With a quick apology to the teacher in the hall she rushed into her classroom and sat at her usual desk. Her mind was racing at the thought of the tri county fair this weekend.
‘Would my parents really marry me off this weekend?’ Jen thought feeling uncomfortable with this new development.
Math was normal; Jen busied herself with taking notes to keep her mind from wondering.
After class she walked over to the poster to get an idea on what it would be like.
Towards the top of the poster it read “Show your skills! And Find love?”
A little under that it read “Prepare, preform, promote!”
In the middle it read “Be the best to be the top pick or maybe qualify for the state or regional fairs!”
And finally right above the bottom left picture it read “Don’t disappoint your parents!”
At the top of the poster it was broken into different panels with young adults competing in sports and obstacle courses to debates and science projects and cooking.
The bottom right showed a beauty pagent where the winner was standing victoriously as the others had looks ranging from concerned to tears and fear. The left side showed young adults that looked defeated crying and broken.
‘I-is this propaganda in this new world?’ she thought as she looked at the effort of the people in the pictures.
‘What if I don’t want to get married or compete?’
Jen jumped as she heard “Heya Jenny! Are you as excited as I am? I have been looking forward to this for the last two months since I turned 18.”
As Jen looked over she spotted a short girl with golden blonde hair and vibrant green eyes bouncing towards her. She was a fellow cheerleader; they had been on the team together for a couple of years but Jen never really got used to how happy and chipper she always sounded.
“Hi Alex, excited is one way to put it.” Jen said looking back.
“Oh come on, it should be super fun! I wonder who will pick me. My parents have been working with me for the last couple weeks to figure out how best to present myself and now I get to show off.”
As the girls were talking the teacher from before walked out of her door and said “Girls, I know it’s exciting but you need to get to class now. No future in laws likes to choose partners that aren’t prompt.”
Alex smiled back and said, “Fine, I guess she is right let’s go Jenny. Thanks Mrs. Miller!”
Both Jen and Alex left towards science class. It was the last normal class Jen had today so she wanted to savor its normalcy while she could.