My Name is Rose, and This is my Story

A Story by kk

My first short story! Yay! This is just a rough draft, so please feel free to make as many edits as you would like.

I was suddenly in a large glass cylinder. I did not know how I got here or what to do. I started to panic. I pinched myself to see if I was dreaming, but all I did was hurt myself. I looked over to my left. Jesse and Hope were inside two different glass cylinders. They were both looking at me. The cylinders were very large, at least four times my size. I screamed just to see if anyone was there. All I heard back was some snickering. I slowly turned my body around to see Maria at her desk, writing. It all came back to me in a flash, right at that moment. I panicked even moore. Now I remembered everything. I sat down in the glass cylinder and started crying like an idiot. Hope, I’m so sorry I thought. I had dragged her into this. This was all my fault.

* * *

This whole mess all started at home when I was about ten years old. Maria was my mother, and I did not know my father, I think he died when I was a baby. I was so done with her plans and her schemes. She was the one that took over what was once called the US after the government started failing. We were so happy to get a better leader, until we knew what she actually planned on doing, but at that point it was too late for anyone to do anything about it. She was already in complete power. She planned on doing a number of things, but the main thing she wanted to do was get the people who didn’t have enough money to support themselves out of the country.

“They are lazy and they are a nuisance to this place. We will get rid of them all, I promise,” she would tell me.

She planned on either banishing or executing these people. Eventually I couldn’t take it any more. How could she? How could she just get rid of them even though she had the power to help them. So, I ran away one day while she was at work. I ran so far. Farther than I had ever ran before. Eventually, I reached the city limits. All that is past the city limits is woods. So I ran in there so no one could catch me.

For five days straight after that I had gone without food and I drank water from a lake. One day, I woke up to a face leaning over me. The face had huge eyes and dirty blonde hair with a slightly pink tinted skin.

“HI!” she said to me.

Not fully awake, I stared at her.

“It looks like you might need a little help” she said, with the widest grin I have ever seen.

“I guess that would be nice. I am very hungry and cold,” I replied.

I had left the house without a jacket.

“I’m Hope, what’s your name?” the girl said as she tossed me a jacket. I did not question where the jacket came from.

“Rose,” I whispered.

“Don’t be shy, follow me!”

Okay, I know it’s bad to follow strangers, but what choice did I have? I would probably starve if I didn’t. And for about a month, I lived with her. She taught me how to hunt and find edible plants. She even taught me a little bit about the art of stealing. That was when my health started declining. It started with a mild headache and it got worse over time. Luckily, Hope was able to find me some plants to use for my sickness, and it really helped!

Five years later, I was hunting in the forest looking for a rabbit or something when I heard a rustling in the bushes. Jackpot! I thought. The rustling seemed like it could be a large animal, like a deer. Without thinking I ran toward the unsuspecting deer and tackled it to the ground.

As soon as I jumped on the deer, it yelped, kind of like a human. Shocked, I got off the person who I had tackled to the ground. My face turned bright red.

When I get embarrassed, I freeze up and say nothing. The feeling overwhelms me and I don’t know what to do. I hate this feeling.

The boy was slightly shorter than average, about an inch taller than me. He looked about my age and had short, baby blonde hair and dark green eyes. He had a round face with many freckles. Unsurprisingly, he looked shocked, confused, and quite angry.

The silence lasted many seconds before I realized he was waiting for an explanation. Being the extremely timid person I was, I did not know what to say. Eventually, I was able to force out something.

But before I could say it, he shouted “What in God’s name was that?!”

“I’m sorry,” I replied in a hushed voice, “I thought you were a deer. Are you okay?”

“Well,” He considered, “You are really strong.”

I blushed. “Sorry,” I said again.

He shook his head. “Anyway, I’ve been looking for you.”

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! I knew that people were looking for me, that one day someone would catch me and I would have to go back to my horrid place I once called home. I couldn’t go back, I just couldn’t. What should I do? I was not a very fast runner, so I could not run away. I knew what I had to do. I put on my best scowl.

“I will never let you take me back there as long as I live.”

He shook his head again. “ I have no intentions of taking you back home but I have one thing to ask you.”

I calmed down.”What is that,”

“I am part of a rebellion against our current government and to overthrow Maria,”

“I’m sorry, I ca-”

“We will be providing you with food and a place to stay,” He interrupted.

Hmmmm. That did sound nice.

“What’s your name?” I asked

“Jesse. And I already know your name, Rosalie.”

