Roses are Red

Violets are Blue 

Chapter one - A perfect life

    Rocky lays in bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering what she’s going to do with her life.  This is something that really didn’t happen until recently.  At 17 years old, a girl shouldn’t have to think about the things that are going on in her head.  Especially in Midland.  But they are.  And Rocky knows nobody except for her can get her out of the situation.  She can’t help but be a little jealous of other people at school.  She thinks about the kids who get dropped off, parents tell them they love them, and they walk into school happy.  How can any 17 year old be happy with all the things going on in the world today?

What seems like forever but was probably only minutes, Rocky finally falls asleep.  She wakes up tired but knows it’s time to get the day going.  She gets up, goes into Aspens room and picks her up softly, 

and whispers, “it’s time to get up”.  She carries her into the bathroom and reminds her to go to the bathroom.  

Aspen is being potty-trained and it’s just one more thing on Rocky’s plate.  She tells her “good job, you made it through the night”.  After that, she then goes into Oliver’s room.  She turns on his light and wakes him with a hug. She’s learned that he won’t get out of bed unless she gives him a hug and keeps the light on.  He finally gets up.

It’s off to Baxter’s room.  At 7 years old, Baxter has a lot of energy.  She walks in and says, “get up turd, it’s time for school”.  He rolls over and says, “no, get out of my room”.  She flips the light on as she walks out knowing it will get him out of bed.Just then she can’t help but feel angry at “that man”.  She doesn’t call her dad by his name or dad anymore after he left.  Now, all the responsibilities have fallen on her.  She goes to get herself ready for the day.  She goes into the bathroom to get herself ready for the day.  She wants to look good today since there’s a new boy that she likes at school.  His name is Damion.

 And she;s excited to see him. She knows she can’t go to school looking like she just climbed out of a dumpster.  After a quick shower, her bags under her eyes fade away and with a light layer of make-up she starts to look like a human again.  

    In Midland, people are poor.  Life is hard but everyone is supposed to fake it.  Since the “Greatest Depression '' it went downhill from there.  But, people are expected to fake it and seem like everything is great.   Unfortunately, this only adds to the stress on everyone.  The government knows this and puts expectations in place.  Things like drug abuse, violence, and crime were rampant back in 2040 with the last depression.  It nearly wiped out

 almost everyone.  It’s taken many years to get back to a somewhat normal society but since the “Greatest Depression '', people have just now started to work and go to school again.  This is why it’s important for Rocky to stay positive.

    Rocky knows that if the government were to find out anything was wrong with her family, they 

could come in and take her mom to “elimination”.  This is where you just find the person dead somewhere and nobody knows why.

    Midland is a society where looking good in public is expected.  People are supposed to be perfect here.  Rocky knows this and wants nothing but the best for her siblings.  Not only are the people’s looks supposed to be perfect, but they’re expected to act perfect.  Things like drug abuse and domestic abuse is not tolerated.  In fact, it leads directly to a lifetime in prison or  elimination.  Elimination is like execution.  It’s believed that those traits are carried on from generation to generation and the government wants those people out of the society.

    As she opens the door to meet the only three people in her life that she loves, she is met with repeated words of “I’m hungry”.  She fixes up three bowls of cereal and three glasses of milk.  She knows from her health class that milk is good for them and it makes her feel grown that she can help support her siblings.  Just then, her mom walks in looking like a gremlin.  It’s probably all the drugs she took the night before.  Rocky knows her mom is taking pills but it’s never been talked about in the house.  Rocky tells the kids to go to the 

  front room to finish their cereal.  She wants to keep them away from their mom when she looks like this.  It only adds one more layer of stress to her already stressful morning.  

  After the cereal is finished she pries them off the cartoons they're watching to get them ready for the day.  It’s pajama day at preschool for Aspen and Rocky is pleased with herself for remembering and also feels a sense of relief that it’s one less child to get ready for school.  But she still has to comb her hair so she looks presentable.  

    Looking good is an important thing for Rocky and she is trying to instill that in her siblings.   They rush out the door three minutes past when they have to in order to make it on time.  Luckily the schools are all next to each other. 

Rocky picks up Aspen to make up the time so they’re not late.  She drops them off and rushes to school herself.  She makes it to her locker with only 3 minutes left before the tardy bell rings. 

