My town is like any other town, I think. I’ve never been anywhere else just like every other kid in this town. There are about 100 people here and everyone seems to do the same thing every day. Which is where I am different.

I have long chestnut brown hair, with eyes to match, and I'm shorter than normal 16 year olds. I am the only one here who does what I want. I like to wear my hair natural instead of matching the other 16 year olds, and I like to ask questions; even though it's considered rude. I like playing sports and climbing trees but I always get in trouble because, “it’s not ladylike.”

I live with my mother and father, and I have a younger sister named Heather. I am really close to my family and I try to be a role model for my sister but I always seem to let her down.

This particular day I decided to go for a bike ride with my pink bike(my parents and I compromised; if I had to have a bike it had to be pink to make it more proper.) Half the town is covered in beautiful fields with hills, and the other half is covered in dirt. I like to ride my bike in the dirt part because the tires of my bike make it dusty and it gets my skirt dirty, which makes my mom irritated.

I was out riding my bike when Timothy, the Police Officer, pulled up next to me.
Police Officer: “Beth where do you think you’re going?”
Beth: “For a bike ride.”
Police Officer: “Out in the middle of nowhere?”
Beth: “Ummm.....Yeah.”
Police Officer: “Didn't your parents tell you not to wander out of town?”
Beth: “I was just exploring a little.”
Police Officer: “You know you’re not suppose to be out here.”
Beth: “ I know, but I'm tired of being in town.”
Police Officer: “Beth you need to go back to town, now.”
Beth: “Okay,” Beth wondered why Timothy was being so strict; he was usually pretty laid back with the rules.
Police Officer: “Do you want a ride back to town?”
Beth: “No,” said Beth, “I can ride my bike there.”
This made me angry. Why was Timothy being so mean to me? We always hang out and he use to give me rides from school. I knew something was going on. I knew there was a reason that every house in our town looked the same, why all the adults had town meetings every week; without kids. And why Timothy had acted so weird when I tried to go on a bike ride today. I’ve tried to ask mom and dad about why everyone and everything is the same in this town and why I can hear birds but I've never seen one. My thinking was distracting me from looking where I was going but my feet seemed to know. I walked up the front steps, through the front door, down the hall, into the kitchen to find my parents. Mom was cooking lunch and dad was reading the paper at the table. They both looked up at me at the same time and my brain tried to put some of the thoughts that I had together, when my mouth spit the words out,”I know the secret!”
My mom’s eyes got wide and she looked at my dad.
“What secret, sweetheart?” asked my dad. Right then I wished that I had not said anything but I was so angry and confused.
“I know you're keeping a secret from me.”
“And what would that be?” he demanded. I knew he was getting mad at me but there was no going back now.
“I don't know, or else it wouldn't be a secret. I just know that something is going on and I want to know.”
“There is nothing, and we are finished talking about this! Go to your room!”
I ran up the stairs and slammed the door to my room. My sister, who was sitting on her bed, asked me, ”Why were you and daddy yelling?”
“No reason, I just got mad.” But there was a reason. A real reason to why my dad was so angry at me. That made my suspicion into something real. I had to know what was going on. So I stood up and snuck out of my room and sat on the stairs so I could overhear the conversation that my parents were having.
“I think we should tell her. I don't want to keep this from her anymore,” said Mom.
“We can't it's too early; she’s not old enough yet. We need to bring this up at the council meeting tomorrow night, so everyone knows that she is starting to catch on and we need to be more careful around her.”

What is this? What am I hearing right now? I need to leave, I can't be here anymore.

I snuck down the the rest of the stairs and out the door. I grabbed my bike and rode it to the field.

This is the place I go, whenever I'm sad, happy, angry, and every feeling in between. Where I live, there are houses and streets covering up the beautiful land that is beneath it. So I come here, to just be. This tree is in the one field that is in the town I live in. When I go here I smell the fresh cut grass, that is never overgrown. I see the beautiful blue sky and the marshmallow clouds, and feel the breeze through my hair. The wind rustles the leaves of the tree and they sound like they're laughing. I hear the birds chirping; even though I never see them. The hills seem to go on forever without a house in sight. I go up to the tree and run my fingers across the bark, feeling slight pinching sensations when I hit a knot in the tree. I look around the trunk for the knot that sticks out a little more than the rest and place my foot on it to boost myself in to the tree. I sit down in the fork and lay my head on a branch, not worrying about bugs because there never seems to be any. I close my eyes and enjoy the smells and sound that nature is making. This is when I figured it out.

All of it lined up. The council meetings every week, the adults trying to keep everything perfect. The fact that I have never seen a bug or a bird but I always hear them. Why Timothy did not want me to leave town today, and why my dad got so mad at me today. Why no one has ever left the town and why everyone and everything is the same. I jumped out of the tree and walked farther away from town. I squinted my eyes and then I could see a weird line between the grass and where the background sky was. I bent down and touched it. It was a wall. The sky was fake. I stood up and layed my hands on the warm wall that for my whole life was a sky.

I backed up and looked around myself. This is fake. This is all fake. But how much is? Are my parents really my parents? This is obviously not a real town. But who knows that? Is it just the adults who know? Are we all being forced to “live” here? I didn't understand. My head started spinning and I felt like I was going to be sick. I started to head back to the tree when everything went black.