^“Name the seven islands of Calais,” Miss Drone asks me, like I haven’t been taught them my whole life. Every week, she asks me these questions. I will never see any other island than the one I am stuck on, so I don’t see the point in knowing all their names.

“Onaya, Twogan, Thron, Foten, Fiaten, Sixa, and Sevten,” I answer. It’s like someone has counted to seven, and named an island after each number.

“Who rules all the islands?” she asks as she reads the paper I wrote for her this week. It’s filled with my opinions on the last book she gave me to read. A book about the seven seas.

“King Dragon and his Queen, Riah,” I answer. I almost want to add that the pirates own the waters, but I know she won’t like me saying that. It’s not worth the argument that would follow. The King ignores the pirates, and the pirates are said to ignore him. The King chose the seven families to rule each island after he took his throne, then he left us alone on the islands. We only see the King once a year when he visits all the islands with his queen. Well, I’ve never seen him, his queen, or his children. Only the seven council members get to see them.

There’s only one law the King regularly reminds everyone to follow: kill the changed ones, or he sends his guards to the island and kills them anyway.

“Tell me the final words you need to know,” she asks in her cold tone.

“Never go near the sea, never leave the walls. The sea is lost, pirates are death,” I repeat back to my teacher. Miss Drone believes telling me the same thing every time I see her will make sure I understand her. She really has no idea. She nods like she thinks she’s done her job today. Those are always the words she says last to me, every week at the same time, the same hour. The same senseless rules.

My whole life is full of rules that mean nothing to me.

“Cassandra, are you listening to me?” Miss Drone says in a sharp tone. I glance up from my seat, looking at her. I don’t know her first name, she never told me, and I never asked anyone to tell me. My father always calls her Miss Drone, and her daughter calls her Mother. Miss Drone has light-blonde hair that’s cut short, and she’s wearing an old dress, covered in holes. She is a widow from the poor side of the island. My father says she’s lucky, lucky not to be dead or on the streets, and that’s why she doesn’t tell anyone about me. That’s why she has taught me my whole life for the tiny amount of food my father gives her. I guess it’s because food is treasured here on Onaya, where we have little. People can’t leave because the seas are full of pirates, and even if you did get to the other islands, they are in no better condition. No one can trade between the islands. The only way we know people are even alive on them is the couple of people who make it to our shore. They come looking for a home and food but are sadly disappointed. We grow very little on our farms; the land is dying, and people don’t know why. It’s said it’s like this on every island, and it gets worse every single year.

“Yes, of course I am.” I say. I fake a smile at her, and she relaxes in her seat. Miss Drone is terrified of me. Everyone that has ever been near me is. My father has only let me meet three people in my life. Him, Miss Drone, and her daughter, Everly. Everly keeps me from going insane with boredom, and Miss Drone teaches me things I apparently need to know. Like how the seas are lost, and everyone dies out there.

I don’t know why I need to know anything when I can never leave my house, or the grounds surrounding it.

“Well then, I will be off. Everly will be over after school,” she says as she stands and walks towards the door. I wait until she shuts it before I walk towards the window.

I can see my whole town from this window, it’s striking. The island is shaped like a foot, or that’s how I like to think of it. The brown state house stretches like a line straight down the middle, towards my large house and the large acre that surrounds it. Our house is the biggest on the island because of who my father is–one of seven council members. They always get the best of everything.

There are three others houses on my row, but they are far smaller. I have been told there are three more on the other side of the island too, the same size as the smaller ones next to ours. I don’t know why my father has the biggest house on the island, but he does. I only know what my father has told me. I know that they house the other council members and their families. The council make all the decisions on the island, everything from enforcing the laws, to how much food they think people need to eat.

The people worship them, do anything they ask because they give them food. They keep them safe and make sure that no pirates get into their town.

If only they knew about me, his secret, they wouldn’t love him like they do. My reflection shines back at me from the window. My brown hair is in waves around my face, little feathers braided in, and tiny plaits I’ve added when I’ve gotten bored. My hazel eyes match my hair, in my opinion making me look normal. The only thing that isn’t normal, is the slightly raised upside-down triangle on my forehead. 

My mark; the very thing that makes me hide. The very thing I wish I could get rid of and have a normal life. A life where I could walk out of the house.

“Cassandra, come here,” my father shouts up the stairs. 

After one more glance at my reflection, I leave my room.