CLAIRE'S POV

"Lyn, hurry up! It's not like you're getting married." I groaned and pounded on the bathroom door once more.

Lyn finally opened it with an annoyed look on her face, "Why are you so impatient?"

"Because people like you love to test me, now come on you know it takes an hour to drive to the capital." I grabbed my small bag and my car keys.

Lyn looked in the mirror one last time, and turned to face me. "How do I look?"

Lyn had on a dark blue dress that came up mid-thigh. She had black heels and her hair was half up, half down. She had more makeup on then usual, but in the capital everyone expects you to look nice.

"You look like you should live in the capital, can we go now?" I asked.

Lyn looked at my outfit, "You're seriously wearing that?"

I looked down at my black jeans and dark red tank top, it was formal tank top that had lace. "Yeah, what's wrong with it?"

"Everything," She states bluntly, "But you're stubborn so I won't even try to make you change. Let's go."

I huffed as I pulled into the gates of the capital. Anyone was welcome inside, but if you didn't live here you had to be gone by eight sharp. Before today, I've been to this place twice in my entire life.

I really hated it here, all the rich people here would just party and judge you if you didn't have enough money to live inside the gates. It was almost like high school all over again, except you had to behave or else you would be punished.

"Hurry up! We have to be there in five minutes." Lyn was overly excited, she was all for the government's new system. I wasn't.

"Maybe if you had gotten ready faster we wouldn't be rushing." I pulled into the parking lot in front of the capital building.

I killed the engine and opened my door. I stepped out and breathed the air, the sweet air of rich snobby people. I grabbed my bag and closed the door and once Lyn was out of the car I locked it.

"Well, here goes nothing." I said as we walked next to each other toward the building.

There was a line outside for the people waiting to get their tattoos. This only happened once a week and there were only a few capital buildings in each state. We were just lucky that ours was only an hour away.

Lyn tapped her foot on the pavement, "Great, we're last in line."

"Well if you have gotten ready earlier." I teased.

"Yeah yeah I know, how long is this going to take?" She wasn't huge with waiting in lines.

I shrugged, "Depends I guess."

---

Three hours. Three fucking hours to get a tattoo. Turns out there was a line inside that went up stairs, it's not like we could have a fast pass or anything. Lyn and I were last in line too, how exciting.

We were waiting right next to the booths that had a computer in them to get our soulmate's initials. Lyn was in front of me, so she walked into one of the five booths. You couldn't see or hear anything that went on in the booths, only the people inside knew.

Finally, a lady called me in. My heartbeat increased, but I kept a straight face and walked in. She ordered me to sit down in the chair in front of her desk, so I did as I was told. The room was not what I expected, it was small: there was once desk and on the left side was a computer. On the right side was a device I had never seen before.

The lady pulled her hair up and then put on a pair of blue rubber gloves. She looked frustrated and over with the day already.

"Alright, I'm not going to ask your name, you could have a fake identity. Let me see your index finger please." This lady was not very nice.

I gave her my index finger and she pulled the small device toward her. She pulled a needle from it and poked the tip of my finger. It began to bleed a little, she laid my index finger on the small device. I watched in awe as it began to scan it.

Then my face popped up, the device apparently had a small projector. It said my name and all my information on it. The lady gave me a stern nod, "Okay, Claire. Let's see who your soulmate is."

She removed her gloves and threw them away. She pulled the keyboard closer to her and she began to type, her eyes locked on the screen. She clicked search and she relaxed a little while it searched.

"This will take a minute or two." She told me, "That's why the wait was so long. While its searching let me inform you on a few things."

"Uh, okay."

"We have a new tattoo that the officials just gave to us recently. Instead of destiny or whatever putting you together with your soulmate, you will know when you are near them. The tattoo will begin to glow and you will get a numbing sensation. I, myself, think it helps out a lot." She informed me and gave me a fake smile, "Alright, it's done searching."

She leaned closer to the computer and clicked the mouse a few times and she froze. All the color drained from her face, but she cleared her throat and gave me another fake smile.

"Alright let's give you that tattoo, shall we?" She said rather quickly.

The way we got our tattoos was quite weird. It was basically a pen, but it stayed on your body until you die. Then it disappears like magic. The lady grabbed the pen and wrote on my wrist in cursive.

"I'm so sorry," She said with pity in her voice, "I'll pray for you." She whispered.

I was confused, who was my soulmate? She ushered me out and then closed the booth doors. I stood there shocked, "Claire! The weirdest thing just happened to me." Lyn said walking over.

"Yeah same. The lady looked scared when she saw who my soulmate was and she said she'd pray for me." I told Lyn as we walked down the stairs toward the exit.

Lyn looked shocked, "Same! The man looked horrified and he said I'm sorry, then he rushed me out."

"What does your wrist say?" I asked her.

She looked at her wrist, " L.P. "

"Hmm I wonder who he is." I shrugged.

"What initials do you have?"

"L.T." I said while looking at my wrist.

Notes

I promise it's not this boring for the entire story haha

-JJ ,xo