Makayla Campbell, “Perfection”

PERFECTION

Makayla Campbell

This all started in Elysium, and it used to be a place where everyone got along, and nobody had drugs all in their systems. Just imagine Manhattan with a very big panel; every day is someone’s birthday. They didn’t have the need to have to pick their occupations at 12 years old. Well, I´m Wynter; and don’t mind the name, my parents just had to be different, okay? See, what’s so easy about me is that I don’t really like the way that I’m living. I always had that desire to leave Elysium. I never liked that whole “every day is a party” thing. I always thought it was weird and there was something sketchy going on. Every day can’t be an amazing day. I’m only eleven years old and the whole government has come to me to choose, so today is my choose day, and here nobody shares a birthday. Once someone is born on that day, that is their day. Once everyone turns 12, at noon they must pick their profession. You have to choose between a doctor, a NICU nurse, a chef , a florist, a teacher, and an engineer. And if you don’t like those choices, you have to leave. So, it’s a pretty hard choice that I have to endure. I had to do what I had to do. If running away was wrong, I really don’t wanna be right. But let me show you where the story has started; then you will believe that what I did was really the best choice. I woke up to my mother with blueberry pancakes, bacon, sausage, the smell of coffee, and creamer that had just spilled. The smart house we live in had just alerted us that it was 8:30 AM, and it was time to get in the shower and get dressed. My mom kindly wished me “Happy Birthday” and asked which profession. “Are you gonna be a chef like me or a teacher like your dad?” As I sat at the table to eat my breakfast, I kindly said, “I don’t know mom, I think that I need more time. I still wanna be a kid, I want to play on a swing and fall on the monkey bars and smell random things.”

She replied, “I know honey but today is your birthday and it’s time for you to choose your destiny. Time for you to put on your big girl pants.” As I finished up eating, my mother kindly tapped me on my shoulder and said, “You need to go to Calista’s house,” and as I snatcedh my coat off the hook and opened the door, the crisp wind hit me, and I tightly buckled up my jacket. My mother said, “No pressure,” and I let the force field open over the house as I stepped out onto the oncoming world. As I walked down Sterling Street, I saw my name and my picture from 3rd grade. I thought, Why can’t they just update that picture? As I went up the stairs to Calista’s house, I saw her coloring her hair as her mother called the house. Her whole smart house started glitching because her mom locked the whole house down. As Calista turned around from the chair in her bathroom, she explained to me how her mom doesn’t understand her. We walk down the stairs as she says we should run away. We saw drones fly through the sky and, as they scanned away chanting, “We are looking for the birthday girl,” as we walked out of the house. I walked out and said, “I’m right here.” As the words flew out of my mouth, a big and tall car came out of the blue, shined the light in our eyes, and yelled from the distance, “Get in girls.” When we stepped in the car, it simply floated up. As I got cozy in my seat, a big man with very muscular facial features asked me, “Are you Wynter?’’ I simply said, “Yes,” as he pulled up an iPad and zoomed towards city court. We sat in the car and two big men on the opposite sides of me and Alex asked, “Are you Wynter Joy Williams and Calista Renee Brown?”

As we answered “Yes,” they tapped the glass that separates the car from the driver. He got passed a blue clip board that clearly said in big script letters: “Happy Birthday Wynter, You are about to arrive at city court, and then go up to the 115th floor and go to the left and down the hall, then come to my office. We will further discuss things then. Sincerely, The Midnight Council.” As I felt the stamp, I felt us pull up to the city, and all I saw was a flashing light and a hard thump. We were there on the launchpad. As we were being walked through the building, the secretary asked where we were going as we only realized that the security wasn’t behind us anymore. We walked up to the secretary’s desk, and she asked security to send us out. “This is a place of business. You may not play here.” As we were walking towards the exit after they kicked us out, we heard a very loud disruption. As the security officer raised his arm to let us out, a very tall slender woman came down the glass stairs out a door that had some coming out of it. As she ran down the stairs, yelling, “Let go of them at this once! This is Wynter and Calista, I’ve heard so much about you.” As we both gave her a very weird smile, and Calista being the outspoken one of us two, she said, “Who are you?” The woman said, “I’m Mrs. Adams, the Midnight Council’s wife. Well I’ll let you in on a little secret. His real name is Vincent Icarus, also known as Midnight.” As she was walking us towards the elevator, she lifted her hand to press the button, and she smelled like pure lavender and roses. While we were in the elevator, I asked a rather stupid question that got me very good answers: “Does this elevator take you all the way up 115 floors?” “Why, yes it does. It goes all the way up, and we don’t have stairs.” She spoke with an accent. As the elevator dinged, I felt a sense of tense energy coming from the office, as I saw smoke coming from the room on the left. It had certainly reminded me of the smoking caterpillar

from Alice In Wonderland as we had walked in the room. We saw a big tall man with another big tall man who smelled like watermelon, and his room brought tears to my eyes as Calista and I awkwardly stood there while he pulled the hookah out of his mouth. He asked if we smoked and I said, “No.” Calista tried to run around the table. I grabbed her arm and said, “You are not smoking with him!” frantically. She quietly sat down in the chairs that he had pointed down to sit in and pouted. As I sat down, he said, “Happy Birthday,” and slid a big orange box over towards me. I stood up to open the box, and a certain knock came at the door. Mr. Midnight said in a quite annoyed tone, “Who is it?” We heard heels clicking and knew that it was Mrs. Adams. She quietly said, “It’s me,” and came in the door. She had sat down at the big table and said, ‘‘Oh, Wynter, you have a couple more gifts. I can take you to the present room after you open this big one.’’ As I got even more anxious, I stood up again and ripped open the box. My heart ached as I saw a long sandpaper like paper with my name in huge letters as I looked back . . . To be continued . . .

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