Lucy's POV

I had been excited. I had been nervous. I had even wanted to throw up to get my nerves to settle down. They never did though.

It was my match banquet, the one most important thing in your life, or so they told us. Now I got why, they were planning on making us nervous enough so we would die from a heart attack. Byebye life.

I did handle the nerves better than Sarah though, she had actually thrown up. Sarah was my best friend. Her hair was blonde and her eyes a soft blue. She was beautiful and every guy in here wished for her to be his match. I was pretty sure though that if she got someone from this place to be her match, she would fake death on the spot. She hated the guys here, always telling me how childish they were. I just laughed at that, even though she was right. I didn't think however other districts would be any different.

Ok, so back to being excited. Because I actually had thought about this night so much that every worst case scenario had been thought of. Except this. I had thought of not having a match, having a match in my own district, even having a match that no one else would like, which I wouldn't care too much about. The one thing I hadn't thought of though, was having a match I didn't like.

My match had appeared on the screen, like every other guy had. His name was Larry. I looked at him and I felt nothing. Nada. Zip. My heart didn't stop, didn't speed up, my stomach didn't do weird tricks and wasn't filled with butterflies. I could only think of one thing: why was this guy my match?

Sarah poked me with her elbow, her eyebrows raised in admiration. She liked the guy, I could see. I didn't. Yes he was pretty good looking, black hair and blue eyes, the problem was however that he seemed too much aware of the fact himself. I didn't like people who were cocky and this guy was already annoying me with the wink he gave me.

I sat down, disappointed. I had believed to find love at first sight, how naive of me. I really shouldn't have expected too much out of all this. What were the chances of finding the love of your life at a match banquet? Only 98% right? Leave it to me to be a part of the other 2. I always was the exception. I chose the wrong things, or at least not the things I was predicted to choose. I don't know why, I just choose whatever I want. I can't help it that those stupid machines think I chose wrong. Even with my dress color for tonight. I chose green. Why? Because I felt like it. What had been predicted? Blue. Now why would I choose blue? I mean it's not a bad color but considering my eyes are green... hello! What would fit me?

I shook the thought out and focused on the next name that was being called out. Sarah's. I looked up at the screen, expecting everything except what showed. It was a boy. But not just a boy, a boy with messy sand colored hair and steel blue eyes. My heart picked up speed and was racing within seconds. He was handsome but that wasn't what attracted my attention. He looked dangerous, his eyes were smoldering, but at the same time they were filled with a sadness. He looked like he had given up on everything and my heart ached just seeing him like this. Who was this boy?

I had been so focused on the screen I'd missed his name. Now I didn't know exactly what happened, but I was sure of one thing. I had just fallen in love with the wrong, freaking guy. My best friend's match to be precise.

She was frowning, not looking very happy.

'Whatsup?' I asked her, afriad she might have seen right through me.

She shrugged, 'I don't know. I guess I'd rather have your match.' She admitted.

I shook my head with a humorless chuckle, 'You know what Sarah. I was thinking the exact same thing.'

She looked at me with wide eyes. 'You think we could trade?'

I laughed, attracting the attention of some annoyed looking kids who hadn't been called out yet.

'I don't think they'd let us.'

'Damn.' She cursed. 'Why did they match us like this?' I was wondering that too. Why did they match us? At first glance I hadn't found the guy interesting at all, neither had Sarah. What were the odds two best friends experienced that. This was bad.

'What's his name anyway?' I asked her, curious.

She smiled at me knowingly, 'Cinian Porter.' I sighed and cursed under my breath. Even his name made my heart skip a beat. What the hell?

When finally everyone had been matched we could pick up our tablets and chips, which contained information on your match. Sarah and I opened ours together, showing each other and commenting on things.

'Oh my god.' Sarah suddenly said.

'What?'

'His brother..' she started. 'His brother is an abboration!' She seemed to be on the verge of tears and I rolled my eyes. She didn't have to overreact like this, but that was Sarah. To her this news was like the end of the world. 'You can refuse them right? Family members?'

I stared at her a second. 'Sarah, you can't be serious. You're not gonna refuse him just because his brother did something wrong! You can't!'

Sarah pouted, 'But, I don't want to...' she didn't finish and I knew what she wanted to say. She didn't want a guy who was family of an abboration. My heart ached again as I knew that he would now have no match, ever. Damn Society. I have to admit though that I had my own reservations with the content on my tablet.

Larry liked running, which I hated. He didn't like reading, something I loved, and he didn't like dancing, something I loved even more. Now how the hell were we matched? A square does not fit inside a round hole, so why the hell was Society trying to do exactly that?

I didn't get the chance to complain to Sarah though, as my parents were making their way to me.

'I'm gonna find my parents and ask them how to do it.' Sarah told me. I just nodded, hugging her goodbye. I didn't like what she was going to do, but I couldn't stop her either. Believe me, I would've if I had been able to. But it was her choice, not mine.

'Our baby girl growing up.' My mom said, taking me in her arms and hugging me closely. She didn't notice the look in my eyes but my dad did. He leaned in to give me a hug as well, 'Everything will work out birdy, I promise.' He whispered, using my nickname. I tried to pull strenght from his words but it didn't really work. I was positive that he was only trying to make me feel better.

'Were you guys in love at first sight?' I asked both of them.

My mother frowned, 'Why dear?' I looked down at my feet.

'Because I don't really like him.'

It looked like my mother was about to have a heart attack but my dad stepped in.

'Sometimes it takes some time sweety, Society knows what it's doing. No worries.'

Yeah right, I thought. If Society really knew what it was doing it wouldn't pair me with some cocky guy who thought he was the world. Call me prejudiced, but it's what I'm thinking.

'Yeah cupcake.' My mom said quickly, 'Your father is right.'

Notice how my parents find the most risiculous nicknames for me? Cupcake and birdy were the worst, but I learned to live with them. And the others. Maybe that's why I always chose different than was predicted. No one could've foreseen the nicknames given to me by my parents. I sighed, getting ready to head back home with the train. We had come here with the same one, it was still waiting for everyone to go back. I wasn't really in the mood for a long train ride with my mother babbling on about her own match banquet and my father, but I had no real choice. Just like I had no real choice in the whole matching matter. We were about to get onto the train to go back, me preparing myself for a long ride, but were stopped by an official before we could get in.

'Lucy Young, if you could please follow me.' He said.

I stood there, puzzled, together with my parents who were looking worried. When the official shot me an impatient look however, I quickly followed him. No need in making any officials angry by not following orders. Sarah joined me a minute later, looking scared.

'What's going on?' She whispered.

I smiled at her reassuringly, 'It'll be ok.' What was I supposed to say? That I didn't know. That it was as much a mystery to me as it was to her? She would surely freak if I said that. I was the one staying calm in every situation. I was the one with the rational ideas, who tried to talk things of her head. If I didn't know, something was wrong. And I guessed that was exactly what was going on now. Something. Was. Wrong.