Hey guys, so this is an original idea I had. I really hope you guys like it, I just need some feedback for sure to know if I should continue writing it. It's also on my fictionpress where I'm also sydthekidhollis. Let me know if you like it, I need honest opinions!
Chapter 1: Tetra
Yesterday was just like the day before. Today will be just like yesterday. Tomorrow will be just like today. Your life almost never changes on Tetra Island. The first 5 years of your life, your parents teach you the ways of the island. They tell you what's right, what's wrong, and how to follow the laws of the government. It may seem like a lot to teach to a toddler, but nothing is really all that easy here. After that, you move on to school for 13 years. School is 6 days a week, from 7 to 11 in the morning. We have five classes each day. Math, Island History, English, Science, and Job Study. The teachers tell us Job Study is the most important class, because it teaches you how to do every job on the island. When you turn 18, you finally get out of school... Only to get a job. The government assigns you a job where help is most needed on the island. If you're lucky, you'll get a job that's actually above ground. Our island is named "Tetra" after a scientific prefix actually. In this prefix, "Tetra" means 4, which represents the 4 levels you can work. Level 1 is the only level of work that's above ground. Shop workers, fisherman, teachers, maids, bus drivers, farmers and more all work on this level. If you work on levels 2 through 4, you're pretty much a factory worker. You make everything and anything the people need on the island. Level 2-4 are the jobs people hate most. But we need those jobs for all the people we have. Our island is a very busy one, with about a half million people. This also means everyone is very close together. Very packed in small, crowded neighborhoods. On the highest mountain in the center of the island, lies Rulers Palace. This is where any and all government decisions are made. How many kids a family can have, what a citizen's job will be, where their house will be located... Our laws are very strict here. Considering it's the only land left in the world, they probably should be. Centuries ago, there was a huge disaster to the world. The Earth used to have these things called continents, sort of like huge islands. Somehow, these continents were drowned by the ocean. Only Tetra Island was spared, because of our high land. This story seems very hard to believe... I don't see how the ocean could just drown all the continents with water. Most people never think about this, but it comes to my mind a lot. Around the whole island, there are guard houses within every half mile. And between the guard houses, fences taller than the tallest houses on Tetra. Patrol boats are always patrolling around the island 24 hours a day. They say these guards and boats are to "protect" us. But protect us from what? The ocean? The only people who have access to the ocean are the fisherman and patrol boat captains... Weather here on the island is just like everything else. The same. 80 degrees and sunny every day. Except for 1 month of the year, November. The month everyone dreads the most. If we're lucky, we'll only get 1 hurricane in November, but 2 or 3 is the average. My mother was actually born, and named after this awful month. My parents Rain and Theo Marklin are considered one of the lucky ones on the island. My mother works as a maid in the Rulers Palace, and my father works as a plantain farmer. They work on level 1, and were allowed 2 kids. Me and my little brother Aimes. We live near the ocean, and near the school too. My parents both have to leave at an early 5 in the morning to catch busses to their jobs. I'm the one that's in charge of getting my brother and I to school. I get out of bed, and dress the way the school says we're required to. A white shirt, and some sort of khaki bottoms. I pull on a white polo shirt, and slip into a khaki skirt. I walk into my brother's room, and find him sound asleep. He looks more like my mother than he does my father. Brown hair and blue eyes.
"Aimes, it's time to wake up. We have to go to school now." I say in a quiet voice.
"Lia... five more minutes." He says and throws a pillow at my face.
I throw the pillow back at his face, and he just ignores it. It was only a few weeks ago my brother had his birthday and I was the one who got him a brand new telescope. It's the best telescope on the island. It's guaranteed to see so far away, that you could point out a single crater on the moon. Of course this island doesn't make telescopes as a job. I had to go to the west side of the island to pick it out, where the Merchants are. He stays up late every night to look at the stars on the roof.
"Oh that's it!" I say and pick him up out of bed.
"Lia! Lia! Put me down!" He says with a laugh.
My brother and I have always had a very close relationship. He might only be 10, but he's one of the only people I can actually talk to. If I ever lost Aimes, I wouldn't have much to live for anymore. It's not like the life ahead of me will be too great anyway, though.
"We're you up late again last night?" I ask.
