Disclaimer: Anything you don't recognise is mine, all the rest belong to the wonderful Gemma Malley and Stephenie Meyer.

Chapter two

Edward didn't appear until a week later. He turned up in the middle of Science and Nature, Bella tried not to even look at him because that's what everyone was doing and she didn't want him to know that she was curious.

No doubt he'd think he was something special and she wasn't having that.

Anyway, she knew something that no one else knew. She knew that he hadn't arrived that week; he'd arrived the week before, just like Mrs. Denali said he would. Only he arrived late at night, and they must have taken him away somewhere because his bed hadn't been slept in when she looked the next day.

It had been about one in the morning that she had heard him arrive several days before. Everyone else had been asleep, but Bella had been up on Floor 2, scribbling away in her journal before hiding it away in the one place that she was sure it would never be found.

The whole of Grange Hall had been silent except for a few dripping taps and the faint crying from the top floor, which suited Bella perfectly because it meant that she was safe, that no one would interrupt her.

On her way back to her dorm from Mrs. Denali's office earlier that evening, she had told herself that she would throw the journal away, ashamed that she'd succumbed to temptation so easily.

But the thought of losing it made her wince with pain and longing, and immediately arguments for keeping it flooded her head, the most convincing that it would get found if she threw it away. There was no way a pale green suede journal would sit in a dustbin unnoticed, and even if she wrapped it up with old newspaper, someone would find it at some point, and when they did they'd find her writing in it.

No.

She'd decided that it was much safer hidden and Female bathroom 2 was the only place that she could think of. Female bathroom 2 was situated on Floor 2, and it had contained a secret long before Bella's journal had entered Grange Hall –a little cavity behind one of the baths.

Bella had discovered it years before when she had dropped her soap down the side of the bath by accident. Knowing that she'd get beaten if she lost it –because soap had to last at least four months at Grange Hall otherwise it was considered being wasteful.

Bella had managed to squirm into a position where her arm could reach down where the soap had fallen, and had found it sitting on a little ledge which was completely hidden from view, unless you knew what you were looking for.

At the time she hadn't really thought much about it –she was so relieved to have got the soap back, she'd just finished her wash quickly and arced back to the dormitory for evening vows. But later on, she'd realized that she had found a little hiding place, and it made her feel both anxious and excited all at once.

It was her little secret.

And although she couldn't pick it up and take it with her, it was; apart from her Grange Hall overalls, toothbrush and facecloth, the first thing she'd ever owned.

Surpluses weren't allowed possessions; they had no right to own things in a world that they'd gate-crashed, Mrs. Denali said. And although Bella didn't think that a secret cavity really constituted as a possession, in the weeks afterwards, as if encouraged by this one first step on the ownership scale she'd begun to acquire things that were more tangible assets. Like a magpie, she had alighted upon a scrap of fabric that had been torn of a skirt from laundry, and a tea-spoon that had been left by someone in the house room, both of which she had put in her secret hiding place, delirious In the knowledge that she knew something no one else did.

Either way, the journal was waiting for her that night the new surplus arrived. Bella had gone to Female bathroom 2 for a late night wash, just to check that it was safe, just to hold it in her hands one more time and to see for herself the words that she had created, that she had made her mark with.

It had been a long day, what with training, cooking practical and then having to make up the bed for the new surplus in the pending boy's dormitory.

She had completed all her chores, and meticulously made up the new surpluses bed with one sheet and one blanket, and had a facecloth, toothbrush soap and a tube of toothpaste placed on top of it, just like Mrs. Denali asked her to.

As she sat shivering in the freezing, cold bath (surpluses weren't allowed hot baths –they weren't allowed to use any more of the world's resources other than what was absolutely necessary), Bella, the prefect found her arm gingerly easing its way down the side of the tub, her reward for good behavior.

Bella had known it was wrong, but its hold on her was too strong to resist, and, as she had pulled it out, she could feel herself tremble with excitement.

The light, soft green between her fingers and the news that there was a new surplus coming had created surges of adrenaline that zipped around her body, causing her toes to clench and her stomach to leap.

A pending surplus from the outside –he'd know what the world was like, he'd be untrained. He'd be …Bella had shuddered with anticipation as she'd began to write.

The truth was that she'd have no idea what he'd be like –dangerous and difficult probably, but she had known things would be different when he arrived. How could they fail to be?

As these thoughts had rushed around her head, she'd looked at the clock on the wall and noted with a sigh that it was a quarter to one. Grange Hall still had clocks in lots of the rooms, even though surpluses didn't need to refer to them. They were fixed to the wall, she'd heard Mrs. Denali tell one of the instructors, and anyway, they reminded Mrs. Denali of a 'better time'.

