In the ’60s, surveys were conducted on the average American household and what was found was considered shocking. The majority of homes were unhappy and divorced. To combat the fact no one was living the American dream the government took it into their hands to fix this. They had others engineer a program to match people up for marriage and made laws for the following: 3 children, 2 hetero parents per home, and 2 pets. individuality was restricted. To ensure the number of children was upheld, people were given their first child at 23 and given 2 more kids 3 years apart. 90 years later and everything worked out. Every house was perfect and families were assigned colors and a last name of something in nature with that color. 

He got home later than his two little sisters, and as soon as he shut the door one of them appeared. Violet was holding her cat, Velvet, and glaring at him expectedly. He was 3 minutes late. He hung up his keys and took off his shoes to walk onto their mother’s carpet. “Yes Violet?” he asks as she begins to follow him around the house. “I’m so glad you asked dear brother Indigo, you are late which means that you owe me your dessert, so please be sure to remember this at dinner,” she smiles at him as soon as she finishes her lovely sentiment. He just sighed and nodded as he fell onto the couch. He watched her pet her cat and walk into the kitchen. ‘I wonder if all 14-year-old sisters are evil?’ he thinks as he does the mandatory evening survey. He would never actually ask this question though as it is against the law. “no malicious action or words towards siblings” family act number 12. To break this rule is to just throw out your money. A fine of 2000 would be billed directly to him and a record of this would be on his future plan. 

At age 17 one receives government privileges such as these: A driver's license, 5 pm curfew, and new attire. For the Honeycreeper family’s birthday, he received new purple shoes, a hoodie, his updated ID, and a new school uniform, such is tradition. Every family is given a date of the year where they are to celebrate their birthday. It is usually on the date they receive their first child. There are different gifts received on this date that solely depends on the age that one turns. 

When he turned 13 he received his pet, for the oldest child, this means a dog. The youngest child gets a guinea pig and the middle child receives a cat as stated in the great handbook. This pet is the only thing that the child can name and make decisions on. That morning everyone woke up in a joyous mood, especially him. He was finally getting his dog. After everyone finished their routine we sat in the living room to open gifts. The last thing to be opened was the kennel containing the dog. He waited for what seemed like an eternity, but as soon as it was opened he held the puppy to name him. He was a gray poodle who looked like he was just a clump of moving polymer filling. He thought about all the things he had learned in life and the only things that came to mind were moons.  “Styx Honeycreeper,” he announced, “ like the moon of Pluto,” he explained as his sisters gave strange looks. His father handed him the papers that had been delivered with Styx for him to sign and make his name official. 

After finishing his survey his father came through the door. His father is Tyrian Honeycreeper. Tyrian works as a manager of the solar company in sector B. He is 38 and married to Magenta Roseate-Honeycreeper. His father is not a very talkative person but he tries to at least ask how his children's day is when he returns from work. Their answers never change as every day is practically the same, as is customary in this day and age.

He turned on the TV and flipped to the news. There wasn’t what was normally there. People were screaming, fires, guns being shot as a man reported on a riot over the “nuclear family” laws. The news cut to a man who spoke before the madness. He spoke of love and wanting to marry someone who looked like him. A man. He didn't quite know why this resonated with him quite so much but he wanted to hear what he had to say, but it was too late. his father shut off the TV and muttered something about those people being freaks. “What makes them freaks?” he asked as he was getting up. He stopped and turned to him with a mean look in his eyes. “That is just not how things are done here,” he answered in a harsh tone. “But he said that they just wanted to be happy and lov-” he cut him off by grabbing his arm and pulling him up the stairs to the room we kept our computer in. “ They don’t get those things, boy! They get to be like the rest of us. Now you're going to write a report to the family law center explaining what you've said wrong,” he stated as he put him in the chair. He muttered an agreement and he left.

He spent an hour staring at the screen trying to figure out what he was wrong about. In the end, he just wrote what his father explained to him and sent it in. In less than five minutes he had a  response. ‘ Please come to your local family law center after your schooling’ it read. Great. He left the room and headed downstairs for dinner only to find that it was already over. He grabbed his things and headed up the stairs to his room. 

In the morning he walked Styx, fed him, put him in his crate, and headed to school. On his way to his car, he made eye contact with his neighbor. He guesses that they must be new due to never having seen him. “Hi, my name is Clover,” he reached his hand across for him to shake. He blanked for a second staring at him. He could feel his nerves and shook his hand. “Indigo,” he said as quickly as he could and rushed to his car. “Hey, are you going to school sector 9? Can I catch a ride with you? My car is still on the way from my last house,” he said while jogging to the car. He said nothing and just unlocked the car. ‘Be nice to your neighbors,’ rule 28. “Sweet! Thanks, man,” he smiled at him. He felt hot and nervous without reason. As he drove us to school he told him about his last house and his family. He was 17, a leo, middle child, his last name is Vertefeuille, and his cat is named Boy. When we made it to the building he got out and thanked him with more smiles. “I’ll see you soon indigo!” he yelled as he started running into the building. ‘What is wrong with me? He can't think or talk. He was quite pretty,’ he thought as he sat in his car hearing a bell go off. Late. He walked to the attendance room and received a whack on his wrist with a ruler and headed onto his class. By the end of the day, he was still very confused about why he kept thinking about Clover. He was waiting for him near his car. “Howdy dude,” he grinned at him. “Howdy?” he answered. As soon as he sat down he started rattling off about his day. He couldn’t respond to anything.

As he pulled into his driveway his phone buzzed reminding him of his appointment at the center. “he, um, have an appointment so he'll see you later,” he told him as he got out. He started saying goodbye and he reversed and left mid-sentence. 

As soon as he entered the center he was called by an employee in a black hood and fox mask. “Indigo Honeycreeper?” they asked. He gave a nod and was brought to a room. They began asking him questions about what he had watched the evening before and why he didn't see what was wrong with it. he tried to explain that he just felt weirdly connected to the ideas they spoke of. The sight of a clover popped into his mind as he spoke. ‘Weird’. The employee nodded and asked if he also felt that way about boys. He could feel himself getting red. “I don't know,” he answered quietly, feeling his skin get hotter. Another nod then he was told to lay on their table. He did as instructed and they got to work on the whole strapping him down thing. Two puck-sized metal plates on rods sat next to him on the table. The employee adjusts their mask and puts the rods to his temples. Without warning the rods got hot then fried him. “Okay, please send a replacement child to the Honeycreeper residence.”