A/N: This is my friend's story. I'm just posting it for him and the editor.


Prologue
Have you ever left a watch on too long? Has it started to irritate your skin, making you itch and pull at it, annoying enough to make you pull it off? That's how everyone under 10 felt, but eventually people would get used to the feeling, especially when it's a part of you. Everyone was born with it, no exceptions, what was it? A clock; or more specifically, a countdown. A countdown to the best day of your life, the one you will tell your kids when you are old; a countdown, to when you meet your soulmate. Pretty corny, everyone thinks; until you meet them that is. You are captivated by them; they may not always be attractive, but they are destined for you, and you are destined for them. They are like the sun in a way that you can't live without them; you may not think this is possible, you may be a skeptical; until it hits zero.

30 Days to Go
I nervously scratched at my wrist, the area around my 'wrist mate' as everyone called it, a term which was coined by the man who discovered its use; was itching profusely, more so than usual. Everyone else's had stopped years ago, but not mine; mine felt uncomfortable, actually, uncomfortable is an understatement, it felt like it wasn't meant to be there, like it wasn't mine. It looked ridiculous, I thought, it was a 5 centimetre rectangle with rounded off corners. The screen wasn't very pixelated at all, making it hard to read in the daylight; and to top it off, it was a sickly greenish colour. As has been for all of humanity, your 'wrist mate' comes out with your preferences, even before you know they're your preferences; such as the colour. The colour would be your favourite colour, the numbers would be in your favourite font, but the size and shape stayed the same for everyone. Mine was wrong, to say in the least; the colour, a sickly green, was not my favourite, in fact I hated it. I liked red, but the stupid thing decided to be green. This wasn't so bad, but it just drew the line when the numbers counted down in comic sans, which I loathed with all my soul. My friends and family said I'd grow to like it, and that everyone does; but that was 7 years ago, when I was ten. Today, with only thirty two days until my birthday, my opinion of the stupid thing has not changed; it's still the boring, annoying, and just plain stupid looking thing it's been forever.

People have had them since the dawn of the human era, but about 20 years ago in the late nineteen hundreds, doctors had tried to remove the 'wrist mate' surgically, but to no avail. It was connected via a main artery. The blood pumping would keep it working. It was make from skin and bone, but was still electronic. Disconnecting the wrist mate would sever the artery, and you would quickly bleed to death; you couldn't even replace the damaged tissue as the area around it does not heal from damage very well. It's very susceptible to long term injuries; which is why so many people have opted to have surgery to enhance the strength of their 'wrist mate'. Dating, was one of the things only people who have found their soulmates can do; if you haven't, dating is considered against the law, as is not being with your soulmate; although this has never been a problem, as everyone has loved their soulmate, as comes the name 'soulmate'. There was once, a man, who did not marry his soulmate. He was put on trial and executed; seems a bit harsh, I thought, but think of what it would do to society to have a person who is not bound by their 'wrist mate' and can be with whomever they please, destroying others possibility of having a soulmate, this idea was more than frowned upon, to say in the least. Many rebellions were formed recently and a long time ago, with whole armies of people defying the 'wrist mates' control. Each rebellion and everyone in it was severly punished by either being executed or sent to a rehabilitation clinic by the govournment.

Death wasn't an issue in relation to the 'wrist mate's, as if you died by accident, your clock would stop and your would-be soulmate's would reset to another, as you have more than one soulmate in the world, as is common knowledge; the countdown just shows you your most compatible one. If you choose to never look at the countdown, by either painting over it or using another method, you will still know who it is when you meet them, they will stand out. It will be so obvious to you and them, even if you both didn't plan it. it was, as many people say, set in stone; I was one of the sceptics of the world, having a set fate didn't really appeal to me.

My life is fairly average, if I do say so myself; browning street never really sees and excitement, except for the occasional persons countdown finishing. It was an old street, with only a few houses lining the sides; it was closed off from any main roads so it was mostly quiet. All the houses were the same build but different colours, ours was dark green. My family only just moved to here last week, we left as my mum took a new job in a different city, but so far it hasn't been great, school starts in a few days and I have been dreading it for the whole week; starting at a new school was never good, especially halfway through the year in high school. You don t know anyone, you're seen as the new kid with no friends, you have to catch up on what's been done and it's just chaos. I went there on the weekend to get to know my way around, and it looks like a nice school; fairly new, some buildings made of bricks and some of wood. My classrooms were on the top floor of a building, many flights of stairs awaited me this year, I could tell. The rooms were fairly large, in comparison to my old ones; the size of the school was also notable. It stretched over several blocks. It intimidated me slightly, but I couldn't let the size of a school stop me from having a great experience there, which I was hoping for.


A/N: Okay, yay First chapter's up and runny. Please R&R 3 :3