Life Designed (Life Plan Series Book 1)

by Eliza Taye

  Garrett sped through the books, scanning for anything that would explain in more detail about The Council and their identity, but everything remained vague. It was like someone had purposely danced around giving any real information on The Council when they wrote the books.

  For hours, Opal and Garrett scanned through the books, but they couldn’t find anything that would satiate Garrett’s curiosity about The Council.

  “Garrett, it’s hopeless. We aren’t finding anything. We aren’t going to find anything.”

  Garrett shoved the book he was reading aside, causing one teetering on the edge to fall over and collapse on the floor with a thud. “This doesn’t make any sense! It should be here. There must be something here. If anything would have detailed something more about The Council, it would have been in one of these books.”

  “It’s not,” Opal shook her head, genuinely sad for her friend. “Garrett, I’m sorry, but there’s nothing here. I even looked up council representatives and I did find something on that, but nothing really telling about The Council.”

  Balling his fists and then releasing his tension, Garrett spat, “Then why do they keep this room so secretive?”

  Opal shrugged. “Perhaps it’s because the books are old and they don’t want anyone harming them. Old books do need special care, you know.”

  “No, Opal, that doesn’t fit. I mean, think about how Miss Lyons acted when I kept asking about the room.” Garrett resumed his searching. “No, there has to be something here.”

  “Garrett,” Opal sighed his name in exhaustion. “We need to go. People will start emerging on the streets soon. We need to be out of here before then. We’ve been searching for three hours. We’ve risked enough staying here as long as we have.”

  Garrett knew Opal was right, he just didn’t want to give up. Everything he’d gone through to get here couldn’t end up like this. He’d found nothing! It’d been pointless. Pointless to ask Simon for help. Pointless to follow and watch the librarian enter her code. Pointless spending his life savings on a lockaway device. Just pointless! He couldn’t accept that.

  “No, Opal. I have to keep looking.” Leaping from his chair, he returned to the shelved books they’d already searched through, pulling them back down and giving them another look through. “I must have missed something before.”

  Standing and walking over to Garrett, Opal said, “No, Garrett. You didn’t miss anything. There’s nothing here. We tried our best.”

  Garrett refused to leave it at that. He kept scanning through the books. Tomorrow was Submission Day. He didn’t have any time left to go through this again. He had no other plans left. This was his plan. He couldn’t let it go awry.

  Opal watched her friend pull four more books from the shelf before stopping him as he went to pull down a fifth. “Enough, Garrett. We need to go.”

  “No, Opal!” Garrett tried to pull the book in his grasp off the shelf, but Opal kept her grip firm. “Opal, let go.”

  “No, Garrett. I won’t let go. We need to leave and this time I’m not taking no for an answer. I’m not leaving you alone either.” Opal gently forced the book back onto the shelf and pulled Garrett over to the table. “Now, help me put these away. We need to leave the room like we’d never been here.”

  At first, Garrett fumed where he stood, his hands clamped into fists, but reluctantly, he began helping Opal. With a defeated look upon his face, he checked the room with her, setting everything back into its proper place.

  “Everything looks good,” appraised Opal, hands on her hips. “Now, let’s go,”

  Without a word of protest, Garrett followed Opal out the door and back down to the storage room they’d first entered into.

  Once outside the door, Opal spun on Garrett, her forefinger raised at him. “Garrett, that’s it. This nonsense has to stop. You’ve wasted the last several days on this manhunt for The Council and now you have one day left to write the Plan that will determine your entire life. If you put half the effort into writing your Life Plan that you have in breaking into City Hall and this library, you’ll have a masterpiece of a Life Plan. There’s no more time left; you have to write one.”

  Garrett simply stood there with his head hung low and nodded in defeat. Opal was right. They hadn’t found anything. He had wasted days of planning. Now if he wanted to keep from being one of the Undecided, he had to cram in a legitimate Plan before the end of the day or he was doomed to be an Undecided for the rest of his life.

  Chapter 16

  “Garrett! Wake up, it’s time to go to your last day at academy!”

