Chapter One

The Society. The Society watches us all. They know what we eat. What we drink. When we go to sleep. When we wake up. They keep track of what we dream about. What our favorite things are. How many steps we take in a day. Nothing gets past them, they keep records of everyone. When you turn 15 things change for all of us.The Society makes a decision. And that decision is if we're irregulars or standards. Irregulars in our Society are considered people who are different, People who have higher skills. Their higher skills scare the leaders of the Society, so they're taken outside the borders of the city and never come back. No one knows what happens to them, all we know is that the Society finds Irregulars useful. Standards are people who have high skills but not as high as Irregulars.

I'm Josh Kent and today I am turning 15, meaning today The Society will decide whether I am an Irregular and have to be taken to who knows where or if I'm a standard who can stay here and live a good life. But I honestly never felt like a Standard, I feel different. Once when I was in 5th grade I got into a fight and ended up sending a kid to the hospital. Ever since that Day, I've always felt like I was being watched by the Society. So I am very nervous. I looked at myself in the mirror of my bathroom, I was an average boy at least that's what I thought. Anyways I have redish hair, blue eyes, and tan skin. My Mom always said I look like my Dad, you see I've never met my Dad, he died before I could meet him. But I still have my Mom and my little sister Lizbeth. "JoJo!" I opened the door to the bathroom and walked into the hallway to find my little sister at the bottom of the steps "Breakfast is ready!" she shouted when she spotted me.

When I walked down the stairs into the kitchen my Mom was cooking some fried eggs and my little sister Lizbeth was now sitting at the table eating some toast. "Hey Mom, Lizbeth." I said as I took a seat across from my sister. "Jo!Jo!" she shouted happily. "Hey Mister." My Mom said as she placed a plate of bacon and eggs in front of me. "Ready for your big day!" My Mom said trying to hide the worry of me ending up being an Irregular and having to be sent to who knows where never seeing them again. "Yes I don't know how it's gonna work but I think I'll be ok." I replied. No one knows how the Society decides if you're an Irregular or Standard, so you're pretty much going in blind. Which makes the whole thing seem a little more scarier than it actually is. "JoJo! I don't want you to go!" Lizbeth shouted. I smiled and looked at her "Don't worry Liz I promise I won't be going anywhere." I replied. From the corner of my eye I saw My Mom look down as if she knew something I didn't. "Ok if you say so JoJo!" she smiled and took another bite of her toast.

We were now outside of the test building. I looked around and noticed some people who I'm guessing got chosen as Standards went over to their Families with smiles on their faces and relief in their eyes. But others were walking out with 2 guards on either side of them, with sad faces and you could see the fear in their eyes. The Guards were taking them to a bus not even letting them say goodbye to their families, who were, now crying on the ground. This made a shiver run down my spine and I felt my Mom squeeze my hand, noticing how worried and scared I looked. We walked into the office and sat down in our seats, when my name got called, I took a breath and stood up. My Mom stood up as well and gave me a hug as she whispered something in my ear "No matter what, you stay Strong, don't let them break your strong spirit I love you Josh remember that." I tried to process what she said Does she know what's gonna happen? Or what they're going to choose me as? And what does she mean stay strong? All of these questions and I knew I wasn't gonna get any answers. "Josh Kent are you here?" I looked at the person in the doorway who called me earlier and raised my hand "I'm here!" I shouted.

The room they put me in was big with lots of floor space, all there was, was a glass window and I could see people on the other side with white clothes on and clipboards in their hands. The pressure was getting to me, I was scared. And what My Mom whispered to me before I walked in here didn't help. "Josh Kent right?" A lady behind the glass window asked. I nodded in response "Ok you're about to be tested on your skills when it comes to battle, you will be fighting our robots, when the test is over we will tell you you're results, did you get all that?" she said. "Yes." I replied as I got ready for battle. Suddenly the room went dark, the only light source in the room was from the lights behind the glass window. I closed my eyes and focused on the sounds around me, I heard something running towards me from behind, so I turned around and got ready for impact. In that moment everything happened so fast, the robot swung it's fists towards my face and I quickly dodged it, then the lights came back on and I saw the robot. It's whole body was a silver color and it's eyes were red, it was actually terrifying but I couldn't just stop fighting and risk getting killed so I got ready for it's next attack.

It's been about 20 minutes since me and this robot started throwing punches. I was standing in front of it looking directly into its red eyes and it was looking at me. "Come at me!" I shouted as I put my fists in front of my face. The robot seemed to understand me because now it was charging at me at full speed, so I charged at it as well, we met in the middle and the next thing I knew the robot's head was off. "Restrain him!" I heard the Lady from before shout. Two guards ran over to me and put my arms behind my back "What did I do?!" I shouted. "Shut it Irregular you're coming with us!" one of the guards shouted back sending a smack to my face leaving a stinging feeling on my cheek. I-Irregular? The guards forced me up and we walked outside, I saw my Mom and little sister and my eyes filled with tears I told my sister I wasn't going anywhere but I... "Jojo! No! You can't leave!" I heard her shout as I saw her break down and start crying. "You promised! You promised you weren't going anywhere!" She attempted to run towards me but one of the guards over there shoved her to the ground.

Something inside me snapped, next thing I knew I was running towards my sister and punching every guard that got in my way "Leave her alone!" I shouted as I grabbed Lizbeth and hugged her as she started crying more in my arms. "Lizbeth listen to me, I know I promised I wasn't going anywhere but apparently things changed." I whispered in her ear. "What are you saying, you're leaving?" she asked. I nodded and rubbed her head "But I promise I will come back and this promise is one I intend on keeping." I said as I saw the two guards who walked me out the room run over and grab me by my arms. I looked at my Mom and Lizbeth and smiled, I'm glad I got to see their faces one last time but I will see them again. I was put in a van instead of a bus with the other Irregulars probably because of what I did to get to my sister. If I'm being completely honest I was terrified at what was about to happen Are they going to kill me? I know we're being taken outside the border but all the other Irregulars never return, the only explanation to that was that they kill us once outside the city But why? What's so dangerous about us? I thought destroying the robot was the only way to pass the test. How do standards pass? By giving up? I had so many questions but I knew I wasn't getting any answers. My only goal at this point was to get out of here and get back to my sister just like I promised her.