   She shuts her locker quickly after getting her supplies and when she turns around, she sees Damion.  He’s a tall, skinny young man with baby blue eyes and fluffy black hair that hangs over his eye

She can’t help but smile and at that moment being late for class is her last worry.  They have their first hour together and asks her if he can walk her to class.  Even though it sounds cringy, she can’t help but smile.  She doesn’t say anything but they walk together.  She knows there is a dance coming up and even though she hates dances, inside she wants him to ask her.  They walk off together for 1 hour.

Chapter 2 - Life Changes

Damien ended up asking her to the dance and they started talking.  Months go by and Rocky’s morning routine stays the same.  Rocky’s grades continue to be good and Damien’s grades have gone up since they started dating.  Rocky feels proud of this.  It must mean that he wants to look good for her.  His behavior is rewarded at school and things appear to be turning around for both Damien and Rocky.  

After school, Damien meets Rocky at her locker and they walk home together.  They only live one block away from each other.  When they get to Damien’s house they notice there are multiple cop cars outside Rocky’s house.  Her throat clenches and she can’t talk.  She can’t help but wonder if something happened to one of her siblings.  Without saying a word to Damion, she runs home.  Damien is left wondering what to do.  He wants to give her space but also wants to show that he cares.  

Without thinking past that, he runs after her.  Rocky is met by a police officer who says you can’t go in there.  

She screams at the police officer, “get out of my face, that’s my family!”.  She bolts past the officer and runs inside.  She is met with absolute horror when she sees a body laying on the ground motionless.  Damien joins her and says, we can’t be in here, you can’t see this.

At this time, she’s not thinking about anything.  She’s scared, anxious, angry, but deep inside she knows what happened.  Mom must have been upset by the news of dad’s murder and took 

too many pills.  Rocky now knows that her family secret gets out and she is scared for many reasons now.  What will happen with her siblings?  What will Damien think of her?  What will happen to their relationship?  And most importantly, what steps will the government take with her now fractured family.

After a few weeks, the courts have agreed to let Rocky take full custody over her siblings.  They believe that Rocky is old enough and responsible enough to take care of the three kids.  Rocky and Damien’s relationship continues to grow and strengthen because of this. 

Damien feels remorse for Rocky and even feels a sense of responsibility to take care of the kids too. A slight feeling of guilt runs over him at times as well.  If they weren’t walking home together that day, would Rocky have made it home in time to save her mom?  

Each passing day things actually appear to be getting better.  Rocky doesn’t have to worry about her mom showing her siblings what “evil” looks like.  They’re like an actual family.

Rocky wakes up in the morning and feels a little different.  She goes to the bathroom and throws up.  She immediately makes an appointment and doesn’t tell Rocky.  She acts 

like nothing is different but Rocky knows something is up.  She tells him that she can’t walk home with him tonight because she has a dentist appointment that she has to take Aspen to.  He nods and says okay, I’ll just see you later.  They go to class and the day continues like normal. 

“I have some news for you Rocky”, the doctor says.  “Things are about to change for you”.  But it will be okay.  

Damion is walking home and thinking how much his life has changed in just a few months.  He knows many people would feel overwhelmed with what’s going on, but deep inside he’s not upset at all.  His life is better now.  He has more responsibilities and his grades are actually getting better.  He has all A’s and B’s and his name was in the newspaper for being on the honor roll.  Maybe more responsibilities is what he really needed.

As he walks past the daycare center, he looks over and sees a child in the window who looks familiar.  He thinks in his head, boy, that looks just like Aspen.  

After looking again and staring for what seemed like forever, he recognizes a mole on her cheek.  That’s Aspen.

Why would Aspen still be at the daycare center?  She was supposed to be with Rocky.  I don’t get it.  Why would Rocky lie to me?  He decides to go in and ask if Rocky came in and 

already took Aspen to the dentist.  The daycare worker said, we don’t know anything about that.  He nods, and for the first time, he questions Rocky’s trust.  

The doctor hands Rocky a pamphlet, and on the cover it says, “Congratulations, you are pregnant.”

