Cassia's Journal - PRIVATE DO NOT OPEN

Dear Diary,

Yesterday was an exciting day for me. I learned that I was Matched with my lifelong friend Xander. I really love him, and I love spending time with him, so our Match will be very successful. Not to mention that we already know each other, and do not have to spend our 'first meetings' getting to know more about each other. However, I do hate that our meetings must be supervised by an Official (I hope it isn't the one from the games room, I didn't like her very much), which I find pointless. What is there to supervise between two people who already know each other?! Anyway, at least I'll be spending a little 'alone' time with Xander; I haven't had a chance to talk to really talk to him since the Matching.

However, I can’t stop thinking about the other boy I saw, Ky. I remember when Xander and I first met Ky at the pool. Xander had lost his tablet container, only a few days after he first got it. I remember Ky had offered to help and he had almost drowned trying. His face had an almost-healed scar on it, something not common in a place so safe. He had said that he belonged here, in Oria. I don’t ever remember seeing him here, but I believed him. When I told Mother and Father about the new boy at the pool that day, they already knew about him. They told me how he was Patrick and Aida’s new son. I was happy to have a new boy to play with, and for the first few weeks, everybody seemed to know him, and want to talk to him. However, after that first month or so he seemed to disappear into the crowd of the First School. Ky joined our group of friends in Second School, but was soon whisked away to his work placement. Grandfather says that’s hard and unfulfilling work, working for the Food Disposal.

Last week, when I found out that he was an Aberration, it seemed to make sense. Sure, it was a terrible fate, and I could never imagine that someone I know could be one, but it made sense. He got his work placement early (and a bad one, at that), doesn't get much free time (even though he was only seventeen) and couldn't possibly be my Match. I feel sorry for him; why should he be punished for something he didn't do? But I guess that is how the Society must punish their criminals. People are much less likely to do bad things if their children will pay the price.

Anyway, I must not dwell on what could’ve been (even though Ky seems like such a nice boy, I love Xander, and I have a promising life with him to look forward to), and forget to live my life in the present. I promise to write tomorrow on how my outing with Xander went.

As always,

Cassia Reyes

I chose to write a journal entry for Cassia because she is the main protagonist in the trilogy, and nearly everything revolves around her. This time in her life is were everything started; where the 'mistake' of her Match happened, when she got the poem from her Grandfather (that made her see everything through different eyes), when Grandfather passed away, and when she saw Ky as more than Patrick and Aida's son. She is vital to the story (obviously) because she is the main character, and she also is the one taking part in the unveiling of the true evils of the Society.

The novel tells the story of when and how Cassia and Xander first met Ky at the pool, and I included a recollection of the days events. She talks about how after the pool, she found out that Ky had just moved in with the Markhams and would now be going to her school. In the actual novel, she includes many of her thoughts on life, the Society and Ky/Xander, so there wasn't much guess-work needed to write the entry. However, she never says that she didn't like the Official that told her about Ky's status; I just figured that she wouldn't want to see her again after she had given Cassia such shocking news. Also, I don't think Cassia ever suspected Ky of being an Aberration, but I think that by the end of the book, if she looked back to how this all began, she would have sneaking suspicions it.