I sat across from my friend, Jane.  She was stuffing her round face with a salad.  Her long black hair –that she dyed- was getting in the way of her fork. I realized that I was staring and put a bite of yogurt in my mouth.  She wasn’t tall, but taller than me.  She wasn’t tan or pale.  She was a little bit darker than me, but I guess I’m pale.  We were in the food court and I stared at my clock. I saw two weeks, four days, three hours, ten minutes, and 5.4.3 … seconds.  She looked up from the pile of salad in front of her, to me, and I looked back. Her gray eyes looked into mine then to my clock on my wrist.  She spoke up after swallowing.

“Are you worried or something?” She said it carefully knowing that it was a touchy subject with me lately.

Everyone was given a clock when they were born. The clock is inserted by a machine.  It’s supposed to mean something different for everyone.  When your clock runs out who knows what could happen, you could find the love of your life, or the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you happens, or something.  But, not a single person or thing knows. Except the machine.

I thought about my answer for a moment while she picked food out of her teeth.

“I guess I’m just lost in thought about what’s going to happen.” I replied as I got up out of my chair to throw away our trash in a trashcan near us.

“Well, at least yours will be at zero soon. Mine won’t be for another year or two.” She said while looking at the horizontal clock on her wrist.
 

I looked at her plump, cheeky face that had a fake smile on it.  Jane hadn’t usually seemed concerned with her clock.  But, I guess she really wanted to know like everyone else.  I usually thought she was disinterested in it.

“Sorry, it’s just sort of a bad subject right now.” I said trying to forget about it.

“It’s okay, Guinivere.” She said as she also stood.  I looked at her, people rarely called me by my full first name. They usually called me Beth or Chase or Gwen. Sometimes a coach or someone would call me by my full name, Guinivere Beth Chase Winston, which was a mouth-full.  I pretended like I didn’t notice and we said our goodbyes as I ran to an exit all the way across the food court to meet my older sister, Daria, by her black Impala. She got in the driver’s seat and I got in the passenger’s side. We drove home in silence.

When we pulled into our half-mile long driveway, I spoke up.

“Daria, do you ever worry about what happens when the clock will hit zero?”  She glanced at me, her face contorted into a questioning look.

“No, I don’t. Well, at least not often.” Her hazel eyes connected with my green and then I drew my attention back out the window to look at the rural, small-town trees.

I was in second period-study hall.  My throat was dry from choir.  I raised my hand and the teacher called on me and I spoke up.

“May I get a drink from the water fountain?”
“Yes, you may. But, be quick!” Mrs. Layton said not looking up from the paper she was grading, from her earlier class.

I walked out of the classroom into the hallway.  Immediately, I saw the water fountain at the end of the hallway with three people in line. I walked slowly down the pale, dull hallway traced by lockers.  I saw a girl and a boy waiting in a girl to finish getting a drink. It’s Jane and the boy and girl that were behind her were Christian, her brother, and Elisia. Christian was in group three with Jane and I.  Elisia was in group one with the pedantic kids, like my sister.  She was on my sister’s softball team, too.  The way we were put into classes was that we would all be given a test at the beginning of each year.  It depended on our results of which of the four classes we went into. I was usually in class two or three.  The four groups helped us make friends within our class but not with people from other classes.  Elisia turned around and looked at me then spoke up saying,

“Ugh, seriously, how many of you need a drink?” She knew I didn’t like her “How much time do you have left?” She said, reaching for my wrist. But, I pulled away to tell her myself.

“Two weeks, three days, three hours, fifty-six minutes, and about thirty seconds.” I said with a bitter tone.
“Wow, so at the end of school or something in two weeks or so, your clock will reach zero and who knows what will happen.  You could get hit by a train or something.’ She spat out, trying not to be too loud. Even when she was mean, she was cautious enough to never get caught out of the character she played for teachers.  Jane looked up from her long drink.

“Yeah and how much time so you have left?”  She said taking Elisia’s wrist and looking at her clock.  “Twenty years, five months, two hours, eight minutes, and eleven seconds. Shut up and stop being mean just because of your jealousy.”  Jane said before Elisia pouted off to her class on the other side of the hallway.

A week before zero hit, I felt anticipation kick in.  I was always in a state of panic and looked at my clock constantly.  Jane and Christian were worried about me, I couldn’t eat or sleep. It felt like my clock was actually ticking even though it was electronic.  I was in my bedroom listening to music to calm my nerves when Sam, my tall, blonde friend called and I could hear his deep voice speaking through the phone.

“Hey Gwen.”  He said nonchalantly with the sound of an engine in the background.

‘Are you in a vehicle or something?”  I replied.