  Garrett jerked awake in his bed, his tousled, curly hair all over his head. Rubbing the crust from the corner of his eyes, he moved his aching body. Normally, he wasn’t a morning person, and getting only two hours of sleep last night hadn’t made things any better.

  Placing his bare feet on the hardwood floor, Garrett stumbled towards his closet to get ready for the day. After Opal and he parted ways at the library early that morning, Garrett had had a lot to contemplate. Figuring out and writing his Life Plan in one day was going to be a feat beyond epic proportions. He wasn’t even sure if it was possible. Maybe if he skipped academy today he could.

  Rifling through his clothes, nothing seemed to fit his official last day of academy. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he reasoned that he shouldn’t go. Today’s task was supposed to be proofing each other’s Life Plans and he didn’t have one to proof. He’d be better off spending the entire day writing his Plan. Surely, his teachers would understand if he skipped today to work on his Life Plan.

  Garrett shook his head. They’d never believe him even if he explained it to them. They’d seen him writing like mad throughout class yesterday and everyone assumed he was working on his Plan.

  Still, Garrett couldn’t stand the thought of sitting through class, listening to everyone finishing the last touches on their Life Plans knowing he’d failed at discovering who The Council was and how they worked. With his failure still so fresh in his head, he couldn’t focus on his upcoming class.

  With a determined scowl, Garrett threw together an outfit, combed his hair, and slung his backpack over his shoulder. He stomped down the stairs to find his mother in the kitchen just placing breakfast on the table.

  “Hey, Garrett. Come eat a nice breakfast on your last day of academy. Your father and I are astonished but proud of the turnaround you’ve made. Your teacher Mr. Gargen called yesterday and said you were writing your Life Plan like a madman in class yesterday. He emphasized how impressed he was by your sudden dedication.” Mrs. Gibbons’ brown eyes were glistening with unshed tears, both her hands grasped over her heart.

  Garrett paused in the archway to the kitchen, unsure of how to react. His father had placed the article he’d been reading on the table and stared expectantly at him. His mother awaited a response as well.

  “Um, well. I…” Garrett’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “I’d say you finally got a dose of reality, and just in time too.” His father resumed his article, scooping a forkful of eggs from his plate and shoveling them into his mouth.

  “Benjamin,” scolded Mrs. Gibbons, giving her husband a displeased glare. Turning back to Garrett, she gestured to his seat at the table. “Come on and join us.”

  Garrett followed his mom’s outstretched hand to the plate filled with eggs, fruit, and his favorite flatbread called soven. His stomach stirred at the sight of the food and he realized he hadn’t eaten in quite a while. Although his stomach nudged him to eat, he didn’t feel like eating anything. “It’s okay, Mom. I want to get to academy a little early today. Besides, I told Opal I’d walk to her house so we could take the transporter together.”

  Mrs. Gibbons’ face fell at her son’s rejection of the food she’d worked hard to prepare that morning. She’d been so excited to spoil him by handmaking his favorite bread. After waking up almost two hours early to prepare it, she’d hoped for a better reacti
on. After all, the final day at academy for a student was such a momentous day for both parents and their children. “Very well, then, Garrett.”

  Feeling his mother’s sadness emanating towards him, he took four long strides into the kitchen and scooped her into his arms in a big hug. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll take some soven for the road and eat it on the way.” As he embraced her, he reached for the soven and picked up three slices of it, wrapping it in a napkin.

  At the gesture, his mother’s face brightened again. “All right, Garrett. See you this afternoon.”

  With a pang, he realized he’d have to find some time to steal a photo of her badge this afternoon to fulfill his promise to Simon. He just hoped it wouldn’t get her into any trouble at work.

  Without another word, he left the house, closing the door softly behind him. As he started walking towards Opal’s house, he considered what he’d do with his day. There was a nice park not too far from where they lived where he could sit and write his Plan. The only problem was, he still didn’t know what he wanted to be. He didn’t even know if he wanted to get married and have kids. It seemed like the only things Garrett felt confident about were the things forbidden in Life Plans. He knew he didn’t want a sucky job or to be married to Miranda, but he couldn’t specify those things.