I have to admit, I was shocked.

“I go by Rose.”

“Huh. So, are you in,”

I reluctantly agreed.

“Alright!,” He said excitedly. “Let’s go!”

“Wait!” I said. “I can’t leave Hope.”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh right, your friend. He sounded annoyed with me for not wanting to come immediately.

We walked back to Hope and I’s meeting spot. She seemed very surprised to see that I came in with someone, bit surprisingly, she wasn’t angry.

“Oooooooh,” She teased. “It looks like you got a boyfriend,”

I blushed, but I did not laugh like I normally would have.

“What?” She asked.

Jesse nudged toward her.

“Uuuuuh,” I did not know what to say, so I let it all out in the most blunt way possible, as I often do, “Jesse here wants us to join a rebellion.”

“Hahahaha no,” She said. I scowled. “I knew you would eventually want to do this, but you are going to get yourself killed,” she added.

“I don’t care. I’m not going to live my life in the woods and fighting for my survival. There, they will offer us food and a place to sleep. Anyway, I’m going, and whether or not you come with me is your choice.”

“Alright,” she sighed “I can’t let you go in alone with this freak.” She pointed at Jesse, “By the way Jesse, your face looks like it was set on fire and someone tried to put it out with a fork,”

Jesse shrugged “Fine with me”

It must have been hours, since it was completely dark out when Jesse said we were approaching our destination.

“We’re here!” He finally said as we stopped.

My jaw almost fell open at what I saw. Jesse’s device (at least, I think it was his) was one of those large boxes with seats inside and wheels that you use to get places. I ran over to the car. After people decided the world was too polluted for cars, all cars became energy efficient. Now, almost no one could afford a car. This was not a particularly bad thing, we just found other ways to get around. Then I came to a realization.

“You stole this,” Again with the blunt thing. “There is no other way you could afford one of these,”

“We stole it,” he corrected.

Hope rolled her eyes.

“Well,” Jesse said after a long, awkward silence, “Who wants to sit in the front,”

Hope beat me to it.

“Ugh,” she said “not me”

Great.

We drove for about two hours until we came to a stop. During the car ride I examined Jesse’s face. We did not say anything for the whole car ride, but during it, I felt something very strange toward Jesse. Well, s**t I thought. I have a crush. Don’t worry Rose, eventually this will all be over and you will never see him again. Of course, that was not a comforting thing at all. But I didn’t have time for stupid teenager things like crushing. Also, what would Hope think? She would probably laugh at me and hate me forever.

Jesse escorted us out of the car and into our bedrooms. They were not anything fancy, but they were so much better than sleeping on the ground. He also told us to get some rest. Apparently, it was one in the morning. All would be explained the next day. I fell asleep more quickly than I ever had before.

I woke up the next day with a terrible headache. Oh no I thought. We were so excited to get to the base that we had forgotten to bring my plants. Whatever illness I had, I had no idea if it was curable. If I told anyone, they would surely move me back into the woods. I decided I would not tell anyone unless I absolutely had to.

I went into the bathroom that was connected to my room. This was definitely not as nice as the one I used to have, but honestly, who cares? It smelled of must and a faint smell of mold, but none of that bothered me. I walked over to the mirror to look at myself for the first time in five years.

A lot has changed in my appearance after all that time. My hair was very long and wavy, while it used to be short and straight. My eyes were an electric violet color, and my skin was a lot paler than it used to, I hope it was not from being sick. I looked away from my reflection. I had so many things I needed to do before I started my day.

My shirt was more like a bikini with sleeves and my pants were stretched out and ripped all over. I sighed and had to cut my clothes off with that pair of scissors. The first thing I did was take a shower. And it was like heaven (despite the mold). It felt like that one time when I swam at the beach on that island place that is really far away, but still part of America. I forget what it’s called. After I got out of the shower, I brushed my hair (there were so many tangles) and then I crappily attempted to cut off my split ends with a pair of scissors I found in my drawer. Then, I brushed my teeth with actually toothpaste and a fresh toothbrush. That was like heaven too.

Then I got into a one of the many one piece suits that were hanging up by my bed. I chose the olive green one, since green was my favorite color. The suit was long sleeved and went all of the way down to my feet. It was a very tight fit, but it was still wearable. I felt my pockets. I pulled out a note.

Meet me downstairs as soon as you get this

-Jesse

I sighed and did just that. This was going to be a long day. I was one of the last people there. Lots of people greeted me. Apparently I was famous here. Great.

