The Underappreciated Virtues of Rusty Old Bicycles by Corinna Turner

Author:Corinna Turner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure, action, teen, catholic, youth, futuristic, christian, ya, dystopian, i am margaret
Publisher: Corinna Turner

The classroom was unusually quiet, bags and small cases cluttering the aisles. Taking my place quickly, I glanced around. There were only two preKnowns in the class. Harriet looked sick and resigned, but Sarah didn’t understand about her Sorting or the Facility or anything as complex as that. The known Borderlines were every shade of pale. The Safe looked sober but a little excited. The preSorting ban on copulation would be gone tomorrow. No doubt the usual orgy would ensue.

Bane’s last words stuck in my mind. I knew that glint in his eye. I should’ve urged him much more strenuously not to do anything rash. Not to put himself in danger. Now it was too late.

“I saw you and Bane,” giggled Sue, beside me. “Jumping the gun a little, aren’t you?”

“As if you haven’t done any gun jumping yourself,” I murmured. Sue just giggled even harder.

“Margy…? Margy…?”

“Hi, Sarah. Have you got your bag?”

Sarah nodded and patted the shabby bag beside her.

“They explained to you, right? That you’ll be going on a sleep-over?”

Sarah nodded, beaming, and pointed at me. “Margy come too?”

“Perhaps. Only the most special children will be going, you know.”

Sarah laughed happily. I swallowed bile and tried not to curse the stupid driver who’d knocked her down all those years ago and left her like this. Tried not to curse her parents, who’d put her into care, sued the driver for his Child Permittance so they could replace her, and promptly moved away.

“Children…” The deputy headmistress. She waited for quiet. “This is the last time I will address you as such. This is a very special day for you all. After your Sorting, you will be legally adults.”

Except those of us who would scarcely any longer count as human. She didn’t mention that bit.

“Now, do your best, all of you. Doctor Vidran is here from the EGD to oversee your Sorting. Over to you, Doctor Vidran…”

Doctor Vidran gave a long and horrible speech about the numerous benefits Sorting brought to the human race. By the time he’d finished I was battling a powerful urge to go up and shove his laser pointer down his throat. I managed to stay in my seat and concentrated on trying to love this misguided specimen of humanity, to forgive him his part in what was probably going to happen to me. It was very difficult.

“…A few of you will of course have to be reAssigned, and it is important that we always remember the immense contribution the reAssigned make, in their own way...”

Finally he shut up and bade us turn our attention to our flickery desk screens for the Intellectual Tests. My happiness at his silence took me through Esperanto, English, Geography, History, ComputerScience, Biology, Chemistry and Physics without hitch, but then came Math.

I tried. I really, really tried. I tried until I thought my brain would explode and then I thought about Bane and my parents and I tried some more. But it was no good. No motivation on earth could enable me to do most of those sums without a calculator.

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