Life Designed (Life Plan Series Book 1)

by Eliza Taye

  Life Designed

  Life Plan Series, Book 1

  By: Eliza Taye

  Copyright Page

  Copyright © 2020 by Eliza Taye

  All Rights Reserved

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book. The only exception is brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, businesses, organizations, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Dedication

  For all those whose lives have been derailed and changed forever from the worldwide coronavirus pandemic of 2020.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Review Request Page

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  More Books by Eliza Taye

  Chapter 1

  Opal strode down the steps, her confidence and excitement radiating through the huge grin on her face. After spending years writing and polishing the Life Plan that detailed the major events for the rest of her life, she had finally submitted it for pre-approval. With each step, the heavy weight of anxiety and anticipation lifted from her chest. In less than two weeks, she would become a Declarer and her life would begin along the path she’d written for herself.

  “Hey, Opal!” Garrett jogged over to Opal with a wave. “How was it?”

  Opal smiled back at her best friend and rushed down the last few stairs of City Hall. “Hey, Garrett, I don’t know yet. They still have to review everything I’ve written. How is your Plan coming?”

  Garrett winced slightly and scratched the side of his nose.

  Opal knew those gestures. Garrett was trying to hide his procrastination. “Garrett, you have two weeks left to plan out your entire life! Why are you still waiting?”

  “That’s exactly it, Opal. I have two whole weeks left to plan everything.” Garrett clasped his hands together, throwing them behind his head and resting them on his shoulders. “I’ll be fine. I don’t understand the importance of getting it done so early. Why can’t I just throw it together at the last minute?”

  Opal peered at him through slit eyes. “Like you do your schoolwork? That isn’t going to cut it, Garrett. You know this is how our world works…if we don’t have our entire lives planned out by the time we are seventeen, you know what will happen.” Opal glanced around to see if anyone was listening.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. You’ll become one of the Undecided and be forced to do whatever odd jobs society needs. Any essential jobs society has to fill that none of the Decideds planned to do in their Life Plans, I know.”

  “Yes, and it is never good. You have to start your Plan.”

  Garrett let his arms fall back to his side as Opal and he continued to walk down the street. “Ah, Opal, why can’t you just write it for me? You know me better than anyone else and you always have everything planned out so perfectly. I mean, I don’t know anyone else who has their Plan ready for pre-approval almost two whole weeks before Submission Day.”

  Opal breathed in deeply and let it out with pride. “Well, I like to ensure that everything is perfect. If anything may be denied it gives me a chance to change things before they’re finalized. I want my entire life to be perfect.”

  They continued along the bland white stone pathway leading from City Hall to the rest of the city. The blue-tinted sky above them so dark it almost appeared black was dimly lit by the reflection of light from the distant blue sun bouncing off the two moons, Eris and Maytenar. To illuminate the darkness, their city, Galaxcion, used lampposts with white bulbous lightbulbs to shine brilliant light along the pathways. Several other people besides Opal and Garrett walked along the lit pathways, but for a workday, there were fewer than normal.

  “Oh, no.” Garrett hopped over to the other side of Opal in one swift movement.

  “What?” Opal examined Garrett with questioning eyes.

  “Oh, nothing.” Garrett pretended to act nonchalant, but he still tried his best to hide behind Opal’s thin form.

  Whipping her head back around to her left, Opal noticed a girl with long-flowing brown hair walking up to a street vendor selling bracelets. “Oh, I see. It’s her.”

  “Yeah,” murmured Garrett.

  “Is she still stalking you? Or is it that she coincidentally happened to be in the same place as you again.” The corner of Opal’s mouth twitched into a small smile.

  Garrett, in his annoyance, forgot that he was trying to hide and bounced in front of Opal, walking backward as he spoke. “Hey, she’s crazy. If I had any idea how crazy she was, I never would have dated her.”

  Opal glanced back over at the girl, who was giving the vendor the money and receiving her purchased item. “She doesn’t seem that bad. She is one of the most popular girls in our academy.”

  “Yeah, she might be popular, but it’s because she puts on a front for others.”

  “I don’t know, Garrett. She’s been nice when I’ve met her.”

  “Yeah, well you’ve never been one-on-one with her…that’s when the crazy comes out.”

  “Well, she just noticed us.” Opal raised her hand and waved.

  Garrett’s umber brown eyes bulged as his mouth hung open in shock.

  The girl grinned and waved back at them with exaggerated glee.

  “Please, don’t come over here. Please don’t come over here,” repeated Garrett under his breath over and over as he waved back half-heartedly.

  Against Garrett’s wishes, the girl glanced both ways across the empty street and started running over towards Opal and Garrett.

  “Well, if she’s got time for socializing, I suspect that she’s finished her Life Plan,” Opal smirked at Garrett and tucked back a loose strand of her apple-red hair into her ponytail.

