authors note: heyyy guys I know I probably shouldn't be publishing another story since I'm in the middle of a multi-chap already, but whatever
cough do I really hope you like this :)
disclaimer: I don't own the clique
She was scared
She felt helpless
She wanted change
She didn't know anything other then what she was taught
She wanted a new life.
She looked at things differently from everyone else
On the outside, she was insecure
Internally, she was spontaneous
Claire Lyons lived in a classic house with a classic family; she had one sibling, one mother, one father, and her house was almost cloud-high.
It was the year 4001.
People called this time the 'New Age,' although to Claire it was more of the 'Unfair Age.' Women were not allowed outside (the thin air outside was meant only for strong, tough men) and they were required to wear dresses (they were women for a reason). To Claire, their ruler was a psychopath.
But nobody listened to little Claire Lyons, the girl with long, white-blonde hair and innocent blue eyes. Nobody cared what she had to say.
Nobody.
Charles IIII was 4000's Ruler. In 2756, they came out with a new medication, one that was inserted into a person via a needle. It was a small price to pay for living 1,000 years.
For 1,000 years, you couldn't die. No matter what.
You were invincible.
Claire didn't want to be invincible. She wanted to be human, like the people she read about in 2000-era books. There was a library in her house, and since she couldn't go outside, that was one of the only things she did.
Read.
But Claire's parents were planning to get rid of the library. Her library. The only thing she had.
Claire was engrossed in a book called The Hunger Games. No one knew whether the trilogy was fiction or non-fiction, and Claire liked to argue with herself about whether or not, 2,000 years ago, her nation was called Panem, and if there really was a Hunger Games.
When she was about to convince herself that the books were indeed non-fiction, Todd sprinted in. His red hair (that he hadn't inherited from anyone in the family) stuck to his forehead, which was sweating from the heat of the sun.
Todd had just been running around outside in shorts and a muscle tee, a baseball cap pulled low over his dark eyes. He was perspiring profusely, and his nose and cheeks were sunburned.
No surprise there, since it was 150 degrees out.
It was winter.
Everybody was used to it by now. The sun beat down, seeming to grow warmer and warmer every day. Claire swore that the blazing ball of fire was moving closer and closer as they looked at it.
But nobody bothered to listen to her.
"...don't you agree?" Todd finished, and Claire realized she had completely zoned out.
"Sorry, Todd. Could you repeat that? I had something on my mind."
"What could you possibly have on your mind? Besides our new neighbor, the one with the crazy eyes that you're always staring at. He likes the hot chick down the street, the Spanish one."
Claire blushed, her delicately pale face heating up. "Go away, Todd."
And so he did.
Claire smoothed out the dress she so hated, the one her mother had forced her to wear: a pink lace thing with a huge white bow acting as a belt. Her hair was in two messy braids, much to Judi Lyons's distaste. Claire's mother wanted a perfect daughter who adored Ruler Charles as much as she did.
She didn't see anything good about her female child.
Even Jay Lyons wasn't proud of Claire.
They didn't know how incredibly smart she was, or that she was extremely gifted at running. Even she didn't know. She wasn't allowed to run in her home.
Ruler Charles didn't believe in women having rights, and somehow, with some crazy political campaign and advertisements, he convinced the rest of Earth to believe it too.
Men were in charge of everything. Women existed to look pretty and make babies.
It was the cold, hard truth.
And Claire hated it.
There was barely any land left. Claire had recently found out from one of her books that there used to be something called 'countries', and there was a ruler for each one. She also found out that she was living in what used to be 'America'.
Or that was its last recorded name, anyway. After that, it was highly possible that her country might have been Panem.
Nobody knew.
America was the only intact 'country' left. The rest? Flooded. The people? Dead.
There wasn't a single school across all of their land. The people got a shot each month that inserted information, if you had the money. The shot cost more than one million dollars, but that was cheap. Claire was surprised Ruler Charles hadn't gotten rid of money yet and wasn't using blood droplets or something like that instead.
Claire, at 367 years old, was a teenager. From 0-100, you were considered babies, pre-schoolers, and kindergarteners. Ages 100-250 were grade-school age. 250-350 were tweens. 350-550 were teenagers. Everybody else was an adult or a senior.
Claire thought she looked alright for a teenager; she wasn't overweight and she loved her long blonde hair, even though blondes were considered idiotic, according to Ruler Charles, who had pitch-black hair.
Barging into the room, Todd announced, "Look who's here."
Hearing the ding! of a portal, Claire walked over to her window (nine miles up in the air) and peered outside.
It was the boy, Cam, his brother, and his father.
Cam, the boy with the different-colored eyes.
Cam, the boy she loved.
Not that she'd ever spoken to him.
Not that she was allowed to pick her own fucking husband.
"Mom invited the Fishers over for dinner, since they're new to the neighborhood and everything," Todd explained. "But I think she just wanted to see if they were upper-class."
"Where Mrs. Fisher?" Claire asked quietly.
"She's using a portal to get over," Todd replied.
Suddenly, a hologram appeared in the air above their heads. It was their mother. "Get downstairs now," Hologram Judi ordered. "We are having dinner with the Fishers. Please brush out your hair, Claire, and dress in a suitable outfit. And change in something less sweaty, Todd. Then get down here.
Todd winked at Claire and ran off to change.
Claire sighed. She had been interested in Cam ever since he moved next door; she thought he was really cute and she even saw him reading a book once, something nobody ever did (except for Claire). She knew Cam would never go for her, though. After all, Todd was right (as usual); he was always with that gorgeous girl, Alicia.
After making a quick wish that Cam wouldn't laugh at her weirdness, Claire quickly ran a brush through her hair, which fell in soft waves down her back from the braids. After trying to smooth out the wrinkles in her dress, she used a portal to get downstairs.
Showtime.
Cam Fisher, and his brother, Harris, simultaneously ran one hand through their jet-black hair as they entered the Lyons house. Harris was about 110 years older then Cam, although that wasn't much older, as each day was only about ten hours.
But no one knew the real truth anymore, with the sun out 24/7, so there was no actual way of telling.
Every day, Cam watched Claire sit in her window seat and read, admiring not only how pretty she was, but also that she loved books, just as he did. He saw her go through at least two stories a day, hoping that one day she would look out the glass pane and notice him.
If you asked Cam who Alicia Rivera was, Cam would say he had no idea. Alicia really didn't mean anything to him; she was always where he was, basically begging for Cam to ask her out, but he hardly noticed her. Sure, she was pretty, breathtaking, mind you, but she was too much like the rest. Too much like all the other girls he knew, like the red-haired girl Dylan, who followed Derrick Harrington, and Massie Block, who trailed Joshua Hotz.
But Claire was different.
Cam was planning on impressing hertonight at dinner, although he wasn't sure how.
He sat down at the long dinner table in the Lyons' dining room, next to Harris, and trying not to gape as Claire used a portal to appear in the entrance to the dining room. She kept her head down as she randomly picked a seat that happened to be across from Cam.
But when she looked up and noticed him, a blush instantly lended her cheeks a pink color.
Cam gave her a smile and she just looked down, blushing even more.
Showtime.
agh I hope that wasn't too far-fetched or anything like that
thanks to my amazing beta-reader, Joy aka outside the crayon box! Check out her amazing stories
PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE REVIEWWWWWWW OR ELSE I WILL BE UPSET AND DISTRESSED AND LONELY AND STUFFSHDKANFNSNDBD
before any of you ask, yes, I did put Charles as the ruler for a reason.
Review :)
-Chica