly, rich and creamy. I smile and plop on my bed. The furry quilt surrounds me. I'm gonna miss it. My smile disappears. I keep packing.
Forget the pain.
Amanda//: 3
Katelynn called, I pretended to be happy. I'm actually the saddest person on the planet. I might die. I hope no one does. I hope this is a lawful practical joke, 'cause if it is, they totally got me. I tries to take a nap, but Katelynn called. I think she fell for my happiness, blring, blring, blring! My phone is ringing, again! Blring! "Hello?" I answer. "Hi!" "Um, may I ask who this is?" "Yes." "Well who is it?" "Oh, sorry. My name Maldon Kip!" "And who are you exactly?" "I am the government's assigned comfronter. I am here to comfort you before your arrival to the Capitol." "Uhm? Sure, I guess that makes sense!" Weird.
"Well, are you feeling comfortable about this, this whole experiment thing?" "No," I say right away. "Eh, well, what's there to be 'fraid of, a little tiny, thingy-ma-bob!" "It's not a thingy-ma-bob! At least four innocent American children citizens will be killed!! The country will be furious and they will not vote anymore, I'm leaving the country!!!!" I scream into the phone, I hang up right away. I slam my phone down against the nightstand near my bed and I jump into my bed and throw my fleece blanket over me. I cry a little, who cares, I don’t. I sleep lightly for an hour or so.
I wake up with a start, 6:38pm. I read on my clock. Oh, I sigh. What I don’t understand is when I turn on my phone I have thirty-nine missed calls all from Maldon Kip, I hate her right now. I call Katelynn, “Katelynn, sup! What’re you doin’!?” I ask, “Nothing, just thinking about tomorrow!” “Me too,” I hear her mother’s cookies being chewed in her mouth. “Eating the cookies, eh?!” “Yeah!” “Share?” “Yeah, share!” I open my window and I hang up on my phone, we always chat from our windows, so fun! "Well, I don't know what to really talk about, you got any ideas?" She asks."Yeah, wanna go to the mall!?" "Sure! Cookie?" She extends her arm which is holding two of her mom's famous white chocolate and coconut cookies. I grab them and I roll my eyes, in a duh formation, I make a face which means, duh, of course I what your mom's awesome cookies! We eat the cookies in harmony, so good! We jump off our windowsills and grab our phone case wallets, and we meet on my front porch. We walk to the mall, it's right down the street.
We stop in front of a dress store in the mall, I see the most beautiful dress ever! It's a short, tight dress that in all the colors of the sunset, dark fh types of purples. So beautiful. "I need to get it!!" I yell. We walk into the store and we find my size. It fits and looks beautiful. I buy it, what a blow of my cash,$156! But it pays off, I'm gonna wear it to the opening night.