  “Yeah, she probably put me down as her future husband too.” Garrett slowly inched toward the other side of Opal, placing her between him and his ex.

  Opal narrowed her emerald eyes and tapped her foot against the pathway. “Garrett, have you even read the restrictions on what is and isn’t allowed in your Life Plan? You can’t plan super specific things like who you will marry. You can only plan when you’ll be married.”

  “Okay, okay, I get it. Come up with some excuse for us to leave, because she’s coming this way,” insisted Garrett through clenched teeth.

  “Hi, Garrett!” exclaimed the girl in excitement. The girl’s hazel eyes twinkled like a diamond as she gazed longingly at Garrett.

  “Hi, Miranda.”

  Smiling over at Opal, Miranda greeted her, “O
h, hi, Opal. How are you?”

  “I’m doing fine, I…”

  “We have somewhere we need to be. We were on our way home, so we need to get going.” As the sentence went on, Garrett picked up speed and started fidgeting. “So, sorry we can’t stay and talk, Miranda. See you around.”

  Before she could say anything in protest, Garrett took off down the pathway at the fastest walk he could muster.

  “I, uh…” Miranda replied to his fleeting image.

  Patting her shoulder in sympathy, Opal explained, “He’s just in a really big hurry. His parents wanted him home a while ago and they’re pretty strict.”

  “Uh, huh…” was all Miranda said.

  “Well, I have to go. I’ll see you in academy, Miranda.” Without another word, Opal left Miranda on the pathway, dumbstruck.

  “Garrett Nathaniel Gibbons!”

  Hearing the furious voice of his mother, Garrett threw down the book he was reading and replaced it with his academy textbook.

  The door flew open, creaking against its barely oiled hinges. “How many times do I have to tell you that you are to be here to feed Mr. Snuggles and tidy any mess he’s made before your father and I get home? He left another ‘gift’ by the front door again.”

  Garrett glanced down at Mr. Snuggles, their pet cat rubbing against his mother’s legs and giving him the cat’s version of the stink eye. Mr. Snuggles was supposed to have been his pet, but the cat liked his mother more than he ever did him. “I’m sorry, Mom, I had to go somewhere today.”

  “Mhm.” Garrett’s mom folded her arms and tilted her head to the side, her straight black hair falling slightly over her shoulder. “How is your Life Plan going?”

  Garrett opened his mouth and rattled off a response. “It’s going well. It’s pretty broad right now, but I’m still fixing some things. It will definitely be completed on time.”

  Sighing, Garrett’s mom unfolded her arms. “Garrett, why is it that I don’t believe you?”

  Scratching the top of his head and wincing, Garrett responded, “I don’t know, Mom. Maybe you should have more faith in your one and only beloved son?”

  Shaking her head, Garrett’s mom began closing the door, muttering to herself about trying to teach and discipline her son.

  Once Garrett was certain his mom was down the hall and out of earshot, he slid off his twin-size bed and stumbled across the room, trying to avoid his belongings scattered on the floor. Finally making it to his desk, he twisted the top of a silver cube centered atop it. The top folded down and expanded into a keyboard. An internal orb extended up and then a projection popped up and asked for a login. Garrett typed lightning fast on the keyboard and was allowed into his account. Clicking on the icon in the bottom left-hand of the screen, a black window with a spiraling set of stars centered itself across the entire screen.

  After the loading ceased, a picture appeared on the black screen.

  “Opal?”

  “Yeah, I’m here,” came Opal’s voice, loud and clear as crystal.

  “Opal, I don’t know what to do. My mom’s asking about my Life Plan again.”

  “Garrett,” Opal stopped drying the inside of the dish she had just washed and placed it on the counter. “Why don’t you just write your Life Plan? Everyone else is nearly finished with theirs. You’re going to have to do it sooner or later. It might as well be now.”

  Garrett rolled his head in exasperation, “Opal, can’t you just do it for me?”

  “Garrett, I told you before, no.”

  “Please?”

  “Garrett!” Opal switched on the visual portion of her sciorb, replacing her picture with the live image of her face so Garrett could see her annoyance. “I’ve told you that it isn’t possible. The Council would know, and you would be placed into the Undecided regardless.”

  In defeat, Garrett fell back into the chair behind him. “I just don’t know what to say to my mom when she keeps asking about it.”

  “What about the truth?”

  Garrett gawked at the screen, his thick, black eyebrows rising to the ceiling. “Are you kidding me? She would kill me for sure, you know that. Both my parents are strict, but my mom’s the worse of all.”

  “Why is it that the parents who don’t care whether or not their child does well are always the one who has the child that is the overachiever? And the ones who do care are the ones with the kids slacking off?”

  “Well, maybe our parents should have switched us at birth, then they could have had all they wanted.”

  “No, that wouldn’t have worked.” Opal couldn’t help smiling at the thought though. She loved Garrett’s parents. They’d always been nice to her since both she and Garrett were little. After a while, she’d recognized that their strict behavior toward Garrett stemmed from their love for him, not simply to annoy him like Garrett thought.

