The Azuli, Cassidy Shay [books to read now .txt] 📗

much. The main thing that I do remember is that I drew Memories of slaves, which were the only things that I could think about. I didn’t taste my meals, just ate while I looked into space, completely unaware of my surroundings and trying to make sense of things.
Macy, Jack, and Carl all had to shake me several times to get my attention. “Jeez, Penny,” said Carl. “You’re really taking this hard. Are you going to be alright?”
“Of course she will,” said Jack, draping his arm over my shoulders. “She’s my sisters. Got the same genes as me. She can get through anything.” I couldn’t help but notice the doubt in his voice. “She’s just having a hard time adjusting to the new situation, that’s all.”
I just gave a week smile, said that I was fine. I tried to pay attention to the rest of the conversation, but I zoned in and out at random times. Always, my thoughts wandered back to slaves.
During lunch on the second day, I even threw up because I thought of being bred. They evacuated the entire cafeteria, and I was forced to endure the angry looks from everyone. The food was disgusting, yes, but it was the only source of energy, and the Azuli enjoyed their small amounts of freedom in the cafeteria.
On the third day, when I checked the schedule to see which DarkRoom I’d been assigned to for the day, I felt tears in my eyes. Instead of drawing a Memory, I’d be going to B5, Section C for a meeting.
Section C of room B5 was set aside for group punishments or, in our case, group meetings. When I walked in, there were three tables, a desk up front, and a man writing on the white board.
The room was pretty dark, and a strange smell swam in the air and up my nose, almost making me sneeze. It was also humid in the room, but I wasn’t sure why. I felt the hair on my arm raise, and I found it hard to breathe once I was all the way in. I sat down at one of the tables and waited for everyone to arrive. Jack and Carl came in together, then two girls I didn’t know, followed by another boy.
“Alright,” the man said, finally turning around and giving us a good look at him. He was balding, just like almost all the other scientists and doctors at the Academy. His hair was brown, but it didn’t look natural. He had a mustache that was also an unnatural shade of brown, although it wasn’t the same shade as his hair. His eyebrows were small and thin while his eyes were big and round, taking up a good portion of his face. His round glasses covered up even more of it, leaving only the bottom half of his face uncovered. His forehead was small, so small that his eyebrows almost touched his hair line. His lips were small and thin, and his teeth, when he showed them, were a little bit pointy. His lab coat was covered in stains of various shapes, sizes, and colors, and his shirt under the coat seemed to be decorated in a similar way.
“I need everyone to stand up, please,” he continued, even though I was the only one sitting down. After I stood up, he had us all sit at our assigned tables with the person we’d be going through the experiment with.
I was sitting next to Carl, Jack was sitting next to the girl with blond hair, who was named Mary. The other two, named Ben and Catherine, were sitting at the third table.
“Let’s begin. First of all, we are going to discuss a bit that you don’t know about. You have been assigned to that other person for a reason. We’ve been studying you guys, and we believe that you will get along with that person very well. This is important because you will also be getting married to this person.”
Everyone looked around the room, not quite sure how to react. “Wait,” I finally said. “Why bother? You can make us do this anyway. It’s already morally wrong. What are you trying to prove by actually marrying us?”
Jack glared at me, making it clear that he thought I was making things worse. I thought the same thing, but I wasn’t just going to sit back and be confused about why they were doing all this. Also, I didn’t know how things could get much worse than what they were, so I ignored the look he gave me.
“Publicity,” said the doctor. With his high voice, it sounded pretty funny, something that I would have laughed at under normal circumstances. “You see, Miss Azul…”
“Miss Miller, actually,” I corrected him. I got another kick under the table, but again, I ignored it.
“Excuse me?” he said in what I’m sure he considered to be an intimidating tone. In reality, because of his high, nasally voice, it made me want to laugh.
“I already explained this to the other guy. My name is Penny Miller. Never has been and never will be Azul.” I locked eyes with him the whole time, and I could see him tense up.
I could tell that he wouldn’t cave as easily as the other one did. While the other one just wanted to get through the meeting, I knew that this new doctor would be persistent, until he showed me who was in charge. I knew it would be a long meeting if I didn’t cave soon, but I couldn’t give up. I knew that if I never tried, I’d be stuck with that God-awful name until they terminated my stay on Earth at age 75.