“Good morning,” Jesse finally said.

Everyone got into a line. I followed. I was starting to feel dizzy. Jesse gave us our training schedule and the tour of this place. Meanwhile, I was bumping into people and shaking.

At lunch time, Jesse and Hope were chatting, but I could not concentrate on anything they were saying.

“Are you okay?” asked hope.

“Huh?” I replied slowly.

She turned to Jesse, “Yup. It’s not just you. She’s acting really weird.”

The first training we had was on the treadmill. This was our first day, so the pace requirement was pretty slow. I was on there for about 15 minutes while I was struggling to breath and losing my footing.

Suddenly, I experienced very blurry vision. I wanted to turn off my treadmill. Now was the time I needed to tell someone about my mystery illness. But a sudden abdominal pain stopped that from happening. I took in a sharp intake of breath and bent over. Everyone turned to look at me. Wonderful. Feeling very faint, I could not keep up a run any longer and fell off my treadmill with a loud thud, flat on my back.

I made a very strange noise. I needed to vomit, so I used all of my remaining strength to go on my hands and knees so I could toss my cookies without killing myself. By now, everyone was crowded around me, Jesse and Hope at my side. Jesse looked really panicked. Of course, he needed me here. I had the most experience with Maria.

“Somebody call an ambulance!” He basically screamed.

After I had finished vomiting I said “Stop, you’re causing a scene.”

Everything was spinning and dancing around me. Hope and Jesse were having a conversation again, but I only caught bits and pieces of it.

I heard Jesse say, “No, she never told me about that.”

I remember wondering if I was going to die from this before everything went black.

* * *

“Why did she not tell anyone?” I heard Jesse’s voice.

“I don’t know, I should have known better, she tends not to tell people these things,” Now I heard Hope’s voice.

I opened my eyes and sat up immediately, much to my surprise, my pain was completely gone. What’s going on? Why is everyone talking about me?

“Hey idiot,” Hope studied my face. It was blank. I was trying and failing not to act confused.

“Oh right, you don’t remember,” She said in a sarcastic tone. “Well just to recap, you didn’t tell anyone about your sickness, and since we didn’t bring your plants, you passed out and almost died. But, as it turns out, your disease is totally curable. Go figure. You’ve really outdone yourself this time.” My face turned bright red.

I saw Jesse discreetly leave the room.

“What?!” I said in disbelief.

“You heard me. You have a lot of apologizing to do. Why didn’t you tell anyone about this and make this so much easier on everyone?”

Might as well be honest. “I thought Jesse would kick me out,”

“Rose,” she shook her head and her tone suddenly changed. “You seriously thought he was going to kick you out? And even if he did, you thought I wasn’t going to come with you?”

I nodded. Jesse came back into my room.

“Rose I… I better go.” And then she left.

Jesse sighed and then he smiled, which I did not expect.

“Just to be clear,” he said, “You were the one causing a scene, not me,”

“I know,” I replied.

He sat down next to me. I was about to apologize to him, but before I had a chance, he said, “Don’t worry I forgive you,”

Wow. That was easy.

“But I was so worried about you, you have no idea.”

“You’re right, I don’t”

“No, I’m serious, your heart stopped,”

This I did not know. And in that moment, I realized how incredibly stupid I’ve been. I should have told him, I shouldn’t have been such an idiot. And now Jesse looked like he was about to cry, and I guess I had to comfort him because I was the idiot who made him this upset in the first place.

So I said, “Hey, it’s okay. I made a mistake and I’m sorry, but I’m still here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

If this was some sort of fairy tale with elves and fairy godmothers and princes or whatever, we would be seriously making out by now. But sadly, that was not what happened. We just sat there awkwardly for a few seconds and then we talked for a while about light hearted things and it turned out, Jesse was not as serious of a person as I had originally thought.

We were interrupted by a bell that signalled it was time for dinner. Dinner today was uneventful. Hope seemed distracted the whole time. What I did must have really offended her.

As I slowly recovered, I became better and better at my training. We had 5 mile runs every other day, which was super exhausting. When we didn’t run, we had strength training (also super strenuous and exhausting) and target practice, which I hate. I hated having to kill people and I dreaded it for the whole time I was there.

A month passed and I was the best in the little rebellion that we had. It was my sixteenth birthday, but nobody remembered, or so I had thought.

