Exceptional

by Jess Petosa

  He had only ever been in the ORC once, four years ago, and it wasn’t by choice. His father had dragged him into the building and forced him to look over a line-up of young Ordinary girls, all chosen for their prime physical appearance and almost perfect genes. He still had two years before he would be allowed to even put in a request for an Ordinary, but his father had wanted him to preview what it would be like. He remembered that day and their conversation well.

  “Why do I have to chose an Ordinary for reproduction? Or for my wife?” Luke had asked.

  “The second part is optional, Lukin.” Aden had avoided his question. “But the City needs to see you behind this.”

  Luke had turned back to the girls lined up against a blank white wall. Their faces were void of emotion. “They look so sad. Why do we do this again?”

  Aden had taken Luke’s shoulders and turned him so that they were face to face. “Because we do. We never question the laws that the City has in place. Do you understand?”

  Luke had nodded quickly in response. He had been told the same thing his whole life, at home and at the Institute. The City laws are absolute. Do not question them. Do not go against them. If you follow them, the City will prosper.

  They had left the ORC immediately after that, but Luke’s father had pressured him multiple times over the next several years, urging him to go and choose an Ordinary as his own. If it hadn’t been for Luke’s mother stepping in to defend him, he may have had no choice but to choose an Ordinary the day he turned sixteen.

  Now he sat at a table in a similar room, waiting for one of the ORC staff members to bring Ally to him. He was anxious to take her home today, but nervous as to how she would react to seeing him. She knew the truth now, but still hadn’t heard his side of the story. When the door finally opened, he jumped up from his chair, watching as Ally stepped into the room.

  Her dark hair hung loosely behind her back, appearing stringy and knotted around her face. Her usually sparkling green eyes were dull, and black circles were shaded beneath them. She also appeared thinner, as if she hadn’t eaten since she arrived here. It brought back more memories of his previous visit to the ORC and of the blank faces on the girls he had seen.

  “Ally…” he started.

  She walked toward him briskly, and for a second he thought she might hug him, but instead she reared her hand back and slapped him across the face. The strike didn’t hurt, but his cheek vibrated around the spot where she had hit him.

  “I deserved that”, he said.

  She pointed a finger at him, bringing her hand up so quickly he stepped back. “You deserve much worse than that, Lukin.”

  She said his full name with distaste.

  “Ally, if you’ll just let me explain…”, he pleaded with her.

  “I don’t want your explanations”, she yelled, pacing the room. “I think I have things figured out just fine.”

  He stood there motionless; waiting for her to finish whatever rant she was about to go on.

  “Take me out of here, Luke.” She stopped walking and turned to look at him. For a moment, her mood softened and her eyes pleaded with him. “I need fresh air.”

  He nodded and stepped toward the door. He thought about taking her hand, or just offering her his arm, but something in her eyes said his face might suffer from the gesture. She followed him out into the small check-in area and he handed over the paperwork from his father. He knew there was certain procedures the Ordinarys underwent before leaving, but before seeing Ally he had argued with one of the heads of the ORC, finally gaining permission to bypass them all.

  A female Exceptional walked them through the hallways and into the main lobby of the ORC, and left them once they were near the exit doors. Luke opened the door for Ally, and once outside, she relaxed a little. She took a few breaths of fresh air and turned her face up toward the sky, letting the sun wash over her face. Just when he thought she might stand there all day, she stalked off toward a side street.

  “Ally”, he called out. “Ally, wait.”

  He caught up and grabbed hold of her arm, which caused her to spin around and raise her hand high in a threatening position.

  “We don’t have to talk right now. It’s just that, well, you are going in the wrong direction,” he said, letting go of her arm and holding his hands out to claim innocence.

  Her eyes narrowed and then she motioned for him to lead her forward. It seemed as though he would be receiving the silent treatment for the time being. It might take some time, but he knew that she would eventually talk to him again. Until then he could openly blame his father for this situation.

  ALLY HAD A WELCOMING COMMITTEE waiting for her when they stepped into the house. Sabine ran forward and gave her a big hug, while Asher and Flint squeezed her shoulders, welcoming her home with words of greeting. Luke knew he was losing his chance to talk to Ally, and he needed to speak with her before she shut him out completely. Even if she refused to respond, she could still listen.

  “Don’t you have work lists to be completing?” he said to the others, hoping they would get the hint. Asher and Flint hurried from the room but Sabine was slower to move on.

  “I do have some laundry to do,” she said.

  “I’ll help.” Ally jumped the chance to leave and started to follow Sabine toward the kitchen.

  Luke focused his mind on Ally’s presence, zoning in on the space around her. With more ease than he had exhibited a week ago, he was able to lift her into the air and leave Sabine completely untouched.

  “Hey!” Ally cried out.

  Sabine turned and shook her head at Luke. By now she had heard about his new abilities and didn’t seem phased by the sight of them, but he could sense the disapproval in her look.

  “That will be all.” He glared at Sabine, who finally turned and disappeared into the kitchen.

  “Is this what you are resorting to now? Using your abilities to get what you want?” Ally floated in mid-air, managing to keep her gaze locked with his.

