HI! I'M REALLY NOT BOTHERED TO TURN OFF CAPSLOCK… Oh, wait, yep, I just got bothered (feel free to applaud…)

Anyway… I love Matched and Crossed, and when I went onto its Fanfiction, it had less than 55 stories! (Cue gasps) So I decided I needed to contribute some stories (I have another one in the workings…)

So, this is an original character Match, set wa-a-a-a-ay before Ky and Cassia, so it has nothing to do with the uprising, just your run-of-the-mill Match. Because I'm bored, and had an idea…

So please, read review and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Matched. Way to remind me that I don't own anything… now I'm sad… L

Chapter 1.

Teal silk, a string of pearls.

Excitement, nerves.

Lilies, chocolate.

Laughing, talking.

Familiar faces, bright colours.

The Match banquet. My Match banquet. Easily the best day of my life so far, because this is the first day of my life, really. Because this is the end of the end, the beginning of the beginning. Everything will be different from now on.

Everything's new and exciting. The teal silk is sleek and shiny beneath my fingertips, against my legs. My tummy feels like its filled with butterflies, their wings caressing my stomach, not unpleasant, just… weird.

I'm the only girl wearing teal, and all the parents are wearing brown plainclothes. This is one day of few I'm wearing anything other than brown. We do wear black when we swim, and navy blue when we get our permanent work positions, though, but that's it. This is one day when I don't fade into the background. The Official said it was expected for me to choose this colour, because girls like dressed that compliment their eyes.

Teal eyes. Atypical, because the Society makes sure there is nothing unusual or unexpected. But atypical is something they can't control. They couldn't predict that my eyes would be the perfect blend of my mother's emerald and my father's azure. This bothered me a little, what with the Sorting, and all. For the Matching, you're paired up due to a number of tiny details, one of which is physical appearance. Hair colour, height, weight, eye colour, physique, skin tone. Eye colour. The categories are simple: blue, green, grey, brown, hazel. You need a category to be sorted and sorted to be Matched.

My mother said I'd be put in the category "other". I didn't like the sound of it. Other.

Apart from that, my appearance is regular. Black, straight hair, pale as snow skin, small, straight nose, petite, delicate. I'm short, only five feet one inch, I'm like my mother. My siblings, my two twin brothers and two twin sisters are all tall, like my father. So I will probably end up with a tall, strong, tanned, blond. Or someone exactly like me, you just never know, you could be Matched with a boy who could be your twin, or your polar opposite. I don't care which he is, because I know he will be perfect for me.

I'm in the City Hall, in the banquet room, waiting. My name is Clara Young. I'll probably be one of the last to be sorted, so I'm nervous. Why am I nervous? I shouldn't be nervous. Studies have shown its normal to be nervous, 78% of Matchees are, I was hoping to be a part of the 12% that were calm.

I thought about the green tablet, the one that will calm me down, at least half the girls I know took theirs' before now. I haven't, it seems weak. I'm not going to be weak. So, green tablet-less, I'm sitting with my parents barely eating. And I wish I could eat, because I bet it tastes good. Also because my food portions have been compromised, so I could eat tonight. The Society says we should only eat enough food to carry us to the next meal, no more. Its all bland and tasteless, no enjoyment in it. Until now, when I should be enjoying the food, like I should be. But I can't, so I don't.

'The Matching will now begin,'

Its exciting to watch the Matching, my best friend, Jess Adams, is first.

'Mother, can I have my glasses? I want to see,' I murmured.

She hands them over to me, she's been keeping them in her bag, because I have nowhere to put them.

I slide them onto the bridge of my nose, so I could see everything.

Jess's picture flashes on the large screen in the middle of the Hall, so she hastens to smile alluringly, knowing she'd see her Match in a matter of moments. Until then, the boys' half of the screen is white.

'Jessica Adams you are Matched with…' they always pause, I kind of resent them for it, 'Connor James!'

The boy on screen stands up, smiling. He has brown hair and grey eyes, handsome.

He seems happy with his Match, why wouldn't he be?- Jess was stunning.

An Official hands her a silver microcard, with all the details of her Match in it. She beams, delighted to have her future in her hands.

They go through the Matchees, one by one, I felt sorry for the boys, who had absolutely no idea when they were going to have to stand up. One boy fell off his chair in the shock of his name being called out.

'Clara Young,'

I was last, every other Matchee has a microcard in their hands. All eyes are on me.

I take a deep breath, push my glasses further up my nose, and stand. Shoulders back, chin forward, smile in place.

'Clara Young, your Match is…'

They pause, drawing it out, the left hand side of the screen still white. It feels like an hour later when they call out his name.

'Ayden Hughes,'

A boy stands up, tall, very tall in fact. Blond, curly hair that falls into his eyes. Broad shouldered, muscular. Square jawed, straight nosed.

That isn't what intrigued me though. Ayden is undeniably handsome, the sort of face that would make girls melt, myself included. But it is his eyes that caught my interest. They are the colour of pure ginger. The perfect mixture of orange and brown.

I'm willing to bet he'd been put in the eye colour category "other".

I suddenly like the sound of Other.