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Alessa
reminisced about the days before Paragon, “Do you know she actually tried to go in
and get a second set of shots instead of reporting to recycling
sorting duty during our civil service?”
    Isaac laughed and thought
back to his own time in the mandatory government service program,
doing the menial jobs everyone took turns with in their teenage
years to support the country while so many of the adults were busy
with the war effort. “I mean, I only did it for two years before
the outbreak and I know there were some terrible positions – the
sewer plant in particular was quite the olfactory experience – but recycling wasn’t
bad. Most of the stuff that came through was already clean. And
those shots were brutal – they gave us like six different vaccines
at once, I think. I can’t believe she’d rather do that again than
rinse out some old bottles.”
    Giggling to herself,
Alessa replied, “Luckily the med center was keeping good records
and sent her right back to work. She’d just turned 14 and started her
service, so she’d had her initial set of inoculations only weeks
before. Who knows what another round of that stuff might have done
to her? It’s amazing the dumb things we do as kids,
huh?”
    Isaac had to agree. “Well,
then maybe she’ll get lucky and get cast as the heiress, and some
other poor schmuck will get the job of cleaning up after her .”
    Alessa burst out laughing. “I just got
an image of Lizzie on her hands and knees mopping up Janie’s mess!
Oh, that’s a good one.”
    Isaac chuckled in agreement. It was
certainly a possibility, given that Lizzie had also been cast on
the drama as one of Alessa’s sorority sisters, and as far as they
knew, was still in the hands of the producers. Regina’s daughter
had certainly proven her mettle before that by breaking free from
the Ruling Class’s sickening harem, but all the same, she was still
a bit of a priss.
    It’d been a running joke
between Isaac and Joe about where Lizzie found her tailor, as the
colony’s standard issue jumpsuits had always seemed to somehow
miraculously cling to her body in all the right places, in a way
that – to a younger Isaac’s chagrin – it certainly did not on the compound’s
other women. She was quite the sight at the rebel meetings, her
eyes lined with dark kohl and never a hair out of place. And much
to Joe’s satisfaction, her lips always seemed extra pouty whenever
her attention was turned in his direction.
    Yes, Lizzie was certainly
blessed in the physical department. And while her frivolous beauty
routine did not do justice to the tenacious woman underneath, it
was evident that cleaning up after Janie would certainly drive the
perfectionist in Lizzie nuts, even if she was stitched.
    Thinking about the dramas brought his
mind back to Jo, the girl who had played his younger sister on his
side of the drama. “Maybe Josephine will get cast alongside Janie
this time. That would be nice, right? I’m sure Janie would watch
out for her.”
    Alessa smiled reassuringly. “I’m sure
she would.”
    Poor Jo. She could use
someone looking out for her, for once. Isaac remembered that she
was only nine on the show, which meant she must have been a baby
when Paragon was founded. “I just don’t get it – how does such a
young kid end up in this messed up situation? At least the rest of
us were rebels, or old enough to realize that we’d been privy to
information we weren’t supposed to have. She’s way too young for
anyone to call her a rebel, so that means she must have wandered
into some restricted area or something. But even if she did , she’s still too
little to have understood the implications. They should have just
sent her home with a warning.”
    Alessa nodded. “I’ll never understand
what goes through these people’s minds – they’re just… ugh.” She
looked ready to spit with disgust.
    Another thought occurred to Isaac.
“Oh, and I hadn’t thought of this before, but isn’t it