  “If it will make you listen to me”, he said. Using abilities to control Ordinarys was something his father might do, but not Luke.

  Her eyes narrowed. “If you put me down, I’ll hear you out. But after that I want you to leave me alone.”

  It was odd, receiving orders from an Ordinary. The others followed a strict “do not speak unless spoken to rule,” and it was rarely broken. Luke wasn’t even sure that he had ever heard many Ordinarys speak outside of their homes at all. They normally walked with their eyes trained on the ground and their mouths tightly closed. He was learning quickly that Ally was anything but ordinary.

  He walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, righting her stance before he set her back on the ground. “I’m still working on replacing objects once I’ve cancelled gravity around them. I’ve knocked a few doctors and trainees around in the past two weeks.”

  His humor was lost on her as she easily maneuvered her way out of his grasp. “Let’s talk in the garden, I’ve spent enough time indoors.”

  They made their way back to the fountain and sat down on the same bench they sat on just a few weeks ago. Luke wished he could go back to that moment in time. He would set aside his ego and either forfeit or postpone the challenge with Tighe. Maybe then he would have finally told Ally the truth, and she would have been more prepared going into the ORC. He now had no doubts that Aden had planned on sending her there one way or another.

  “Ally.” He fought the urge to reach out and take her hand. “I need you to know how sorry I am.”

  “Tell me what you know.” Ally ignored his apology. “About the breeding program at the ORC. What did you know before you even met me?”

  Luke had been preparing himself for this question for the past three weeks, but even now the words struggled to come out. “All Exceptional males are required to conceive a child with at least one Ordinary female from the ORC. We are allowed to start our contracts at the age of sixteen, and have until we are twenty-one to com
plete them.”

  Ally sneered at him. “And you see no issue with this?”

  “I didn’t before. We don’t question the laws of our leaders,” he answered truthfully. “It was never appealing to me, and I had planned on holding out as long as possible, but then you came along.”

  “That part at least makes sense to me.” Ally cut in. “Why you were so kind to me when you brought me to the City. Why you acted so interested in me. And to think, I was really starting to change my view on relationships. Then I got to the ORC and realized that I had just been another part of your Exceptional lifestyle. Another requirement for you.”

  “That isn’t true.” Luke spun on the bench and faced her.

  “Isn’t it? Did you not claim me knowing the purpose I would have to you?” She locked her gaze on something across the garden, refusing to look at him.

  “Yes, I knew what it meant when I claimed you. I understood what would be expected of me, of us”, he said.

  “But to treat Ordinarys this way?” Ally gave him a quick glance. “In the settlements we are conditioned from the beginning that we are less than Exceptionals. We are told that if we wish to, one day we can come to the City and work for them, and that it would be considered a great honor. Instead you are forcing Ordinary girls into the ORC and treating them like animals. Work assignments is one thing, but forcing them to breed with Exceptionals goes against human nature. There is no honor in that. You Exceptionals may consider yourselves special, but us Ordinarys hold on to all the good that is left in this world.”

  Luke let the full force of her words hit him. “You’re right, Ally. And I need you to know, I never intended to hold you to a contract, or rush through the process.”

  “What did you intend to happen then?” she muttered as she kicked a stray rock with her foot.

  “I was hoping that maybe, if it were meant to be, you feel for me what I felt the first time I laid eyes on you, that first day in the woods. You were coming to the City whether I stepped forward or not, but the difference is that I have given you a choice. I’ve required nothing more than companionship from you since then. I chose you that day in the woods because I couldn’t bear the thought of you being with someone else.”

  Ally finally looked up at him. “And how do I know you’re telling the truth? How do I know you aren’t making this up?

  “I guess that is something you’ll have to decide for yourself.” He stood and walked away from her, following the winding path that led to the house. He had said what he could, and he was grateful that Ally had even listened to him. Now, it was up to her to decide if and when she would forgive him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Ally watched Luke leave the garden and enter the house, his words playing over and over again in her head.

  “I was hoping you would feel for me what I felt the first time I laid eyes on you.”

  “I’ve given you a choice.”

  Yes, but between the lesser of two evils.

  And the words that weighed on her the heaviest of all.

  “I chose you that day in the woods because I couldn’t bear the thought of you being with someone else.”

  She eventually made her way back into the house and paused in the kitchen. Sabine sat at the table, folding a large white shirt.

  “Ally?” Sabine dropped the shirt and stood. “Is he gone now?”

  Ally could only manage a nod.

  “Why don’t you sit? Mazzi is going to make us some snacks.”

  Ally smiled and took a seat. She and Sabine hadn’t known each other long, but Ally couldn’t help but feel as though she had a friend again.

  “Well, look at you.” Mazzi’s eyes widened as she stepped from the pantry. “Did they even feed you there?”

  Ally had forgotten about the weight loss. Her hair had to be a mess as well. A long, hot shower would help restore her later tonight, but for now she wanted to sit with the others and hold normal conversation.

  “Yes, but nothing as good as your food Mazzi.”

  The cook smiled and went back to work on preparing whatever fancy snack she had in mind for this afternoon. Asher and Flint joined them minutes later, trying to look anywhere in the room except at Ally.

