Life Designed (Life Plan Series Book 1), Eliza Taye [great novels .TXT] 📗

the top floor, Opal. Nice!” praised her dad. “You’ll get a really nice view.”

“Yeah, until there’s a fire drill or power outage and I have to go down eight flights of stairs,” mumbled Opal.

Her mother laughed. “Aw, Opal, don’t think that way. Be positive about it. The power rarely goes out here.”

Even though power failures in Galaxcion were rare, Opal didn’t like the idea of having to descend eight flights of stairs in a fire drill or real emergency either.

“Gabrielle, help us carry Opal’s bags up to her room,” ordered Mr. Carneth.

“Sure thing, Dad.” Gabrielle took the bag her dad proffered.

Between the four of them, they found the elevator and then Opal’s dorm room. The attendant on her floor signed her in and gave her the room key.

Opal’s family crowded around her as she placed the key into the keyhole and turned. The door opened into a bright, airy private room with a nice-size bed with purple sheets, a desk off to the righthand side of the room with a tall full-sized bookshelf to the right of the desk. To the left of the room was a sitting area along with a small kitchenette sporting a fridge and countertop for preparing food. Two doors broke the solid line of the featureless left-hand wall. The first door was propped open revealing a bathroom, while the other closed door, Opal assumed to be her closet.

“This is much better than where I went to college,” observed her dad.

“I know, tell me about it.” Holly inspected the contents of her daughter’s new room, her eyebrows raised. “They must think very highly of their law students.”

“Oh, Mom, Dad, it couldn’t have been that bad when you were in college.” Opal set the bag with her clothes on the bed.

“Uh, yeah, it could be. I didn’t have my own private bathroom,” countered her dad.

“And I didn’t have a fridge or full-sized bookshelf in my room,” added her mom.

“I’m actually excited to go to college now! Maybe I’ll be a lawyer like you, Opal.” Gabrielle beamed brightly at her.

Shaking her head, Opal replied, “No, Gabrielle, you be what you want to be. Don’t follow in my footsteps just because my dorm room is cool.”

“Ah, ha! So, you do admit it,” her dad pointed at her with a big grin.

Opal shook her head with a small smile. “Do you guys want to help me unpack or just keep checking out my room?”

With her family’s help, Opal was unpacked with everything put away in less than an hour. The family stood in the center of the room, satisfied with themselves. Now the only problem that remained was saying their goodbyes.

Her parents swooped in at the same time and gave Opal a huge bearhug. “We’ll miss you so much, Opal,” her mom said.

“Be good and study hard. Don’t let anything get in your way,” advised her dad.

“I won’t. I’ll study and be good like always.” Opal hugged them back just as tight.

When it was Gabrielle’s turn, Opal turned to see her eyes were filled with tears. One fell from her left eye and cascaded down her face as she blinked to hold the others back. “I’m going to miss you more than either of them!” Gabrielle threw herself into Opal’s open arms.

“Aw, Gabby, I’m going to miss you too.” Opal hugged her sister back tightly, smoothing down her hair. “You can call me every day if you want to.”

“Uh, Opal...” began her dad.

“You promise?” Gabrielle asked through tears.

“Opal, it’s going to be hard to stay on top of your studies if you spend an hour a day talking to Gabrielle,” warned her mom.

“It’s okay, Mom. I can do both.” Pulling back from her embrace, Opal stared into Gabrielle’s eyes. “I promise. You can call me every single day if you’d like. Just make sure it’s after 8pm so I’m not in class.”

“Okay!” Gabrielle sniffled once and forced a smile.

“We’d better get going. We don’t want to keep you up too late,” joked her dad.

“Ha, ha, ha, a morning bird joke, so funny.” Opal narrowed her eyes at him.

“That is true, Alan. Now we’ll have a household full of night owls. What should we do to celebrate?”

“Have an all-night, party!” replied Mr. Carneth, attempting to do a short dance.

Opal shook her head at her family. “All right, you guys. Out, out, out.”

“Aw, no slumber party on your first night?” joked her mom.

“No, bye guys.” Opal closed the door on her family, all four of them laughing.

As Opal changed into her pajamas, she wondered how Garrett’s first night in his new home was going.

“The reason I chose to become one of the Undecided was because I never knew what I wanted to do; what I wanted to be. More than coming to the Undecided sector of the city, I was afraid of being stuck in a Life Plan I truly didn’t want. I didn’t want to be miserable for my entire life, April.”

“And so you chose this?” April gestured to the room around him.

Garrett lowered his eyes. “Yes, I know in hindsight it seems pretty stupid, but at least I have the freedom to live out my life on my own terms—or at least that’s what I thought I would have.”

“Well, you don’t, Garrett, that’s for sure. You don’t have the option to live the life you want. We are assigned the worst jobs, have the worst housing, and the worst lives. Did I ever tell you my mother was born a Decided?”

Garrett raised his gaze to April’s in shock. “No, you didn’t.”

“Well, she was. My mother’s Life Plan was rejected due to a few technicalities, so she’s had to live her whole life here. I’ve seen pictures of her when she was young before