I Am Alive Read Free

start to throw paper planes at her, urging her to leave. Faustina looks amused.
    “Stop it!” I snap at the students.
    “There is no point in standing up for her.” Ariadna pinches me, trying to hide her embarrassment. She doesn’t like it when I support a pre-Monster. Sympathizing with Monsters is a serious act of defiance against the Summit.
    I ignore Ariadna, and do my best to bat the paper planes away. I can’t stop the insults though. Eva hides behind me, her hands on my shoulders.
    “Don’t let her touch you. Not on your Ranking Day. Bad luck!”
    The classroom door swings open. Mrs. Delacroix, one of our teachers, looks angry with the noise in the hall. I expect her to shush the Nines and the Eights. Instead, she looks at me, as if this is all my fault. “You,” she demands, pointing at me. “Follow me inside.”
    “I told you it wasn’t worth it,” Ariadna mouths, looking sideways at the classroom door.
    As I am about to follow Mrs. Delacroix into the room, I see Eva asking Ariadna if she has seen her iAm, which Eva seems to have lost. Losing one’s iAm is a crime. However, the Gatekeeper claims he has lost his electric cattle prod as well. This can easily downgrade him to a Monster.
    Everyone else shoots me worried looks as I follow Mrs. Delacroix into the classroom. Everyone is afraid of her, and it could be bad luck to have her check my final test. Mrs. Delacroix is a Six. Schoolteachers usually are. She does look like a lovely old woman when you first lay your eyes on her, but she frightens the bejesus out of everyone. She and Mrs. Dunbar, our math teacher, both killed their children last year. Mrs. Dunbar is said to have sent her kids to the Wastelands across the borders. Mrs. Delacroix is said to have taken matters into her own hands. Parents killing their children isn’t big news in Faya. When the kids are officially predicted as Monsters like Eva, some parents decide to sacrifice one child to save the rest. If Woo hadn’t taught me how to work the system, my mother would have killed me by now.
    I follow Mrs. Delacroix. Everyone around, even Faustina, wonders how I am going to stand being alone with Mrs. Delacroix in the same room.

3
    Mrs. Delacroix opens the classroom’s door, using a magnetic card that can only be used from outside. As she closes the door behind us, I look at it worriedly. What if she decides to kill me like her children? I roll my eyes at my silly thought. Only Monsters get killed.
    “Hand me your iAm, please.” Mrs. Delacroix stretches out her hand across the table separating us.
    I obey silently as I examine her serious face. However peacefully she poses, I can’t stop imagining her killing her children. How did she do it? Did she drown them? Eat their hearts and livers, like the Snow White Queen? How can someone kill their own child, no matter how monstrous they are?
    “I am sorry about what happened outside with Eva,” I say, as Mrs. Delacroix checks my iAm, connecting it to a master computer to check if I am cheating.
    “Who is Eva?” Mrs. Delacroix says absently.
    “Eva, you know, the…”
    “Ah. The Monster.” She clicks her keyboard, her eyes glued to the screen in front of her. “Who cares about Monsters?” She takes a sip from her cold coffee.
    “How can you be sure she is a… you know?” Sometimes I can’t bring myself to say the word.
    “It’s so obvious. I called her parents yesterday to stop her from attending the Ranking Ceremony, but they didn’t listen. When I assured them that the iAms’ predictions were rarely wrong, and that she was going to be a Monster, they said that Eva attending the ceremony was going to be more of a last wish before dying.” Mrs. Delacroix licks her gummy lips, tasting the sweet coffee. “I hate when parents say that.”
    “I guess her parents saw no use in Eva attending the Monster Show.” I say. The Monster Show is the only way for a Monster to get ranked. A three-day-long deadly game show, that if you