Chapter 2

Mist was in their shared room, her nose glued to her tablet, and Rain would’ve assumed she was studying for one of her classes if she didn’t know her friend better. Mist’s caramel blonde hair was down, flowing across her back, frizz setting in with the afternoon and Mist’s fingers constantly playing through it. Rain couldn’t help but smile at her as she watched from the doorway of the room the pair shared with two other girls. When they were twenty-five, in four years, they’d be able to move to their own quarters, on a higher floor, should they choose to. Or they could stay in shared accommodations, if they preferred. Most women decided to stay with the same pod until they reached Grand-Motherhood, unless they chose to marry, in which case they’d be given one of the apartments on the other side of the building where couples were given more privacy. While there were benefits to marriage, Rain didn’t think that was the route for her. Not having to visit IW anymore would definitely be a good thing--as would not having to become a Mother. But she just didn’t feel the same sort of attraction to other women the way the Marrieds did. Rumors that some of them faked it to get out of IW or other duties seemed farfetched to her. After all, attending regular sessions at IW so as to reach Motherhood was an esteemed part of their society, not one to be tossed aside lightly. As for becoming a Mother, well, Rain could appreciate that they all had a duty to carry on womankind, but never knowing what would become of her children was an unsettling idea to consider.

Rain pushed all of that aside as she strolled into the room and put her backpack on her designated hook. Mist finally noticed her and looked up from her tablet. It was a nature video she had been watching, just as Rain had imagined. Mist was certainly more aptly named than she was. “Hey,” Rain said over her shoulder, finding the jeans she was looking for and stepping behind the privacy screen to change her clothes. “How’s your day been?”

“Good,” Mist said, a lilt to her voice. “We got out of agriculture class a little early, so I went out to the woods.”

Her voice was a whisper, despite the fact that the door to the hallway was closed and their roommates, Stormy and Sun, were not in the room. Still, Rain understood why she was whispering. She stuck her head around the screen momentarily as she fumbled with her black T-shirt. “Without me?”

“Sorry,” Mist said with a shrug. She was up now and crossing to the screen as Rain finished changing and dropped her uniform down the laundry shoot. The laundry girls would clean it and get it back to her, thanks to the scannable code sewed into every garment each girl was owned. Every girl served in the laundry room for at least three years, between the ages of ten and thirteen, and Rain had enjoyed her time there, but not enough to want to be a full-time laundress when she grew up, like the women who supervised the workers. There were also seamstresses who designed and sewed the clothing, which was also a highly regarded task, since it acknowledged the history of women, though some found it demeaning. Still, Rain had always known she wanted to work in medicine, though her current confusion about exactly what path she should take seemed to become further muddled the older she got, rather than clearing up as it tended to for so many others.

Rain stepped from behind the screen and sat down on her bed, the bottom bunk across from Mist’s. It was a decent sized room, large enough for the four beds, a programming screen on the wall, and a sitting area consisting of a large sofa and two chairs between the beds and the door, in front of the programming screen. But the women ate all of their meals in the cafeteria, and any snacks or other food were also consumed in the main hall where there was also plenty of seating and a programming screen. The screen in the cafeteria replayed videos about great Mothers that had come before them over and over again, reminding the girls of all the sacrifices other women had made so that they could enjoy the comforts they had today, living in a world where men could no longer hurt them. Most of the girls ignored those films that played in the background like white noise, preferring the programming that was available on each girls’ individual tablet. Many of the fictitious videos available, even the new ones, were so similar to the girls’ everyday life, they didn’t spend a lot of time watching programming anyway--except for people like Mist who loved to watch the videos of nature and animals and other non-plotted programming.

“Did you go back out there?” Rain asked, fixing the cuff of her jeans as Mist dropped down beside her. There was plenty of room for the girls to sit upright without hitting their heads on the bottom of the upper bunks.

The blonde shook her head, and her eyes began to sparkle slightly, the way they always did when she had something she wanted to say but she was afraid to say it. Rain looked at the door. Closed tightly. She had friends in Communications and knew the rumors that someone was always listening in on conversations, even in private rooms, wasn’t true. “Did you find something… else?” Rain asked.

Again, Mist’s head bobbed up and down, and she bit into her bottom lip, pinking it before she let go and said, “You’ll have to see. For yourself.”

Rain’s eyebrows knit together as she puzzled over what she could be talking about. “I’d like to, but it may be suspicious for you to go out there twice in one day.”

This time, Mist’s head shook the other way. “Nope. Not me. Anyone else, sure, but all the Mothers know how much I like the outdoors.”

“True,” Rain admitted. She had taken her shoes off when she was changing; now, she considered whether or not to put on her sneakers or something more durable. Considering the precipitation they’d gotten the day before, she said, “I’ll get my boots. “ Mist nodded, and Rain stood, hoping whatever it was Mist had found would be worth the risk.