Bella wasn't sure whether Mrs. Denali meant a long time ago, or whether it was time itself that was better on a clock, but either way, she loved watching the hands slowly moving around the large, round clock faces and had convinced one of the instructors to teach her how to read them, even though she didn't need to.

Surpluses had time embedded in their wrists; surpluses time keeping was in digital. Embedded time had been one of the new ideas for surpluses, when surplus halls were still new. Time wasn't on a surpluses side, Mrs. Denali said.

Time was just one of the things that surpluses didn't deserve. Legals owned time, but surpluses were slaves to it, as every piercing, shrill bell alerted us to feeding, morning or bedtime at Grange Hall.

Embedded time was one of the only new ideas that actually took off, Mrs. Tanner had said once, talking to an instructor when she didn't know Bella was listening.

New ideas didn't tend to surface much anymore, she'd said, because everyone was complacent.

No one could be bothered to come up with new things because it was too much hard work.

And the instructor nodded and said 'what a relief' and Mrs. Tanner looked at her for a moment, as if she wanted to say something, but instead, she just nodded and that was the end of that.

Embedded time sat under the skin, on the wrist, and every moment the surplus made kept the mechanism going so that it wasn't wasteful or resource intensive. And with time ever-present, the authorities argued, no surplus could ever be late; no surplus could ever leave their chores early.

Bella couldn't remember not having embedded time; couldn't imagine why everyone wouldn't have it. But legal people like instructors didn't, they wore watches, which did the same thing, only from outside the wrist.

Bella had glanced down and confirmed that in spite of the authorities' best efforts; she was indeed late, if only for her sleep. She needed to get out of her bath, to calm herself so she could fall into a deep slumber. Otherwise, tomorrow would be torture.

She was safe now the journal was hidden and there was no point thinking about the new surplus. No reason for her to still be feeling jumpy.

Quickly getting out of the tub, she had taken a small towel from the rail in front of her and dried herself mechanically, the rough, dry cotton welcome after the cold, soapy water.

And right then, she'd heard him arrive.

The sounds were muffled and at one point she'd thought she could hear the anguished yelps of an injured dog, but the she'd realized it was probably a gag. They used gags sometimes, if surpluses were particularly noisy. The driving unions had insisted on it, Mrs. Denali said –their members were getting upset.

It was bad enough surpluses existing she said, without them also causing mayhem and hurting legal people.

Then Bella had heard something break and, a few seconds after that, a crack and a noise that sounded like something heavy but soft hitting the floor. Then some more muffled noises and a minute or so later, silence.

She'd crept out of the bathroom and held her breath for a few minutes, listening for something else –perhaps the sound of the surplus being taken to the pending boy's dormitory…but eventually she gave up.

He must have gone to Mrs. Denali's office, she decided. She'd find out tomorrow, anyway.

Right no it's time for bed.

But in the morning, when she'd taken a detour to breakfast in order to have a look at the new resident and perhaps introduce herself, she'd found that the surpluses bed hadn't been slept in at all. The other pending boy's simply shrugged when she'd asked them about him; Mrs. Denali hadn't even told them someone new was coming.

When there was no sign of him the next day, nor the day after that, Bella had begun to think that they must have taken him to a different surplus hall, or maybe to a detention centre; perhaps they had decided that pending was too late to arrive at Grange Hall.

But then, a week later, he'd turned up again.

He arrived, dressed in regulation navy overalls, the same overalls that every other surplus wore –shapeless, sturdy and practical –just when Mr. Banner was telling the story of longevity for about the fiftieth time.

Mr. Banner was their science and nature teacher and he never got sick of that story, never tired of telling them about the natural scientists who found a way to cure old age. Before they did that, people used to die.

All the time.

From horrible diseases. And they looked awful too.

Bella knew the story of longevity very well and, like Mr. Banner, she never got sick of it either. Longevity was how humans fulfilled the ambitions of nature. Longevity proved that humans were superior in every way. But with superiority cam responsibility, Mr. Banner said. You couldn't abuse the trust and bounty of Mother Nature.

Before longevity, people died from things called cancer, heart disease and Aids. They also got something called disability, sometimes, which meant that something went wrong and couldn't be fixed. Like if someone lost their leg in an accident or something, they had to spend the rest of their life in a chair with wheels on it because they couldn't make new legs back then.

Renewal didn't exist and brain exercises weren't invented yet, and everyone died by the time they were seventy, apart from a few lucky people, but they weren't really that lucky; they were tired all the time and couldn't hear properly so they might as well have been dead, really.

