I slam my locker open and rip my bag from it.

Caught. Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to give me detention?

But not Leona?

She gets out of it.

What the actual hell is wrong with everyone?

Damn Purple Eyes, they get out of everything and anything.

My bag, which happened to be open, spills out onto the ground and I scream.

"Are you kidding me!" I yell and throw the empty backpack on the floor.

"Woah, woah. Calm down. What happened?" Sage bends down to pick up my stuff. He looks up at me and raises his eyebrows. "What happened?"

I'm not someone to rant, but I could really use it right now. "I ditched right? With Gem, Aris and Leona? And Aris and I get detention. But Leona? No! She just gets to walk off like nothing happened! And Gem? Well she came back early and I heard Coach yelled at her so she won't be missing anymore days..."

Sage shakes his head. "Leona's dad is paying her a visit today."

I'm incredulous. "And she gets to see her dad? Why is that fair?!"

Sage places his hands in my shoulder and I slap them off. "You really don't want to do that." I bark at him.

He hands me my back-pack and nods at me. "You're lucky I'm brave. Any one else would have just left you alone."

"You're not brave and they're not cowards. You're stupid and they're smart. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a detention I have to get to." I push past him but he grabs my waist.

I swing around to slap him but he grabs my arm. "We're stuck together whether you like it or not. Leona chose Aris. I'm stuck with you."

I rip my arm from his grasp. "First of all, if you expect to die with two hands, don't ever touch me ever again. Second of all, just because we're stuck together doesn't mean I have to be nice to you."

He shrugs. "Actually it kind of does."

Uh, no it doesn't. "Cell mates aren't always friends, now are they? Listen here, I'd back off while you still have the ability to have children. Break up Leona and Aris, I don't care, but don't mess with me."

I turn away from him. "You're still messed up even if I do!" He yells.

I spin and walk backwards. "Does it look like I care?" I resume my pace to detention.

I slam the door open to detention and sit in the stupid chair at the first desk I see.

Aris slides into the chair next to me. "I would love to see him try break up me and Leona. It only gives me an excuse to hit him."

I nod to Aris. He understands me.

"Although, you should be happy for Leona. She gets to see her—"

"Dad! YEAH I KNOW! THATS SO INTERESTING!" I scream. "HERE! LETS TALK ABOUT IT SOME MORE SHALL WE? ISNT SHE GORGEOUS? ISN'T SHE BOLD AND INSPIRING? SHUT THE HELL UP! I DON'T WANT TO HERE IT!" Mr. Isaac looks up from his book to give me a stern look.

"Aria. Calm down. She's serving detention tomorrow." He says.

"Go to hell." I mutter, and pull out my phone.

Mr. Isaac steps up and walks over to my desk. "Hand it over."

"No." I say.

"Aria. Don't make this harder than it already is." He holds his hand out and I look up to him.

"I'm sorry? Do you want something? Oh, that's too bad." I put my phone in my back pocket.

He glares at me. "Office."

I stand up and leave my stuff. "GOOD! I DIDN'T WANT TO BE HERE ANYWAYS!"

I walk out the door and stalk off towards the office.

I'm met with a pair of lavender colored eyes. Oh brother.

"Ah. I see you came back." Sage says.

I groan. "I'm here for the counselor. Not that she'll do anything but sit there while I yell, but I'm here for her."

He smirks at me. "She's gone, but I'll be your scream buddy." I don't even care how wrong that sounded.

Deal. I jump over the counter and he rolls up a chair. "This'll be great practice for a therapist." Sage says and spins in his chair to face me.

I'm about to ask what he's doing here in the office, but then I remember that he's an office aid.

"Okay. So what's the problem?" He asks.

"I'm in a bad mood." I say sternly, glaring at the lavender color in his eyes.

"Okay, well, why? What put you in a bad mood?" He asks.

I shrug. "Life. Life put me in a bad mood." I nod as I speak.

Sage sighs and looks at the ground before meeting my eyes. "What in life put you in a bad mood? What triggered you?"

What the heck. "Everyone is getting something good right now. Leona got out of detention and gets to see her dad. She's just being treated special and it's not fair."

He nods like he's understanding. "Is this about Leona? Or your dad?"

My breathing stops for a second.

"You have to understand that rules are rules, Aria. We can't have connections to our parents unless it's an emergency or a business deal." He says, and grabs two bags of chips. He tosses one to me and opens up a bag for himself.

"Fuck the rules! I'm sick of them! They don't make sense! They don't help anybody!" I scream.

Sage spins in his chair while eating chips. "We've gone over why we have them."

I shake my head. "I ditched every time I found out we'd be talking about it. I think it's ridiculous and the rules need to change."

Sage pops a chip in his mouth and chews loudly.

He wipes his hands on his pants and blows out a breath. "There was a time when divorce and poverty and depression hit the world hard. Jobs never seemed to be available, causing money issues, and divorces which caused more money problems, depression, sickness.

Governments were falling. So they came up with the Zodiac Plan. Define people by the zodiacs. Thirteen gods came down from the sky and ruled— the Elders. They made laws for our protection. Our health. Perfect matches are made and that lessens divorces. One kid for every couple so population stays stable. Jobs handcrafted for the zodiacs so every one is guaranteed a good future. No depression. No poverty. No—"

"Choices." I interrupt. "No choices. So why can't we see our parents? Huh? How does that influence anything? That must be hitting a lot of people hard with depression."

"If you found out right now that your dad was dying, what would you do?" He asks.

"Duh, run to help." I answer immediately.

"If your dad told you to not do something, or to do something, what would you do most of the time?" He pops another chip into his mouth.

"Listen." I don't see where he's going with this.

"And what would happen if you didn't listen?" He continues.

"I'd get in trouble." It's a simple answer.

"Parents affect us in more ways then just our looks and genes. They affect our decisions. They affect how we think." He rolls up the empty chip bag and tosses it into the trash. "Parents corrupt."

I shake my head. "Government corrupts."

Sage grabs my bag of chips and opens them. "Your Dad works for them, no?"

I nod.

"Obviously he doesn't think so." He stands up and walks to the phone. "Call him. For, "school purposes."

I cock my head at him. "What?"

"Punch me. I can take it. Tell him I made you call because you were being less than obedient at school. After so much trouble, Mr. Anderson brings your parents into things for one simple reason—"

"Parents affect our decisions." I finish it for him.

He nods. "Do it. Punch me."

I take no hesitation and hit him square in the jaw.

He grips his face and falls on the floor. "Oh, mother of the Elders! That hurt more than— owe! Why did I think that— agh! Call him!"

I pick up the phone and look through the parent contacts until I find mine.

I call the number and it rings a couple times.

I expect him not to answer but eventually I hear a deep voice come from the other end. "Dad?" I ask, my voice shaky.

I don't ever cry.

"Aria?" He asks, confused.

"Dad!" I yell. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, what's wrong? Are you alright?" He sounds panicked and worried.

"I'm in trouble and you need to come down to the school." I say.

"Aria. I'll be there in thirty minutes." He groans and ends the call.

What now?

I look at Sage. "Where's the principal?"

He points behind me. "Aria Inter! Call your parents! I can't believe you hit our student aid, and ditched, and got kicked out of detention in one day! How do you even do that?"

Sage gives me a big thumbs up at an angle Principal Anderson can't notice.

I shrug. "Don't know. Don't care. Already called, Sage made me."

I glare at Sage, perfectly fine with how I'm acting.

"You kids are going to be the death of me." He says and sits back in his big office chair.