  Before he realized it, he’d passed Opal’s house and found himself standing alone at the transport station. As he watched the transporters arrive and depart, he felt an emptiness growing inside him. He had no idea what to do and no one to talk to about it. Everyone he knew thought he’d finally cracked down and gotten to work on his Life Plan. Well, Opal knew he hadn’t, but he didn’t want to hear her patronizing talk right now. It wasn’t going to help matters.

  Glancing to the side, he noticed the board listing all the transporter routes and their destinations. As he stared at the board, his eyes locked on the transporter line that headed towards the Undecided sector. Without thinking, he jumped onto the transporter with that destination blinking in bright white lights at the top.

  Trapped in the fog of his own thoughts, he sat in silence, staring down at his shoes until he reached the end of the line. Disembarking, he shoved his hands in his pockets and starting walking on the narrowing pathway towards the Undecided sector. Keeping his eyes down, he noticed out his peripheral vision that most of the people were leaving the Undecided sector on their way to work in the Decided part of town, not walking to the Undecided sector like he was.

  Garrett could only imagine the stares he was getting for walking in the opposite direction, but he didn’t care enough to glance up. He simply maintained his direction. Before long, he found himself standing in front of Darrington Library. The entire street was just as deserted in the morning as when he’d visited in the evening. Garrett began to wonder if April was even working there so early in the morning. Glancing at his interwave, he saw it was 8:05am.

  Looking down both sides of the street, the place appeared less gloomy than it did in the afternoons and evenings, but it was still deserted. If the library wasn’t open and he started poking around, would people think he was looking to steal something?

  Shaking off his ridiculous thoughts, he ascended the creaky front steps. Hesitantly, he tried the front door and found it unlocked. Instead of calling out to April, he crept inside and tried to shut the door without a sound, but the slower he moved it, the more it creaked. With a wince, it finally shut with a muted thud as he had to add force to make it close.

  Luckily, whoever was in the library must not have heard the noise because no one called out. Garrett walked through the first floor, perusing through the children’s books and books for the elderly. He found the sciorbs April had mentioned that didn’t work in one of the back corners. They appeared old. Some had rusted edges and tops.

  Garrett reached out to touch one when a voice startled him. “Garrett, what are you doing here?”

  Jerking to his full height and spinning around, Garrett saw April in the doorway, her head cocked to the side, and her eyes watching him with a quizzical gaze. “I uh, um…well.” Garrett winced and tried his best not to scratch the side of his nose.

  April glanced to the side in thought, then set the books she was carrying on a nearby end table already filled with books. “It’s Third Moon, so it’s an academy day. Tomorrow is Submission Day, so…so you should be at your academy, right?”

  Not trusting his voice, Garrett simply nodded.

  “So why aren’t you?”

  Shrugging and looking down at the floor, Garrett responded, “I don’t know.”

  April walked gingerly over to him, saying as she walked, “Garrett, is there something wrong?”

  At her soft, kind words Garrett raised his gaze to meet her warm brown eyes filled with such curiosity and concern that it surprised him. April hardly knew him, but she seemed so concerned about his well-being. How could someone as nice and caring as she was wind up as an Undecided? It just wasn’t fair.

  Averting his eyes again, Garrett confessed, “I just don’t know, April. So much of this doesn’t make sense. I don’t know what to do about it anymore.”

  April frowned. “What do you mean it doesn’t make sense?”

  Part of his frustration overriding his apprehension, Garrett blurted. “The whole Life Plan thing! I mean, why should you be part of the Undecided when you had a Life Plan written and all figured out? You’re so nice and smart, you shouldn’t be here.”

  Once the words were out of his mouth, Garrett regretted them. Once again, he’d insulted April without meaning too.

  April pressed her lips into a thin line, then pulled one of the rickety chairs from in front of the sciorb in front of her and sat down, gesturing for Garrett to do the same. “Garrett, I don’t know why my life ended up the way it did. Yes, it definitely sucks that I have to live a different life than I’d planned for, but it’s too late for that now. But it’s not too late for you. You still have a chance.”

