The Sowing Read Free

research placement.
    I wonder if those on the screen, smiling out at the cameras, are thinking of us, remembering us like we remember them. Do they think about how we live, what we’ve sacrificed? Probably not. Our classmates have forgotten us like winter on a warm summer’s day, unaware that the government they serve hunts us day and night.
    The students finish their announcements, and the president of the Academy gives a short speech about how amazing everyone and everything is. I can’t fight back an eye roll. The camera cuts back to Linnea.
    “What promising graduates! And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for—the honors speech from our young nation’s most celebrated student. It will be no surprise to our viewers that Valerian Augustus Orleán is graduating with the highest honors.”
    Soren groans so loud Kenzie shushes him, and I can’t help but agree. Of course Vale is graduating with the highest honors. His mother, the director general of the Okarian Agricultural Consortium, the corporate body that controls the food supply and seed banks, would have made sure Vale received the highest honors. It certainly doesn’t hurt that his father is the chancellor of the Sector.
     “As the Research Institute’s top student, Vale has the honor of addressing the nation and announcing what’s next for him. Many have wondered whether he will take a commission in the Sector Defense Forces. Will he follow his father’s footsteps into government or his mother’s into research? Of course, we all hope that whatever path he chooses, he will continue to perform around the Sector—he is our most talented young pianist, after all.”
    I flinch as a chair skids across the floor and crashes into the far wall. Soren. If Vale is the Sector’s most talented pianist, it’s only because Soren isn’t there to compete. I wonder if Soren’s thinking back to the last time he played—we obviously haven’t got a piano down here, and no one’s yet managed to scavenge anything digital that comes close to what Soren had at home. I bet he hasn’t touched one since he left.
    Linnea goes on, her voice lilting with excitement, her eyes glowing, her cheeks flushing. It occurs to me that they could be together. A faint twinge of jealousy passes through me and then fades. After all, why not? It’s been three years since we had anything, me and Vale—whatever it was. Just a kiss, really. It meant nothing. I dig my nails into my palms. They deserve each other. Vale stands, smiles, and walks to the podium. Behind him, a list of his accomplishments scrolls down a huge projection screen. The headmaster of the SRI stands at the podium waiting to shake Vale’s hand and smile for the cameras.
    “Is it nice to see your old friend Valerian again, Remy?” Soren says with a savage breath. They never did get along, Soren and Vale, and Soren knows how close we were. Once upon a time.
    “Shut up. This has nothing to do with me.”
    “Soren, not now,” Jahnu warns.
    Soren scoffs and returns his gaze to the screen. We’ve seen Vale countless times on the Sector feed, but I’m always amazed at how much he’s changed since the last time I saw him in person. He still has the same black hair, the same handsome dark eyes, the same lashes any girl would fall for. I think about the kiss, his hand on the back of my neck, his breath hot and our hearts pounding. It seems like a million years ago, practically another geological era. But it was just three years ago, when the future looked limitless, when I hadn’t a care in the world beyond my homework assignments. Our friends were the new generation of builders, the ones who would usher the Okarian Sector into a long period of peace and prosperity. We dreamed of lives without war, without famine, with the scientific advances that would ensure our children would never experience the devastation, starvation, and disease our grandparents had survived. Now, those dreams look like little more than naïve