Lucy twisted the silver key in the lock of the doorknob, checking twice to make sure she locked it properly before placing the key back into her purse. She gazed up at the house she lived in from when she was a little girl, taking in every detail with a somber face.
"Are you going to stand there all day, or are you actually going to get a move on?" She heard him ask. Him. Her father.
Lucy gave him a cold look from the corner of her eye but refrained from snapping back at him, assuring herself that he wasn't worth the energy of getting mad at. "I'm ready."
She turned to follow him, keeping as much distance between Jude as she could as she cast her gaze off to the canal that they walked alongside.
Today was the day.
That was the line she expected to use on a day of happiness. But instead, she was using the phrase in her head as she thought about the dreaded draft.
It was today. July 4th, year X784.
As father and daughter maneuvered through crowds of people, Lucy was her only source of comfort, telling her own self that everything would be fine. It was moments like these when she truly missed the comforting embrace of her mother that brought her assurance through times she felt nervous.
'This is the last time my name will be entered for the draft,' she soothed herself quietly. 'I just have to make it through this one more time, and then I won't have to worry about it ever again!'
"We're here," Jude said, waiting impatiently for Lucy to reach his side.
People from all over Magnolia had gathered, surrounding a stage like area where the conscription would take place. Lucy saw many others standing close to their loved ones, all being the same age as Lucy or just a year younger. Their faces were dressed with stress, worry was evident in their eyes and Lucy was sure she sported the same expression.
"It will begin shortly," Jude informed, his tone formal to even his daughter, but his face, to Lucy's surprise, betrayed his stoic structure. It was hard to see, but Lucy had known her father all her life and was good at reading emotions. So when she saw the hint of concern in her father's deep, dark eyes, she frowned.
'Even he's worried?'
"Right," Lucy finally uttered her reply as she turned her attention back to the stage when she heard a microphone being tapped.
A short, old man with a bald head, thick, gray eyebrows, and a toothbrush mustache scanned through the crowed of people with squinted eyes as he made sure he had captured everyone's attention. Lucy recognized the senior man almost immediately from the council, though she had forgotten his name.
"Good afternoon, citizens of Magnolia," he rasped out in his dried voice. "I am councilman Yajima, and I will be doing the drawing for the X784 draft this year. The drawing for the draft will be quite simple. This machine here contains slips of paper with the priority number with the integers 1 through 366 written on them. The second machine contains blue slips of paper with the dates January 1 to December 31. Each machine will automatically mix up the papers and then I will draw a slip from both of them. Two birthdays will be paired with a priority number. The first will be those who are the age of 18, and then the second drawn will be those of 19. If the priority number matches yours and the date of your birth, then you will have been chosen for the draft."
Yajima proceeded to click a button on both machines, allowing them to shuffle the slips of paper before drawing one from both.
"Priority number: 217," he read out loud. "Date of birth: September 1."
Yajima allowed the matching person who's identity had been stamped by numbers slowly make her way to the stage. Yajima then drew another slip from the birthday slips.
"Date of birth: March 27." Yajima continued onto the next drawing. "Priority number: 54, date of birth: June 23. Date of birth: August 31. Priority number: 301, date of birth: November 8. Date of birth: February 2. Priority number: 156, date of birth: April 19. Date of birth. March 12. Priority number: 2, date of birth: May 13. Date of birth: October 7. Priority number: 78."
Lucy's breath caught in her throat and her head snapped up anxiously when her priority number rang in her ears.
"Date of birth: August 8."
Lucy exhaled slowly in relief as her shoulder slouched when the stress left her.
"Date of birth: July 1."
And then like a slap in the face, Lucy remembered the first slip with the date of birth on it wasn't for her age group, but the latter that matched her birthday.
Lucy felt her father's gaze on her but she couldn't bring herself to look at him as she mechanically strolled forward onto the platform.
Hey, all! Welcome back to another chapter!
Holy crap, can I just say I love all of you? Cause guys, I love all of you! I truly didn't expect to receive as much support as I have on this story! Thank you, thank you to all those who favorited/followed/reviewed!
To Gabbicat18: Thank you so much! I never was really good with adding details into my writing, but as of late I've been practicing on it, so I'm glad I'm getting better at it! I hope I can keep your interest in this fan-fiction!
To A Visitor: Thank you! I'm glad I was able to portray Lucy correctly. Let's just hope I ca keep it up and do the same for the other characters as well xD
To Rubybird2329: xDD I loved your review, I reread it a few times, to be honest. And oooh, I like the idea of Natsu having a flamethrower!
I know not much action has happened just yet, but I get the feeling in the next chapter there'll be quite a bit to be excited about! And hopefully a much longer chapter as well, so be on the look out for that!
I realize that the draft may not have been like how a real draft is supposed to be, but truth be told... I don't really know much about how it works xD
But basically, there are priority numbers that are assigned to those whose names have been entered for the draft. If your number is drawn as well as your birth date, then you've been selected. And then there are two slips drawn because the first one is for those who are 18, and then the second is for those who are 19. And if there are those who have the same matching birth date and priority number, then both are selected. I honestly have no idea if I'm making sense with this, but since I couldn't understand it myself (for how a draft works) I did some research and tried to make it similar to what I understood.
By the way, in case anybody is interested in following along with some of my other works, I just recently started a fan-fiction for Fairy Tail x Attack on Titan, called Mission: Extermination. If any of you guys are interested, please don't hesitate to check it out! You can find it on my profile!
Anyways, peace out 👆