Chapter 3 - Damion

Damion is running around, his mom telling him to calm down.  Damion is 4 years old and has a lot of energy.  It wouldn’t always be like this, but as a child he’s rambunctious.  He’s friendly and is liked by his friends in Kindergarten.  He’s young for his grade but his little dimples are irresistible for all the teachers and kids in his class.  His young age, however, is something he will fight forever.  He’s got a younger face which leads to him being bullied later on in school.

As time goes on, Damion’s outgoing personality begins to turn inward.  He starts painting his nails black and wearing dark clothes in middle school.  By this time, he starts having bad thoughts and believes his family is not the perfect family he once believed they were.  Finding a friend is all that’s on his mind.

By this time, Midland’s population has dropped drastically and the Government is now leading the world into chaos.  People are dying left and right due to “Elimination” and it’s putting more stress on Damion and his family.  The last thing he wants is to know something is wrong.  He’s doing his best to put a front.  The world’s population is packed into what used to be called Virginia.  Its location to the ocean and latitude and longitude make for bearable seasons.  The rest of the world’s population has been destroyed by the depressed people. 

As time goes on, Damion’s positive and outgoing personality nearly escapes him.  By the time he is a freshman in high school he hates almost everyone and everything around him.  He can’t even think about when he was a kid when life was so much easier.  Each time he thinks back to when he was a kid, he gets really sad.  He knows that this feeling could lead to the government finding out and could lead to him being “eliminated”.  He’s not worried about anyone in his family, just himself.  He has no friends and finds himself being quiet most of the time.

It’s now his senior year and time has passed by like a slow stream of water.  A piece of him feels like things have 

moved so slowly but looking back he can’t believe he is a year away from graduation.  He goes to his first hour class and as he enters the room, he bumps into somebody by accident.  It’s a girl that sits behind him in class.  She’s quiet, but he thinks she’s beautiful.  Both embarrassed by what happened, they smirk at each other awkwardly and walk into class.  Her locker is next to his and they both have 1st hour together but he can’t remember her name.  The teacher is at the front of the room taking attendance and when he says, “Rocky, are you here”, she raises her hand.

Damion walks in the house that Rocky and he stay at most nights and walks into the bedroom, closing it behind him so Rocky’s siblings can’t come in.  Rocky doesn’t know why Damion has been doing that after school.  He goes into the bedroom each day, closes and locks the door, then comes out almost like a different person.  When he comes out, she asks him, “what are you doing in there?”  He says, “nothing, just taking a quick break”.  She says, “really, a break?  

From what?”  Rocky doesn’t press him but turns her attention to her siblings that just walked in with him.  She talks to them about their day and gets caught up on anything they did at school.  She clears the table and works with them on their homework.

Damion heads outside to check the mailbox.  The phone rings and Rocky answers it, “

Hello?”  Yes, I’m trying to reach Damion.  Um, he’s not here right now Rocky says, can I take a message?  Yes, this is Sally from Midland High School, I’m the attendance secretary.  I was told I could reach him at this number and was wanting to make sure everything was okay.”  “Yes, he’s fine, is there a reason you’re calling?”  

“Well, he hasn’t been at school in 13 days so I just wanted to be sure everything was okay.”  “I will make sure to pass the message to him”.  Rocky hangs up the phone before saying goodbye, then, Damion walks in the door with the mail in his hand.

Rocky stares at Damion wondering what is going on.  Was there a mistake?  Has he really not been going to school?  He walks in, turns on the tv, and stares at it.  She decides to not bring it up, for now.

Chapter 4

Rocky and Damien sit down to dinner.  Rocky yells to the kids, “Dinner’s ready”.  The kids come running in and take their normal seats.  Baxter says, “wow, this looks great '', who cooked it?  I know it could've been either of you”.  Baxter has been struggling since the change.  He’s becoming meaner and even having a hard time adjusting at school.  “Just eat your dinner,” Rocky says.  She’s feeling more overwhelmed by the day.  The stresses of the siblings, being pregnant and now the questions she has about Damion are becoming too much for her to take.  

They all eat in silence until Aspen smiles, and says, “thank you mom”.  Baxter says, that’s not your mom Aspen.  Aspen says, “yeah but she takes care of us like mom did” in her sweet and innocent voice.  Damion doesn’t say much which is how things have been going with him lately.  Rocky, so stressed out, can barely take it any more so she just blurts out,