“Well, you could have said ‘Hi’, but yes I am.”  He said with Christian’s voice in the background as well.
  I could barely make out the words he said  ”Is she coming or not?”

“I haven’t asked yet, Chris.”  Sam replied.

“Anyways, would you please get out of your pajamas and stand at the end of your driveway?”  He asked while I tried to figure out what they were luring me into.

“Where are we going?” I asked with a grin that he couldn’t see but I knew he heard it in my voice.

“I know but I’m not going to tell you, because Jane and Chris are making me keep it a secret.”  He replied trying to keep Jane and Christian quiet.  I could tell Christian and Jane were anticipating my answer.

“Okay I will go I guess.”  I said waiting for a shocked reply from him.

“Okay.  I will pick you up at ten thirty.”  He said very fast then hung up.

I got dressed into some old jeans, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes.  I had thirty minutes to wait now. I had to gotten dressed in less than thirty minutes and walked out the door while giving an explanation of where I was going.  I walked to the end our driveway and waited by our faded, tan mailbox.  Then, I saw Sam’s brother’s blue Mustang some to a stop in front of me and the window roll down and Jane yell for me to get in from the back seat.  I got in and Sam drove off in a hurry blaring some old music from the early 2000’s.

  We pulled up to the front of giant, metal –barred structure with a large group of people near it.  He pulled into the parking lot and introduced everyone who included: His brother, Jacob, Stacey, Mark and Kate, and a bunch of others.

“So you Guys want to play a game?” Jacob said, he didn’t look much like Sam  but you could still tell they were siblings. Everyone agreed we should play a game. He responded with” How about a game of Dare?”

“How do you play?” I spouted out before anyone else could speak.  Then, Jacob decided to show me an example and spoke up louder than what I was expecting from him “Sam,” He paused for affect “Truth or dare?”  Jacob said dramatically.

“Dare!” Sam yelled in reply.

“Okay, I dare you to spray paint a building with your own name.”  Jacob said knowing that it was fairly easy to do.  Sam ran off to Jacob’s car and grabbed the only spray paint that Jacob had- pink.  Sam ended up doing it with little frilly swirls and later found some glitter so not only was it pink but it was glittery and pink.  Sam and everyone looked and his name and then Mark fell to the ground gasping with laughter.

“Are those fairy wings?” He said in between a short breath. Later, I was challenged by Kate to climb the metal structure.  I was worried I might slip the entire climb.  I carefully placed my hands and feet that were going numb from the October wind.  I kept climbing and climbing until I got to the top of the three story metal structure.  I stopped and stared at my clock.  It read six days, fifteen hours, five minutes, and thirteen, twelve, eleven seconds.

  The next day was like every other day.  I get up at five, take a shower, put on my clothes, brush and fix my hair, and so on.  I finally left my room and ate breakfast then got in the car with my sister and my purple school shirt that is worn by everyone in the third class.  I saw Jane talking to some of her other friends that I didn’t care much for and walked to class.  People stared at me in the hallway and pointed.  I knew the reason why, my clock was closer to zero than most of theirs’ and they acknowledged that.

But exactly four hours and twenty-two minutes before zero I was in the lunch room and I was really tired from pacing the entire night before so I went to the nurse’s office to lay down and take a nap.  At the end of the school day, the nurse shook me awake.  I was already dazed and groggy from the nap and I had to meet Daria by her car.  I grabbed my purple book bag and slung it over my shoulder, I hated the color but it was the only color I was allowed to have because of what class I’m in. I looked down at my clock.  Three minutes, forty-five seconds left.  I run down the hallway. Faster and faster until my lungs feel numb and my legs burn.  I glance back down at my clock- two minutes and thirty-four seconds.  I’m was almost to the door when I ran into a door I didn’t see.  My library book and phone were on the ground.  I saw a boy in yellow from class two bend down to pick up my books, but I was already on the ground so I hurried to grab them and continue down the hallway.  While I ran away he chased after me trying to apologize.  He kept saying how sorry he was and I just spoke under my breath, ”It’s okay I just have to go.”

But, he didn’t hear me. Then, I was outside and the sunlight shined into my eyes so I had to squint.  The road looked pretty clear but he was still following me so I guess he didn’t hear me.  I stepped into the street without even thinking and turned toward him, “Listen I get it you are sorry and I accept your apology, but I really have to go…”  But then I saw his clock on the concrete and it was really close and I felt a sharp pain in my right side and then I stared at my own.  It was on my wrist, it wasn’t at zero yet.  I read ten, nine, eight, then I see my sister.  She was crying and then I saw her look at her hands that were touching my head.  They are red. The only thing I could think was blood.  It filled my mind.  But not for long because I glanced back at my clock, three, two, one…