  Garrett sat down in the chair April had pointed to. “I just wish I knew how it all worked.”

  “Is that why you’ve been trying to research The Council and how the Life Plans work?”

  “Yes, I figured if I could find out about them and learn how they work then maybe…” Garrett paused.

  April leaned in, trying to catch his downturned gaze. “Then what?”

  Garrett raised his head and met her gaze but didn’t speak.

  “It’s okay, you can tell me. It’s just the two of us here.” April smiled warmly and gave him a curt nod.

  “Then maybe I could figure out how to change it or fix it. I don’t know. Maybe I was just looking for a misdirection.”

  April frowned, then her eyes widened and she gasped at him in horror. “Garrett, have you not completed your Life Plan?”

  At first, Garrett simply stared at her, then he slowly shook his head. He’d never felt ashamed to say he hadn’t been working on his Life Plan or that he hadn’t finished it, but in front of April, he was ashamed. She was someone who’d lost their chance at the life they’d always dreamed of and here he was risking his chance on a conspiracy. To have to admit to her that he hadn’t even been trying to write one would be pure cruelty.

  “Garrett, please tell me it isn’t true.”

  Turning to the side, then facing her again, Garrett replied, “I wish I could, April, but then I’d be lying to you and I don’t want to lie to you.”

  For several long seconds, April didn’t say anything. Her eyes just kept searching his like they would betray the truth to her of why he hadn’t finished his Plan. Eventually, she responded, “I appreciate you not lying to me, Garrett. But I have to ask…why?”

  Sighing, Garrett didn’t know how to answer that question. If he was honest with himself, subconsciously, he’d been trying to figure that out too. “I don’t know, April. I guess I’ve just never known what I wanted. I’ve lived my life more for the moment than anything else. The future seems so daunting. I mean, even if I get to plan my life, the t
hings I do want to plan are against the rules. I want to plan when and how I die, who I’m forced to spend the rest of my life with, and the option to change things up if I want to.”

  “Do you feel like you’re paralyzed by the fear of what can go wrong inside the plans you make?”

  Garrett opened his mouth to retort, then closed it. Was that what he was afraid of? The unknown? Was he so afraid of it that he didn’t want to even try to make a plan?

  “Maybe…I don’t know.” A thought coming to him, Garrett blurted it out before he could reconsider, “What was your Plan like?”

  April leaned back in her chair sighing. “Well, I already told you I wanted to be a librarian. I wanted to spend my entire life working with books. That was the one thing I knew for sure. The others I considered and added to my Plan. I wanted to live in a nice two-story house with a wrap-around porch and a big library on the inside. I would get married at 26 and eventually have three children—one boy and two girls. I wanted a husband who loved me and our three kids more than anything. I wanted to never retire and always work with the books I loved. I even considered adding that one day I’d write a book, but I remember omitting that from my Plan, thinking I’d rather take care of other’s words.” At the end, April let her words drift off to silence, hanging her head.

  “And now none of that will ever come true for you,” murmured Garrett.

  April nodded; her head still hung low.

  Garrett noticed a teardrop fall onto the honey-colored skin of her hands. “April.”

  April sniffed twice, then raised her head, a smile pasted on her lips. As she wiped away the tears seeping over the rims of her eyes, she admitted, “No, it won’t happen. At least, it won’t happen in the way I planned. However, I still get to take care of books. I may not be a true librarian, but I am a caretaker of the stories I love.”

  “But the rest of it…the house with the big library, the kids…” Garrett didn’t want to add the rest.

  “Well, that’s just the thing, Garrett. People in the Undecided sector still have lives. They get married, they have kids, they work jobs. We just have a lot more uncertainty in our lives. To be honest, I’m one of the lucky ones. Most of us don’t get to work in a job similar to what we would have planned. I happened to be in the right place at the right time and was offered the chance to work here. Even though I don’t see many patrons, I get to spend my days surrounded by the wonderful aroma of books and millions of words at my fingertips. Getting married and having kids was never the main part of my Plan. I used it as filler to ensure my Plan had enough material to be approved. So really…in a sense…I’m still getting everything I’ve wanted.”