During lunch that day, Jesse told me, “Rose, I’ve decided something,”

“Yes?” I replied

“Hope and I are invading Maria’s office to steal some supplies. She plans on using it to massacre a bunch of protestors. Would you like to come with us?”

I thought about this for a moment. This would mean that I would have to kill people, but I signed up for this, so I must follow through. I was flattered that he wanted me out of all people to come with him.

I smiled. “Are you kidding? Yes!” I had just realized my answer sounded like something you would say to a marriage proposal, but he didn’t notice.

He smiled back at me. “Happy birthday,” he said.

“You remembered!” I hugged him. He hugged me back.

“Could I ever forget?” he let go of me and said, “Get ready, we’re leaving at the crack of dawn,”

The next day I was downstairs dressed, showered, and well-caffeinated by five o'clock in the morning. About fifteen minutes later, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

“Alright,” said Jesse. I had to admit, the startled me a bit. “You ready,”

I straightened up. “I’m more than ready.”

“Alright then, let’s go!”

For about an hour, we ate breakfast and loaded up our guns. We went back into Jesse’s car, the smell of lemongrass filling my nose. This time I was more than happy to sit in the front.

“Jesse?” I asked after a long silence.

“Hm?”

“Exactly how safe is this mission,”

He sighed “I’m not going to lie to you, we might not survive. Which reminds me, we don’t have time to heal our wounded. If one of us is injured, just keep moving.”

We stared at each other for a bit, but then it happened. I kissed him, and he kissed me back. Except, I wouldn’t call it kissing. It was my first kiss and I could tell it was his too, so it was more of a face smack.

After we pulled away, I heard Hope say “Yuck! Can we go now?”

And without a word, Jesse pressed the gas pedal and we took off. When we finally arrived at Maria’s office, I was astounded. It was huge, about the size of a baseball stadium, when we used to have them. The walls were all white, and my mother’s face was painted on the wall.

We snuck around the building until we found our target window. We climbed up a great height unil Hope pulled out a hammer and broke the window. We climbed in. In the distance, I saw a guard.

“Quick!” She said, “Sound the alarm!”

Luckily for us, there was no one else there, so she ran toward the alarm. I ran toward her and tackled her to the ground before she could do anything. Hope and Jesse stared.

“What are you waiting for?!” I shouted, “Go, go, go!”

They ran down a dark hallway. I shot the woman in the arm and ran with them. We ran down the dark hallway for many minutes, only killing two guards on our way. That’s when everything went wrong. I remember seeing my mother’s face. I remember pointing my gun at her and closing my eyes. And that’s all I remember.

* * *

So I was there. Sitting there and crying in this giant glass cylinder. I wondered what Maria would do with us. Wait, I thought I’m not just going to give up. I stood up. I summoned all of my strength, and I pushed my hand against the wall as hard as I could. Pain made its way through my entire body like an electrical current.

“Ah!” I cried out.

Maria snickered again.

“You can’t break that,” she said. Her voice was much deeper than I had remembered. “It’s indestructible. We will begin the tests now that you’re awake. After we fix your hand, of course.”

But my hand didn’t hurt one bit. I looked over at Jesse and Hope. Now they were crying too. I knew the pain I felt was not normal. Suddenly, another idea came to mind. I knew it probably wouldn’t work, but it was worth a try. I got up again. I pressed my hand against the glass, gently this time. My hands started glowing. They made and odd crackling sound I could only hope Maria couldn’t hear. Jesse and Hope were staring at me with very surprised expressions on there faces. I pushed harder. And harder. And harder.

Crash! The glass shattered all over the floor. Doing the same thing to Jesse and Hope’s cylinders was one of the most painful things I had ever done, considering there was glass in my hand. Maria was shooting these little balls of what looked like lightning at us.

“RUN!” I yelled.

And we did just that. We ran and ran and ran. until we got into the car without a word, and before I could buckle my seatbelt, Jesse stomped on the “gas” pedal. And we sped away. We drove and drove in silence as I picked the pieces of glass out of my bleeding hand.

Jesse’s face turned white. “We forgot the supplies,” He whispered.

I pulled a large container out of my pocket. When I grabbed it, I had no idea if it was the right one, but because of Jesse’s smile, I knew then that it was. I smiled back as we drove back to the base. I knew things would be different from here on out.

So, that’s my story. I am writing this in my room because today is my free day. Jesse is going to get me a special trainer to help me with my abilities. I wonder when my next mission will be? Whenever it may come, I am more than ready.

By Kayla Orloff