Page 26 of Rite of Unity

Thirty minutes later, the room was no longer spinning, and I didn’t recognize the girl in the mirror.Dark, smoky eyelids blinked several times, and somehow my eyes looked more purple than gray.My hair was expertly styled, twisted into a feminine knot, and resting gently over one shoulder.The dress she had selected was a creamy pearl rather than the stark white that girls usually wore in the Middle.And the low collar made my neck look impossibly long.

She slid a pair of sparkling purple gems onto my earlobes, and they glittered when they caught the light.

I rubbed my thumb over my nails, but they were smooth, and the lack of friction made my right eye twitch.

Vera stepped back.“Spin.”

I did, having given up on getting any answers out of them a while ago.

“It's as good as it gets.Go get ‘em, tiger.”

I slipped past her, stepping into a living room that had been transformed.My couch was covered in a tan blanket I’d never seen before, and my rug was gone.A vase of flowers—real flowers—was set at the center of our scuffed old coffee table.Two lamps sat on either side of the couch, and… had they painted the walls?In thirty minutes?

I searched the room for any sign of my parents.Their door was firmly shut.I moved toward it.

“Mama and Papa are gonna sit this one out, okay, honey?They aren’t feeling camera-ready this morning.”

I swallowed, staring again at the door.

Moving quietly on the dainty slippers Vera had given me, I sat, straight-backed, on the couch.

“Okay, Twelve, I’ll put up a script right here.”He pointed to the air beside him.“And you just read.Try not to sound stiff, alright?”

He didn’t wait for my reply as green letters appeared in the air.

“I’ll say three, two, one, and you just read.Look at the camera, got it?”

I opened my mouth.

“And three, two, one.”

I stared at the words; they were blurry and out of focus.

“Is she crying?Vera.Vera!Fix this.”

Vera appeared, squatting in front of me.“Hey,” she snapped her fingers in my face.“Why do they do this to Middles?”she muttered to herself.“I know you know how this works, Maryn.”

My name was a bucket of cold water splashed over my overheated skin.I did.I did know how this worked.It was different with the cameras and the stylist and the producer, but the trials were the trials.I had to give my statement.

I nodded.

“Okay?She’s good?”

Vera shrugged and disappeared.

“Here we go.Three.Two.One.”

I stared at the red dot on the drone.“I’m Maryn Veil, daughter of Joel Veil.I enter this Rite of sound mind and body and look forward to serving my country in this, as in everything.”

Chapter 8

Maryn

Thelinemovedforward,and I shuffled with it.Somewhere ahead, cameras waited.The whole nation waited.Girls around me whispered their speeches under their breath, lips moving in silent rehearsal, and I looked down at the tablet Paul had shoved into my hands on his way out the door yesterday morning.

***

“Read it, memorize it.And don't lose that.You'll return it if you're eliminated before Trial Five.Vera will be back at six a.m.to get you camera-ready.The nation loves a lady so easy on the eyeshadow, Vera.”