"AMBER!" Ty shouts, jumping on top of me, quickly waking me from a deep sleep.

"Hey Bud," I say, smiling.

"Amber, get up!" My mom calls from down the hall, "You know what today is."

"Yes Mom."

Ty starts bouncing on my legs. I pick him up and hold the squirming five year old above me.

"Amber!" Ty shrieks "Put me down!"

I laugh, "Never!"

"Amber and Ty! That's enough! You need to get ready, now!"

Whoops.

"I'm sorry Mom!"

Ty looks at me sadly.

"Okay buddy," I say, "time to get ready."

I go and take a shower, and when I go back to my room I find that my mother has laid out a beautiful dress for me to wear.

The dress is a plum colour. The top is like a short sleeved blouse, and around the waist there is a bow, and the bottom is just a plain skirt. I love it.

I put the dress on, and then my mother comes into my room.

"Oh Amber! You look gorgeous!"

"I love this dress so much! Where did you get it?"

"It's a special dress that I've had for a long time. Maybe one day I'll tell you the story."

I want to tell her to tell me the story now, because I may not be here tomorrow, but instead I just nod my head.

My mom sits me down and does my hair into a fancy french-fishtail-twist.

"Do you want makeup Amber?"

"Ehh," I contemplate it, "no thanks."

I'm becoming government property, not going to prom. I'm fancy enough thank you.

But of course I don't say any of this. I want my memories of this day to be sweet ones, not sour moments because I was grumpy, or rude.

"Here Amber," my mother says, interrupting my thoughts. "Put these on."

She hands me a pair of silver flats, which go perfectly with my dress.

"Thanks you," I breathe.

Soon enough, we are all ready, and we head to the city square. It is packed. I have to leave and go stand with the other fifteen year old girls, so first I kiss each member of my family, and then go stand beside Tasha.

"My boyfriend is here," she whispers to me.

"Cool. You look really nice."

And she does. Tasha's strawberry blonde hair is up in a perfect ballerina bun, and her dress is a flowy white one that makes her look like an angel.

Then the ceremony starts. A representative from the ADCCG gives a speech about how important all of this is. Then she goes over the new drawing procedures, and starts the draw.

"Okay!" She shouts into the mic.

"And the lucky girl is..."

She over exaggeratedly fishes around in the bowl, and comes up with a slip of paper.

"Amber Matlock!"

I hear a shriek, one that could only belong to my mother.

"Amber, please come up to the stage."

I push my way through the crowd, and walk up onto the stage.

"And here she is! Amber Matlock, Manitoba's ADCCG girl of 2056! Let's all give her a big hand!"

And the crowd does clap politely for me, but most of them just feel sorry for me. And the other girls are just glad that it's me instead of them.

The woman says a few more things, and then hurries me off the stage.

She looks me in the eye.

"Okay honey. In case you missed it, I'm Sandra. You are doing a very good job of staying calm. I'll tell you, we've had much more emotional people over the years."

"I'm generally a pretty calm person," I tell Sandra.

"Awesome. Right now, you're going to get a chance to say your goodbyes. Anyone who wants to say goodbye is waiting in a different room. After you've seen everyone, I'll be back in here."

And with that Sandra leaves the room.

In come some of my friends from school. Beth, Maddy, Joanne, and Ashlyn. But not Tasha.

The girls all hug me, and cry. I hug back, and say that I'll miss them. They wish me the best, and go on their way.

Then my old neighbour comes in, and the frail old lady hugs me, and says that I've always been a good person. I'm not quite sure what she means bye that, but I thank her and say goodbye.

Then it's Tasha's turn. She enters the room crying, even though she knew this was coming.

"Amber!"

I hold her tight, and we cry.

Ten minutes later, there is a knock on the door, and a guard tells us that Tasha's time with me is up.

"Bye Tasha! I love you!"

Then, my family comes in. Ty jumps into my lap. I hug him tight, and give him a kiss.

He is whimpering, "what if I have to go? I don't want to go, Amber!"

"Hush. It's okay Ty. You'll never have to go bud. I promise!"

"Okay," he whimpers, his tearful face staring up at mine.

Then I look over to my mother, who is crying buckets.

"Oh Amber!" she says, "My poor baby Amber!"

"It's okay mom," I say, "I'm tough."

She nods, and my father smiles.

"I love you guys so much. All I ask is that you don't forget me."

"Amber," my father starts.

"Amber we'll never forget you!" My mother shrieks.

Then, the knock on the door come.

Time is up.

I release Ty from my lap, and hug and kiss them all one last time.

"Goodbye!" I say sadly.

---

Sandra enters the room again, and explains to me that we are going to board a plane that will take us to ADCCG headquarters, which is a secret location.

The two of us board the plane, and I ask her why I can't bring anything with me.

"The ADCCG has everything you could possibly need."

Okay. Then hopefully it won't be like my dream.

Then Sandra explains to me that tonight I will meet the other 12 girls that were drawn today. We will be staying in a large hotel room together, and they will take us to the ADCCG tomorrow.

After that, Sandra pulls out a book and starts to read. I fall asleep.

---

Sandra shakes me awake.

"Amber! It's time to meet the girls!"

I groggily follow her off the plane, into a black SUV, and to a hotel.

I zone out through a little introductory speech, and just catch that we're going around introducing ourselves by name and province.

The first girl starts.

"Umm, I'm Sadie, I'm from British Columbia."

She is pale, with incredibly long brown hair, and beautiful, but scary grey eyes.

"I'm Zoe, from Ontario," she says, sticking her nose in the air. Of course. Ontario can be a snotty province, being home to Canada's capital and all. She flips her hair and sighs.

The next few girls all blend together, Aria from Alberta, Erica from Newfoundland, who for all the money in the world, looks like a duck. No joke, she has like permanent duck face going on. And there's Marie from Quebec.

The next girl that stands out is Tess, from Nova Scotia. She is really short, and has very pale skin, dark hair, and pretty blue eyes. She looks like someone I could actually be friends with.

Then Beatrice from Saskatchewan, Dawn from Prince Edward Island, Maggie from New Brunswick, Ana from Nunavut, Paige from the North West Territories, and Jenna, from the Yukon Territory.

After we're done, ADCCG reps take us to our hotel rooms.

As we walk, I say to Sandra, "I hope you don't expect me to remember all of those!"

She just laughs.

"Goodnight Amber!"

I've already forgotten most names. I remember Zoe, the snotty one, Duckface, Tess, and...

That's it.

I sleep.

---

💚😝