Meet Shawna

"I work when and where I want. I don't usually listen to the Peacekeepers, and my name is Jace." For a second, I'm startled, panicked, then a little bit wishful. Oh, such freedom! No, if I want to help keep Grandma safe, I'd better behave. What would people say if the children under the District accountant's care became a rebel? Wasn't that how Mom was? She was the Gamemaster's daughter, but she rebelled and came to this District with my father.

"Hmm. At least you choose to work. If everyone chose to have the same freedoms, there would be some that would skip work altogether," I notice.

My sister might be one of those people. She'd stay at home and tend to Ted and James and Ellie and Venna, her plants. She would never go to school. She'd never learn to read or to write. She'd help Grandma all day long with calculating, I suppose. Maybe a mathematician for a sister wouldn't be too bad. I veer my thoughts back onto their original track. I know I'd work. We need what I earn or else we'd depend solely on what Grandma earns, and my pride can't stand that.

"When's lunch?" I say, stretching and glancing toward the horizon.