“It’s okay, I wasn’t watching where I was going,” muttered Garrett, rubbing his forehead.
The hallways were sparsely populated. Most of the students still lingering in the hall were the lowerclassman, still too far away from finalizing their Life Plans to worry about them. The black speckled white floor was spotless and the bright blue walls were as clean as the floor. Student’s shoes squeaked across it as they hurried to their next class, sensing the incoming beep.
Opal and Garrett walked an additional two doors down until they reached their first and only official class of the day—Life Plan Preparation. Three columns of single desks faced a wall with a whiteboard encompassing most of the space. Directly in front of the central desk on the front row was a digital projector with a platform for the teacher to write notes on. Most of the seats in the classroom were filled, but Opal and Garrett’s typical seats two rows from the front were empty. They shuffled over between the desks to them and sat down.
Opal immediately took out her neatly typed Life Plan, but Garrett simply sat there in thought. The more time he had spent researching The Council the previous night, the more his curiosity grew. The thoughts infected his mind like a virus infecting the body. He couldn’t shake it off. He just had to find out what was going on. But how?
“All right, class. The bell will be ringing at any moment now. Those of you that have already written up your Life Plans or are close to completing them, please take them out and place them on your desk.” A man wearing a dull green vest with long white sleeves sticking out addressed the class. The black-rimmed glasses on his face gave him a distinguished look that influenced him to carry himself with an air of importance.
The class did as they were told by their teacher, unzipping backpacks and opening books to obtain the latest drafts of their Life Plans. Some had thin packets detailing their Life Plans, others had small ones. Opal glanced around the class, mostly through her peripheral vision. None of the others had Life Plans as long as hers. She once again wondered if she’d been too detailed.
The beep coming from the outside hallway echoed through the classroom, indicating the start of class. The teacher took the moment to go over and close the door, speaking as he walked. “All right, everyone. We’ll first start with a simple list of the exclusions in one’s Life Plan. In other words, what is not allowed to be in your Life Plans. If any of you have anything on this list included in your Life Plan, cross it out with a pen so that you can go home and eliminate it. Anything on this list will cause your Life Plan to be rejected immediately after submission.”
Opal inhaled a proud breath of air. She’d already checked her Life Plan five times for exceptions to the rule. She knew she was safe.
A soft shuffle of papers echoed across the room as people began scanning their Life Plans. Everyone knew what wasn’t allowed, but the teachers incessantly reminded everyone during the final days before Submission Day.
“First, any intent or plan to harm another person is forbidden. Second, anything too specific will be a cause for rejection. You may not choose a specific date for anything in your life. For example, you cannot state that at 4:35pm on First Moon 4080 you’ll suddenly inherit a billion trecins from a long lost relative. However, you can specify the year in which a big life event will occur such as a career change, marriage, retirement, etc. Just remember that you may not choose the date of your death…” The teacher droned on as a few people in the back of the class groaned and the sound of pens scratching against paper could be heard as they crossed out specifics in their Life Plan.
Opal tuned out the teacher as she reread her Life Plan for what seemed like the gazillionth time. The further she read, the more she became anxious that perhaps she’d forgotten or excluded an important event or included a detail she shouldn’t have. Taking a deep breath, she returned her eight-page packet to the front page and rested her hand atop it to resist the urge to reopen it. She wouldn’t read anymore. It would only add to her anxiety.
Garrett wasn’t focusing on the teacher’s words either. His thoughts had drifted into the recesses of his mind as he contemplated strategies to expose The Council’s secrets. If push came to shove, he could always come up with a basic Life Plan the day before Declaration Day. Plenty of people had done it and gotten approved. He would too. But to discover the inner workings and origins of The Council would be something no one in the provinces had done. He’d be the first.
“…and lastly, the last exemption from your Life Plan must be anything impossible. You cannot state that at age 45 you will grow wings and be able to fly around the city. It will not work. Your Plan will be denied.”
Chuckles and giggles erupted from the class. If one exception was never forgotten, it was that one. It was the only exception everyone complained about from childhood. No flying, breathing underwater, teleporting, or mind reading. If it didn’t exist in the realm of reality, you couldn’t plan for it.
“Now, I am going to pass out an approval guideline. I want you all to divide into pairs and examine each other’s Life Plans for potential errors. This is not a time to be shy, people, remember that your futures are at stake. You don’t want to become one of the Undecided.”