"Maybe..." He says in a shameful tone.
Just as I suspected. He's up on the roof until almost midnight usually.
"I should've never gotten you that telescope for your birthday." I say with a shake of my head. "Come on now, get dressed. It's a beautiful day. 80 degrees and..."
"80 degrees and sunny, I know." He says.
Aimes gets dressed in a white shirt and khaki shorts, and comes downstairs to me. I hand him a banana for breakfast and we walk out the door. We begin our short 10 minute walk to school.
"Ugh, I hate being 10..." Aimes says. "5th grade sucks."
I give him a weird look and start laughing. He hates being 10? How does he think I feel? I much rather be going to school for 5 hours a day, than work 8 or 12 hours a day!
"You hate being 10? I'm 17 Aimes! I have to be assigned a job next year." I say.
"Well I have to go to school for a few more years!" He says and crosses his arms.
"Yeah, because school is so hard." I say sarcastically.
The day I turn 18 is the day I fear most. What happens if I have to work underground? I would rather just stay in school for the rest of my life rather than that. I hope when I get assigned, they need a good history or science teacher. These are the 2 subjects I'm always most interested in, even though the teachers says they're least important. My mother always tells me "Lia, don't always do what they say. Find a way to be your own person." Oh mother... If only there was a way to do that. I do try my best to take her advice. I sit at the edge of the fence and watch the ocean. I climb the palm and coconut trees, to see the sun set under the rainforest. I push myself to be strong, just to say I'm not weak like everyone else. I read old books, to become more knowledgeable about the older world and the island. I deserve to get the job I want. We arrive at the school and we hear the 1st bell ring.
"I'll see you here at 11. No later. I want to show you something after school." I say.
I walk into my island history class and set down my backpack on the floor. Our teacher begins to take attendance.
"Lia Marklin?"
"Here." I say.
The teacher calls off about thirty more names and begins the lesson. Our Junior Class is a pretty small class this year, with only about 150 kids. I don't really have any friends in any of my classes. I don't really have that many friends at all. My best friend, Celestia, is actually a senior. I hear a lot of rumors about myself. A lot of people wonder why I hang out with a book nerd like Celestia. A lot of people wonder how I don't have many friends. Some girls tell me how I'm pretty and would be able to get any boy I wanted. None of the junior boys like me in this class, and I'm just fine with that. I've never really cared that much about boys, although my father insists I'll find the right one someday. My teacher begins telling us my favorite true story about the story. It's a sad one, but the girl in the story it reminds me of myself.
"Long ago, there was a very bold girl who loved adventure. She didn't believe the stories of how the ocean consumed all land but Tetra. Her teachers, parents, and friends tried constantly to convince her otherwise. She would never believe what they said, so one day she committed the most horrible crime. The girl stole a patrol boat, and went off of the island. She traveled for days and days, until another patrol boatman came to find her. 'There's nothing...' The girl said. 'There is no land but Tetra.' The girl was let go of prison duties since she was only 16. People found her crazy for doing what she did." Our teacher says. "This proves even that there truly isn't any land but Tetra."
A kid raises his hand in class.
"But Miss, I read this same story in a library book. But it had a different ending. It said the girl never returned. What if she did find land?" He asks.
What book did he find that in? Whatever it is, I want to read it. What if I could be like this girl, and really escape the island? If I did find land, I would come back and tell everyone the government has lied to us for years! How surprised everyone would be! Security is so tight now a days though, you couldn't just steal a patrol boat. Unless you knew someone's whose job was patrol boatman... How I'd love to get off this horrible island. I would rather die than work in a factory for the rest of my life! I could take my family and Celestia's. Maybe where we went there would be other jobs. I could be a history teacher, and Aimes could be a scientist of some sort.
"She wouldn't find land." My teacher says to the boy. "There is no land but Tetra. That's not the real story. My story is the true one, not the one you read from a book."
I raise my hand cautiously.
"Lia." She says and points.
I wonder what side of the island the girl went off of? That would give me some clue on where to go if I did get the chance to leave.
"What side of the island did the girl go off of?" I ask.
My teacher gives me a confused look, and flips through some pages in a book.
"The south shore." She says and puts the book down. "Class dismissed."