Then the scientists discovered renewal, where you could get, new, fresh cells to replace old ones and they mended the rest of your cells too.

First they cured cancer.

Then they cured heart disease.

It took them quite a bit longer to cure Aids, but eventually they cured that too, although it needed more cells.

And then a natural scientist called Dr. Gerandy discovered something else. He found out that renewal worked against old age too. He took some of the drugs himself to see what happened, and he stopped getting older, just like that. Only he didn't tell anyone about it for a while. And when he did the authorities (which used to be called the government) made it illegal to take drugs if you didn't have Aids or cancer, because they were worried about things called pensions and people being a burden on the state.

Dr. Gerandy eventually died because he wasn't allowed to take the drugs anymore, but a few years later, the authorities realized that with longevity, people wouldn't have to stop working. If people didn't get ill, the government would save lots of money, by then longevity drugs were being taken by people anyway, only they were doing It illegally.

There were lots of people saying that longevity drugs should be legalized, and so in 2030 the prime minister commissioned a trial. And when he realized that there were no side effects and that people could now live forever, he decided that this was a breakthrough, and the biggest drug companies in England got together to start producing longevity drugs for everyone.

That's when dying stopped, first in Europe, America and China and then, gradually, everywhere else. Some countries were late adopters, because the drugs were expensive, but then terrorists started to attack England because they wouldn't give everyone the drugs and soon after that the price got lower so everyone could have them.

"And what do you think happened then?" Mr. Banner always asked, his beady eyes searching for someone in the classroom who could capture the fundamental flaw in the programme.

More times than not, Bella would raise her hand.

"There were too many people," she would say seriously "If no one dies and people have more children, there's nowhere for everyone to go."

"Exactly" Mr. Banner would say.

And then he would proceed to tell them about the Declaration, which was introduced in 2065, and which said that people could only have one baby. If they tried to have another, it would be terminated.

Then, a few years after that, they realized that one baby was still too many. So in 2080 the new Declaration was created and said that no one could have any children unless they opted out of longevity completely. Every country had to sign the Declaration, and surplus police, or catchers, as they had began to be called, were responsible for tracking down anyone who broke it.

Opting out means that you were allowed to have a child 'one child per opt out' or 'a life for a life' as the Declaration put it.

But that means you would get ill and die, so opting out wasn't very popular.

People who opted out were regarded with suspicion, Mr. Banner told us. Who would die just to have a child, when you didn't even know if the child would be any good?

Of course, there were some selfish, criminal people who didn't opt out an still had children to suck up the world's natural resources and ruin things for the legal people…but they all knew about that, didn't they?

That was why Grange Hall existed –to give the surpluses that resulted from such criminality a purpose; to help them learn their responsibilities and to train them to provide a useful service to Legals.

Surpluses weren't allowed longevity drugs either.

"Why prolong the agony?" Mr. Banner said.

And that was the point at which Edward arrived. The door opened, Mrs. Denali walked in, followed by Edward. Bella didn't know he was called Edward then; when she first saw him walk through the door into the science and nature lab, she only knew that this, finally, was the pending surplus. That he hadn't been taken somewhere else after all.

Everyone looked at him, sneakily. Without letting anyone see that she too, was shooting little looks at him.

Bella noted that he was tall and gangly and had very pale skin that had some dark marks on it that could have been bruises but could equally have been dirt.

It was his eyes that really stood out.

They were green, a bright shimmering green which automatically reminded Bella of her secret journal.

His eyes darted around the room, stared, the flickered away, before darting around again like they were looking for something and digesting information.

Mrs. Denali didn't encourage eye contact and if you were caught looking at something or someone when you were meant to be working; you often got a clip round the ear, which meant that generally speaking surpluses spent most of the time with their eyes cast downwards.

The new surplus's eyes were openly inquisitive and defiant, Bella thought to herself, and that could only lead to trouble.

"Sit there" Mrs. Denali instructed him. Pointing to an empty desk "Next to Bella."

Bella tried to look straight ahead as he walked towards her, but her eyes were drawn to him, and as she looked at him she felt her heart begin to beat loudly in her chest.

He was staring right at her, like he wasn't scared of anything, like he didn't know his place at all.

And as soon as Mrs. Denali left, having made it clear that no one was to pay the new surplus any special attention, he leant over to her, like it was perfectly ok to talk to someone in the middle of a training session.

"You're Bella Swan, aren't you" he said, so softly that Bella thought she might have imagined it.

"I know you parents…"

cliffy...*dont kill me*

I would love to know what you guys think about this story, i'm thinking maybe ten/fifteen reviews till the next chapter :)

Let me know what you think...it helps inspire me to write

xoxo

-GreenEyes555