Children's Draft

Chapter 3 (Part One)

(Matteo's PoV)

I rocked back and forth in the plane chair as I anxiously awaited departure. Right now, another group of boys were being let on. The group I came on with was the late people. These were the really late people. A lot of them looked around for a place to sit. It was hard to find a familiar face. You'd be lucky to find someone you vaguely recognized.

"Um...can I sit there?" a boy asked. He was about my height with longish blond hair and silver braces across his teeth.

"Oh yeah, sure." I shrugged and took my hand off the armrest of the seat next to mine.

"Thanks," he told me. "I don't know anybody here."

"Neither do I," I admitted.

We didn't say anything after that. The quiet was slowly starting to get to me. Not even the plane's loud engine as it took off could make up for the absence of noise between the blond boy and me. Desperate to talk about something, I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind.

"Have you ever been on a plane before?"

I must've broke him from a deep thought, cuz he looked up a little startled. "Oh...uh...no. You?"

"Once," I replied. "When I was eight. My family and I moved here from Spain."

"You moved from Spain to Nebraska?" he questioned.

"Yeah," I answered. "I'm not really sure why. Something about finding a better life."

"In Nebraska?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. That's just something my parents were always saying."

The boy seemed to grow stiff for a moment. I thought about asking if anything was wrong, but I remembered something Emmy had told me about getting too involved in other people's lives.

I switched my mind back to our original conversation. "Although my girlfriend does make my life a lot better here. Do you have one?"

"I wish," he responded.

My mouth seemed to work a lot faster than my mind because it had just occurred to me that I really had no idea who I was talking to. "By the way, what's your name?" I asked.

The same thought must have occurred to him too. "Will Atteleigh. What's yours?"

"Matteo Rosalez," I replied. "And I'm in the 63rd platoon."

He sighed of relief. "Me too."

"We should bunk together," I decided.

He didn't hesitate to answer. "Yeah, good idea."

I smiled in satisfaction. "Now we know we won't be one of the last ones left who gets paired with the person nobody likes."

Will smiled back. He seemed pretty cool. I enjoyed the fact that the rest of our conversation all the way to Brooklyn, New York, wasn't awkward at all.

(Aaron's PoV)

I kind of felt bad for the people who struggled to find seats before take off. Not bad enough to let them sit by me of course. I already had my travel partner.

Connor Notham had been my best friend since birth. While it sucked for us both to be drafted, if we were being forced into the army, at least we were in the same platoon.

But friendship aside, Connor and I were in a bad mood. Not so much about the draft itself, but more so it's timing.

"I can't believe this," Connor said, slamming his fist against the arm rest."