I go to English class, and our teacher teaches us how back then people used to write poems. He reads us a couple poems, and they remind me of songs. They use similes and metaphors, to express what the writing is about. We have few songs on this island. Many people don't have the time to play old instruments, and write songs. That isn't a job here. The only time there is music is if someone is singing, or at a school dance. We hear the bell ring that symbolizes our fifteen minute break has started. Most kids use the fifteen minutes to stand in the hall and talk, but I usually go to the library to find my best friend Celestia. I pick up my backpack and walk into the senior hallway to find her. I met Celestia when I was only 6, in the library. I don't always call her by her full name of course. I usually just call her Less. Celestia is very smart, since she reads books all the time. She's much like me, but we look nothing alike. I have wavy blonde hair, with dark brown eyes. She has red hair with loose curls, and blue eyes. She also has a 10 year old sibling like I do. Her sister, Addyson, looks exactly like her. Addyson even needs glasses like Celestia does. I walk down the hall to look for her, when I'm stopped by someone. Aaron Wilkes. The senior boy that almost everyone seems to fall in love with. He's asked me to every single dance since I was a freshman. It's no doubt that he's going to ask me now.
"So Lia... The dance is coming up you know. And I figured since this was my last dance, I'd ask you." He says and puts his arm around my waist.
I can't stand this kind of gesture. I can't stand Aaron Wilkes at all. I have no more patience with this guy. If all guys are like this, I'm never getting married. Even if the island requires me to, I won't. They can't force me to marry someone.
"Well you'd be stupid to ask me. You know what my answer already is." I say and push his hand off of me.
He stops me again by putting his hand on my left shoulder. Will this kid ever get a hint? I will never go to the dance with him. Ever. In fact, I probably wouldn't go to the dance with any boy in this school.
"Come on Lia... You know you want to go to the dance with me. You just don't want people seeing us as a couple." He says.
I blush and push his hand off me again. See us as a couple? I barely want people seeing us talk in the hallway!
"You know you're going to marry me someday Lia." Aaron says teasingly.
I feel my face go hot with anger and throw my backpack on the ground. I grab Aaron's arm and twist it until I hear a sharp "crack!"
"Look here now Aaron. I will never; and I mean never go to a dance with you. I don't care if you were the last boy on Tetra, I would still go to the dance alone. Don't you ever ask me that again. And what's this whole thing about me marrying you? You actually believe I'd marry you if I won't even go to the dance with you? You're better off with asking a freshman." I say and untwist his arm.
I pick up my backpack, and continue walking down to the library. I can't believe he would say such a thing to me! About us getting married? The nerve of that boy... I see Celestia standing against the wall with a book.
"Uh... Did you see all that?" I ask and look down at my feet.
Celestia laughs and looks up at me from her book.
"Oh Lia." She says and shakes her head. "Never really been the one for boys huh?"
Celestia rolls her eyes and looks over at Aaron. He's getting up from the floor and rubbing his arm. I must've hurt him pretty hard back there.
"Not when they tell me they're going to marry me!" I say angrily. "Besides... That's not what's important. You know the story about the girl who took a patrol boat off the island?"
"Yeah, what about it?" Celestia asks.
Of course she knows that book. You could probably ask Less about any book in our school library and she'd give you a full summary of it. She's like me; We both have photographic memories. Anything that happens, we remember it exactly.
"Well some kid raised his hand and said he heard a different version. That the girl never came back. Less... What if the girl found land?" I ask.
She gives me a doubtful look and shakes her head no. She's probably right. How could I think such a stupid thing?
"She probably just died from starvation, Lia. She probably forgot to bring enough food." Celestia says doubtfully.
"What if... We went off the opposite side of the island? Where we are? The north shore?" I ask.
Celestia shakes her head no again. She used to think the same way as me; thinking we are not the only land. I'm surprised she doesn't think that way anymore. Or maybe she just thinks my plan is so impossible, that it would never work. Where would I get the boat? How am I sure I wouldn't die? I'm not sure. It sure would be better to find land than live my life on Tetra though.
"Impossible. Where would you get the boat?" Less asks.
She's right. There is in no way I could hijack a patrol boat. I would have to know someone with that job for me to even get my hands on one. I probably couldn't even drive the boat. We only had one class on how to do that, which was in 5th grade.