  “Hey, did you get tomorrow’s agenda from the academy distribution site yet?” inquired Garrett. “I still haven’t printed mine.”

  Sighing loudly, Opal shifted the cube to sit on the sill above the sink so she could continue talking to Garrett and still wash the dishes. “Garrett, sometimes I worry that you wouldn’t be able to function as a human being without my help.”

  “Yeah, that’s a reoccurring nightmare of mine,” joked Garrett. When Opal didn’t retort with a snarky reply, he asked. “Are you sending it?”

  “Nope, I’m already ahead of you. I sent it before I left for City Hall earlier today.”

  “Aw, Opal, you know me so well.” Garrett’s white teeth flashed against his brown skin as he grinned into the screen.

  “I know, we have been friends for most of our lives. I’d be an idiot not to know you better than myself by now.”

  “Garrett! It’s dinnertime, get out of that room!”

  “Hey, my mom is calling. Gotta go.”

  “Over and out,” replied Opal as she put down a plate and picked up the sciorb. Garrett’s face disappeared and she placed the sciorb out of the way where it would be safe from splashing water.

  Opal carefully took her time finishing the dishes until they were spotless to her satisfaction and then gently put them away in the appropriate cupboards. Walking through the doorway to the kitchen, she entered the immaculate living room where her family was sitting.

  “Hey, Opal, do you want to play with us?” asked her little sister, Gabrielle. Even though they were eight years apart, Gabrielle was essentially Opal’s twin. Both sisters had the same shade of apple-red hair and emerald green eyes.

  “No, I think I’d rather research our occupation tours tomorrow. I want to know as much as I can. Sorry, Gabrielle.”

  Gabrielle flicked the dice across the board without looking up and responded, “That’s okay…I think I’m beating Mom and Dad already anyway.”

  “Oh, honey, sit down. It won’t take long,” urged her mother, Holly.

  “Yeah, Opal, your mother is right. I’m certain you know it all backward and forwards anyway. You always overstudy and then spend time obsessing that you don’t know enough,” psychoanalyzed her dad, Alan.

  “No, I’m sorry, but I really do want to keep looking at what the academy sent us. Who knows, I may alter my Life Plan after seeing one of the occupational tours tomorrow.”

  Her mom laughed. “Opal, you’ve known what you’ve wanted to do for over three years. I doubt one occupational tour would change your mind at the last minute.”

  Opal shrugged. “You never know, Mom. The world works in mysterious ways.”

  Shaking her head, Holly knew not to push the topic any further. When it came to Opal’s Life Plan, there was no reasoning with her. The whole family knew it.

  As her family continued playing their dice game, Opal turned to the narrow wooden staircase in the corner of the living room across from the front entryway and made her way up the stairs. Lightly brushing her hand against the handrail in case she lost her balance, she allowed her thoughts to wander. Reaching the top step, she paused. Had she really des
igned the best Life Plan possible?

  Shaking off the troubling thought, she opened the door to her bedroom directly across from the staircase. Instantly, the atmosphere of her bedroom filled her with familiarity and comfort. The light purple painted walls always gave her the serenity she needed after a long stressful day at academy. Kicking her shoes off near the door and placing them beside each other at the bottom of her closet, she slipped on her house shoes and sat on the bed.

  Falling backward onto her purple bedspread, she mentally reviewed the Life Plan she had just submitted for pre-approval. Her chosen career path was to be a lawyer. She would attend the Academy of Higher Learning School of Law right after primary academy. Within five years, she would have her degree and be accepted at a law firm. By working hard, in five additional years, she would be well on her way to the top of her field. At thirty, she planned to marry and have two children. At the age of sixty, she would retire to do charity work until she died.

  Of course, there were additional plans in between the ones she’d highlighted, but they weren’t as important. Even though the Life Plans were guaranteed if approved, Opal worried there was still too much uncertainty in life for her tastes. Rules and guidelines dictated how detailed a Life Plan could be and she felt that too many of them left possibilities for negative outcomes. For one, no one could plan when or how they would die. True, if one’s plan was approved, then they were guaranteed to live long enough to carry it out, but you could die the day after your retirement plans or years afterward. Another rule that disconcerted Opal was not being able to choose your future spouse—not that she had anyone in mind, but she’d heard of situations where someone married another person whose Life Plan was compatible, but who was incompatible in some other way. Once approved, a Life Plan was set in stone, there was no altering it. It was a big decision, creating and finalizing one’s Life Plan. One wrong decision and one could be doomed forever.

  Opal jerked into a sitting position, folding her legs and resting her elbows on her knees. There was just so much to consider. The proposal she had submitted was over eight pages long. When she had asked her peers and parents how long theirs were, most ranged between three and five pages. Had she gone overboard?