  “Do I really look that bad?” Ally laughed.

  “No,” Flint said.

  “Yes,” Asher said at the same exact time.

  Now the four of them laughed together, and Ally realized then how much she really had missed the company of friends. Yes, Willow had been, and still was, her friend. But the Willow that Ally knew back in the settlement was much different than the dazed, drugged out one she has been with in the ORC.

  “We are glad you are back,” Sabine said. “Mr. Lukin has been moping around the house for the past three weeks. And every time Mr. Mathias came home from the office the two of them would stand in the dining room and argue. I started saving all of my errands for the evening so I wouldn’t be here to listen to them.”

  Ally pulled her feet up onto the chair and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Was it really that bad?”

  Asher nodded, looking hesitant to admit it. “Sabine is right, Ally. Luk- I mean Mr. Lukin really cares about you. It has been very apparent.”

  Ally picked at the wood grain on the table. “I’m having trouble processing what happened to me at the ORC. I’ve been blaming Luke since the moment that I learned the purpose of that place. Like I told him, Ordinarys have grown accustomed to serving the Exceptionals as workers, but not as breeders. It isn’t right.”

  Sabine took a deep breath. “Can I give you another perspective?”

  Ally raised her eyebrow. “You aren’t going to justify the ORC, are you?”

  Sabine shook her head. “Not intentionally. But Ally, did you ever think about it from Luke’s end. Like we’ve been conditioned to work for Exceptionals, they’ve been similarly conditioned that all we are good for is work and breeding. They don’t view it as wrong because no other Exceptional does, and if someone happens to find it wrong, they have never spoken up. From a young age they are told to accept the laws of our City. Luke has never been given a reason to doubt the ORC. That is, before you came along.”

  Ally froze in her seat, her eyes meeting Sabine’s gaze. “I don’t know why I didn’t see it that way before.”

  It was true. Everything Sabine had said. Luke had looked awful when she first saw him in that meeting room, with dark circles under his eyes and a dejected expression on his face. Perhaps he had been suffering in his own way while she was in the ORC.

  Sabine smiled. “Sometimes all you need is some group conversation.

  Ally squeezed her friend’s hand and then sighed. “I still can’t stomach the idea of the ORC. I want nothing more than to have that place shut down.”

  “Keep your ideas to yourself.” Sabine leaned toward her. “You have a good thing going here. Mr. Lukin cares for you, and since you are his contract, no other Ordinary can touch you with out his permission. As long as you are in this family, you are safe.”

  Ally let out a small laugh. “Am I?”

  After they ate their snack and the others dispersed to finished their work lists, Ally headed up the stairs and straight into the bathroom. She ran the water hotter than usual and stripped out of her yellow clothes, dumping them into the trash. She didn’t care if it was a waste, she didn’t want to own anything from the ORC. After a shower long enough to prune her fingers and her toes, she finally stepped out and wrapped herself in a towel. She took a brush from the cabinet next to the sink and pulled it through her hair until all of the knots were gone.

  Ally took in how her collarbone jutted out above her chest and how the spaces underneath her eyes were tinted a deep purple color. She turned away from the image in the mirror quickly, not wanting to look at the result of that horrible place. She set the brush back in its place and walked to her room, grabbing a fresh pair of clothes from the drawer. She lifted them to her nose and smelled them, taking in the familiar scent of Luke’s home.
It was oddly comforting.

  By the time she was ready to leave the room, she had already decided what she needed to do. The hall felt longer than usual as she walked toward Luke’s room, her bare feet sinking into the plush carpet. She raised her hand and knocked lightly on his door, willing her heart to slow down. Luke’s Exceptional ears could certainly hear it on the other side of the door.

  “I already told you Mazzi, I don’t want any food!” Luke’s voice yelled from the other side of the door.

  “It’s Ally”, she responded.

  She heard something bang in Luke’s room and in a few seconds he opened the door. Ally had to contain her shock when he stepped into the open space. He stood there shirtless, the hard lines of his muscled body exposed to her. She was used to seeing similar bodies back in the settlement, since the woodcutters often worked shirtless, but Luke’s body had a different effect on her. He held a book under one arm, which told her that he had probably been sitting on the couch reading when she knocked.

  “Hey.” The nervous tone to his voice said that he hadn’t expected to find her standing in his doorway, and she hoped that kept him from noticing her reaction to him. “Come in.”

  She stepped into his room slowly, waiting as he closed the door behind her. She had been in here once before, on her first full day in the City, and it looked exactly the same. Clothes and books were still strewn about the floor, and the large bed against the left wall was unmade.

  “Luke.” She rubbed her hands together nervously. “I want to apologize.”

  He placed the book on the dresser near the door and faced her, his eyes wide with surprise. “Why are you apologizing?”

  “Sabine said something to me, downstairs, and it has stuck with me all for the past hour. It isn’t your fault that the ORC exists, and it isn’t your fault that you’ve never questioned it. You are only doing what you you’ve been told to do. I am still upset that you didn’t tell me about the ORC from the beginning though, and I wish you would have just been honest with me. At least then I wouldn’t have spent the past few weeks completely resenting you.”