"I don't know. Maybe if I knew someone whose job was patrol boatman?" I say with a sigh. "Hey speaking of jobs... tomorrow is your 18th birthday! You get a letter with your job in it! Are you nervous?"
"Who wouldn't be? I don't want to work underground... That means today is my last day at school Lia. When am I ever going to see you?" She asks sadly.
I never really thought about the day Less had to leave school. I still have a whole year before I turn 18. What am I going to do during break from now on? I don't have any friends that are close enough for me to talk to. What if Less has a job that lasts all day long, with no time for us to be together?
"We'll make the time. I promise Less. So I'll go to your house tomorrow to open your job letter?" I ask.
"I'll see you there right after school." She says and starts to walk to her class.
I go back down my hallway, only to be stopped by Aaron again. What could he possibly want now? I swear if he tries to convince me to go to the dance again, this time I won't twist his arm. I'll break it.
"Hey Lia... Sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have said that stuff." He says.
Do I accept his apology... Or just walk away? I'll just be brief with this.
"No you shouldn't have." I say. "And I guess I'm sorry about twisting your arm."
"Yeah still hurts..." He says.
"That was the point." I say and walk to my next class.
My next few classes go by quickly. I'm eager to get out of school to finally take Aimes to see the ocean. He's never even seen it before. Never. Not even just to the edge of the fence. I find Aimes standing right where I told him to outside. We start walking north towards the shore.
"So where are you taking me?" Aimes asks excitedly.
"Somewhere you've never been before." I say.
I'm not even sure if Aimes will like the ocean. He's never really been the most outgoing person. Maybe it will scare him, or just bore him to death.
"Should we stop home so I can grab my telescope?" He asks.
Usually he uses his telescope to go on the roof, to look at stars. But what if we could look out at the ocean? Or climb the trees to see the whole island? What if... When we looked out at the ocean we found land?
"You know what? Let's stop home and get it. There are tons of faraway things we can see where were going." I say.
We stop at home and he climbs up on the roof to get it. He climbs back down the latter with it, and we continue venturing north. I can tell we're close. I hear waves crashing, and I can smell the salty sea air. We come to the edge of the fence, and Aimes looks up at me.
"The ocean? You took me to the ocean?" He asks.
"Isn't it beautiful? If only there weren't a fence to block it." I say.
We stare out at the ocean. Calm waves crash over Tetra's soft sand. Sea birds swoop down to pick up fish. The soft breezes rustle through the trees. I just wish these bars weren't here. Maybe, my job will be fisherman someday, and I'll be able to actually touch the ocean.
"Wow... Can we touch it?" He asks me.
"Does it look like we can touch it? Were blocked from it." I say sadly. "Hey follow me."
We go through some trees, until I find the tree I always climb. I took a knife here once, and carved an "L" in the trunk to determine it belonged to me. I climb to the top, and invite him up.
"Come up here. Bring your telescope." I say.
"I don't know Lia... What if I fall?" He asks.
I roll my eyes at him. Aimes has always been such a sissy. I should really start teaching him to be stronger. He's always afraid of getting in trouble, or getting hurt.
"Come on, I'll help you up." I say and reach out a hand.
He pulls himself up on a branch and we slowly but surely get to the top of the tree. I look over the island. You can see everything up here. To the east, west, south, and north to the ocean. On the horizon, you can always see these light, white clouds. No fences blocking what you can see anymore. The top of this tree is the only place I feel free. No one would have the nerve to come up here and get me. No one could ever even find me up here.
"Let me see your telescope." I say.
Aimes hands me his telescope, and I look east first. I see huge docks, with fisherman casting their lines. To the west, a busy town with tons of shops. To the south, a quieter place with few people walking around plantations of bananas and other fruits. Then I look north. What is that? The usual clouds? No... There's something else... Boats! I see boats! Boats with huge sails. The kind of boats I've only seen in books before.
"Aimes! Look at this!" I say.
When people hear about this discovery, they won't believe it. There must be people on the boats! I have to check this out. I have to get over there. Somehow, I have to get my plan to work.
What did you guys think? This story will really be a little bit of everything in later chapters. Sci-fi, romance, adventure, family. Let me know! I NEED HONESTY! Review or PM me to let me know!
