It is the year of 2073. I live in America, New York to be more specific. My neighborhood is one of those neighborhoods in which all the houses look identical to each other. They all have three stories, exactly five bedrooms, three bathrooms and the same terrible paint job of this nasty brown color. It’s like brown and tan mixed together. You look at it and you just want to hurl.

It would seem that robots lived in my neighborhood if you looked at. All the lawns are the same, and so are all the trees which most of them have died or are beginning to.

The houses are Smart Houses. They pretty much operate on their own. They clean for you, and they cook for you too. My dad loves this house as do my brother and sister. To me, it’s just a house which I am not quite fond of.

In this time period, there is too much technology. Our cities are dull and grey. Everything around me just seems so lifeless. There are barely any more forests and parks left in this area. Most of them have been cut down and replaced by some new high-tech attraction. This place has no more green. Everything is either grey or brown. It disgusts me to wake up in the morning and breathe in that nasty air when I just want to gaze out my window and watch the trees calling. But that doesn’t happen around here anymore.


It’s Tuesday morning and I am deeply dreading to get out of bed. I don’t like summer and I know that is weird thing to say for most people but not for me. Summer for me is like school for other people. The thing is, school has friends, classes, and something to keep you busy all the time. I’m never bored in school even if we have to be quiet, my friends and I will find ways to entertain ourselves whether hat would be passing notes or finding some way to mess with the teacher. With summer, there’s nothing like that going on. In fact, I’m usually home, alone, with nothing to do because most of my friends would be on vacation. During the school year, I would always find a reason of why I should get out of bed in the morning. There’s always a reason why I have to jump out of bed and run out the door, hop in the car and drive away. There would always be a reason.

“Sarah! Sarah get up and get down here!” That was my dad calling and he didn’t seem too happy. But I’m not surprised because he is never happy unless it’s guys night out and they get to drink. Then he will be happy until he gets home and his expression changes in a heart beat.

I force myself out of bed, one leg at a time. I don’t bother changing out of my pajamas as I lazily get up and scramble out the door and down the stairs, holding onto the railing so I don’t fall down. It wouldn’t be a shock if I did because I am most likely the clumsiest person you will ever meet.

“Yes, dad?” I mumble when I see my dad waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.

Dad pushes an envelope towards me and says, “A letter came for you in the mail.” I grab the letter and tumble over to our comfortable leather couch as dad walks away looking cross as always. The envelope was addressed to Sarah Porter. My name is the most boring name I could think of. There is no nicknames to have and no uniqueness to it. I’m Sarah. Whoopee. The return address on the envelope read RIDGEBERG STATE UNIVERSITY which the college I applied to. I’m really hopeful that I will make it in to this one. I’ve been rejected about 6 times already. I sit there, nervous, as the paper tears and I take out the letter.

Well what do you know… Rejected. Again. Just lovely. I don’t know why I’m not good enough. I get good grades and I don’t have a bad record. In middle school I got in a couple of quarrels but I don’t think that should affect anything. For the past three years in high school, I have tried my best to be a good student. I would be nice to the teacher although that was really thought sometimes considering how pushy and grouchy they can be. I try my best to get decent grades. I know that some aren’t as good as others but come on! Freshman year, I had straight A’s. Sophomore year, I had all A’s and two B’s. Junior year, I had four A’s and four B’s. I know I am not the smartest kid in school but I am intelligent compared to many people that I know like Stacy Minnelli, who was the dumbest person that I have ever met in my life. Not only was she lacking common sense, and basic thinking, she’s the type of person who would go out and drink every night and then come to school after. The police had to take her away at least six times that I could remember. So I don’t know why I wont get accepted into a single college.

I hear screaming coming from the kitchen. I walk over to see what all the commotion was about. My 11 year old brother, Jeffrey and my 9 year old sister, Anne were fighting again and my dad was stand over them screaming in their faces. He would yell things like, “How stupid are you two?” or, “How old are you to be acting like this?” Same thing everyday. My dad just cannot hold in his temper. It hasn’t gotten out of control yet and I’m praying that it wont. Anne starts crying and Jeffrey is yelling at her saying that she started it. Of course big sister Sarah has to break it up every time.

“Alright you two, that’s enough! Now what happened?”

“Jeffrey hit me!” Anne cries.

“No I did not!”

“Yes he did when I was going up to get the cookie, he hit me and said it was his cookie.”

Why do little kids fight over some of the most stupidest things like a cookie. I would understand if it were the last cookie in the world but come on.

“No body gets the cookie. Anne, stop complaining, Jeffrey, stop hitting your sister. Both of you just separate and go somewhere. Now.” Every time they fight over dumb things I have to be the one who steps up. My dad never does, he just stands back and watches and when it gets out of hand, he will yell. I don’t know what his problem is. Everyday he’s grumpy in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening.

Dad looks at me and without even a thank you, just walks away with that look.