“I was told about you,” he said. “Watson went on and on about how annoying you’d been, and how you’d acted like you were too good for this experiment, for this academy. Well, let me tell you something, Miss Azul. Your attitude the other day earned you and your husband-to-be an extra three years in this experiment. Everyone else gets two years. You get five.” His face was getting red, and a small vein in his temple was throbbing.
The room was silent until he continued with what he had been saying before my interruption. “The people have started to question the Academy. They get no letters from their children, only grade reports- made up, of course- that we send to them twice a year. Other than that, they have no idea about what goes on in here. Those stop when you turn twenty, and there is absolutely nothing that you or your parents can do to communicate after that.
“So, we thought we’d have a little public viewing so as to keep their worries and concerns at bay. For the next two weeks, we have hired contractors to make sure everything looks like an excellent boarding school. For example, making the barred parts of the doors unseen. Changing the DarkRooms to classrooms. Things like that.
“This is all temporary, remember, until after the weddings. We will announce to the public that the Azuli Academy has been granted permission from Maddox Warrington to allow the students here to marry.
“We will then present the three couples from each floor, and then we will announce that the parents of these students may tour the school and come to the wedding. When babies are born, announcements will go out to parents. Anything past that, we will discuss later.
“This operation is to quiet the complaints and questions that have been appearing all over the New World. Your parents will come in, see that all is as expected, and share the news with their friends and neighbors, who will share with their friends and neighbors, and so on. Parts of the tours will also be televised, so no one will wonder anymore. About once every two years, we will repeat this process so that no one wonders why there weren’t other sets of weddings.” It was silent as we all soaked in the news.
“Let me get this straight,” I said, and ignored the death glares from everyone and the kick under the table. “We breed like animals for a stupid science experiment for you, right?” He nodded, but I didn’t give a chance to say anything. “As if that isn’t bad enough, we will be forced to make vows to someone, saying that we will love and cherish each other and all that other wedding stuff. We also have to lie to our parents about how in love we are, and about how wonderful it is here, all to save your sorry asses and keep people like us locked up here for hundreds of years after we die?”
He had been looking at the ground while I was going off, but when I was done, he looked at me. With a thin smile on his lips, he said, “Precisely.” With that, he turned and walked out of the room.
A woman came in then, and sat on the desk at the front. When she came in and the man walked out, it immediately became easier to breathe. The strange odor was also gone, as was the humidity.
She had her brown hair tied back in a ponytail at the base of her neck, with her long bangs parted down the middle. Her eyes were a very pretty green, and her skin was pale, but it was sprinkled with a few freckles. Her lips were plump and red, and her nose was pointed. Her lab coat was spotless, almost as if it were brand new. I knew this wasn’t the case, though, because the collar and the ends of the sleeves were frayed. She wore a light blue shirt under the coat, and it had a pattern on it that I couldn’t quite see. Her fingernails had been bitten down as far as she could get, and they had chipped polish on them.
“Well. It’s nice to see younger couples here. On Floor Two there’s a couple well past the age of bearing children. I don’t know what the board was thinking with those two.” She had a smile on her face, but after being glared at by six teenagers, it soon vanished.
“I’m Dr. Pender, and I will be dealing mainly with the health side of things. I want you to all know that I’m not a scientist, and I personally think that this is all a mistake. I don’t think that forcing people to be married and have children is right. But I was selected to make sure you remain healthy. And after babies are conceived and born, I will also be in charge of their health.
“But right now,” she continued, the smile back in place, “we are going to talk about timing. You have two weeks before the announcement. Then there will be three weeks before your parents visit, and then a week before the wedding where you will be spending time with your parents and your soon-to-be spouse. Finally, there will be a month after the weddings to make sure you guys are all comfortable living together. There will be several meetings during this time, so if you have any problems, you will be able to voice them.”
She continued with something about after the required time, but I wasn’t listening. I was thinking about the time we had left. Two and a half months wasn’t a lot of time, but it was enough for me to get a plan together. I was determined to leave, whether or not anyone wanted to follow me.
That’s exactly what I was telling my group of friends a couple hours later at lunch.