The rest of the week blurred until I couldn't tell one day from the other, until we had our graduation. We were ushered into a room full of clothes and ordered to change. I found a dress with ZÖE printed on a tag and put it on. It was black with spaghetti straps and ended just above the knee, but the best part was whenever I moved it shimmered a dark purple. As I slipped on the matching pumps Dara walked over to me with Faxli. Faxli was wearing a large red pantsuit that made her look like a firetruck, and Dara was wearing a bright pink minidress that made my eyes water. "Good god is that the best thing they could come up with?" She said looking over my dress, "Was the person who designed it blind?" "Miss Dara I designed all the dresses myself." Dara turned around to face the fierce Mrs Dubose, our unit master. "I designed each dress to represent their wearer, as you can tell by Miss Faxli's garment." Faxli guffawed stupidly, not realizing she had been insulted. "Do you not like Zöe's dress? I would think carefully before answering." Dara gulped nervously. "Not at all Mrs Dubose, it's stunning." "I'm glad you think so." And with that she stalked off with Dara and Faxli treading behind her. I stood there laughing until Kayla walked over. "What's so funny?" I looked at her. She had managed to get her hair a little better looking as a light brown and blonde combo. Her dress was yellow and white and seemed to be made of small feathers. "Not you." She frowned. "I look awful don't I?" "Not at all." Kayla looked over my shoulder. "I've got to go." And without a word she rushed off. I looked behind me and saw Xavier walking over with his dog Sqizy and Mrs Dubose tailing him. "Wow you look great." "You too." And he did. His normally messy black hair had been combed. He was wearing a pair of black pants with a white shirt and red tie. The only way I could tell it was still him was because his shirt was untucked. "I found DeathBite wondering so I thought I should bring her over." He pulled her from behind him. "Thank you so much!" Suddenly Mrs Dubose clapped her hands. "Hurry everybody it's about to start!"
We quickly lined up and walked on to the stage. In the audience I could see younger G.As, doctors, and in the very back there was a booth of people in a large bubble, undoubtedly the government officials who were afraid of us. As we were organized I could see Kayla nervously pulling her hair, which had turned a blondish blue. Xavier and I looked up at the ceiling for skylights while Dara, Liv and Faxli looked at the floor. Before we knew it Mrs Dubose was talking. She started giving some crap speech about the amazing things we had accomplished, and then gave a detailed history of our entire lives. Mentioning memorable events such as the hose incident or the bite of DeathBite. But finally she did what everybody was waiting for, she gave us our assignments. She carried a large basket with a hundred rolls of paper inside. As she passed each student she handed them theirs. "Do not let anybody see yours, if you do you will fail." Finally she handed me mine. I pulled at the black bow tying it till it unraveled, and then looked at the paper that would determine my future... It was blank.
I stared down at my paper in horror. What the hell? I looked over at the others. Some of them were smiling, while others were looking at their paper in terror. I knew that whatever was going on I would get to the bottom of. I stormed into Mrs Duboses office. "Mrs Dubose I..." I looked in to see that Xavier, Dara, Benoit and Kayla were already at her desk. "Ah Zoë, how nice of you to join us." I looked at the others, they were all holding blank papers. "As I was telling the others there is a perfectly logical explanation to all this." Dara tossed her hair angrily. "Then explain already!" Mrs Dubose laughed and smiled coldly. "Gladly. There is only one thing the five of you have in common, and it all started with a filing error over 18 years ago. Some creatures were sent to the wrong habitats and..." I cut her off. "Are you trying to say we're mistakes?" Mrs Dubose smiled sinisterly. "Exactly."
"So basically our entire lives have been a huge lie?" Everybody looked over at Benoit, it was the first time he had talked since I arrived. "Yes. None of you were artificially created. You are all real." "Wait, the others aren't?" Mrs Dubose laughed again, enjoying our confusion. "Of course not! We artificially created them! Their brains are wired to obey our every command! But you five, you were all unpredictable. Growing at a different rate then the others, you must have noticed that." I briefly thought back. Xavier towering over the others, Benoit looking up at everyone. Kayla and I getting bras a year before others, it all made sense. "None of the others even have living DNA, it was all created in a lab. Their hair color, favorite food, likes, dislikes, all preprogrammed." "What about our parents?" Kayla squeaked from the corner. "You have all met them, they were all sworn to secrecy. But you should all be able to figure it out." We stood there in silence, not knowing what to say. Finally Dara spoke up. "What about our assignments?" "Ah yes, the assignments. You will all be working in an undercover op." She pulled a stack of large folders out from her desk. "You will each portray one of these people. These files will tell you everything, keep them close. As of right now Dara, Benoit, Kayla, Xavier and Zoë no longer exist."