Life Designed (Life Plan Series Book 1) by Eliza Taye (mini ebook reader TXT) 📕

Pausing to see if the noise would stop, he sighed in relief and then climbed back into bed. Not a moment afterward, the thudding resumed, even louder than before.

“Ah!” Garrett screamed, leaping to his feet and pounding on the wall again.

By the third time he did it, he’d learned that it only made things worse, not better. Between the stomping and creaking above him and the thudding sound from the wall to his left, Garrett gave up on sleep and just sat in bed, cradling his head and trying not to scream.

Just as he was about to reach his breaking point, a ping sounded from his interwave. Grabbing it off the chest beside his bed, he read the message:

Daily Job Assignment:

Gardener at the Grady’s Home

5554 Wexler Street

Wage: 5t/hr

Start Time: 5am

Expected Duration of Job: 5 hours

Garrett blinked at the screen sure he had misread the wage. Five trecins an hour? They couldn’t be serious! That wouldn’t even buy him one meal. Garrett rubbed his hand down his face in exasperation. Reaching down into his sock, he pulled out the few trecins he was able to sneak out of his home, grateful that he’d thought to do so. Spreading them across his palm, he counted out 15 trecins. With a sigh of relief, he realized he’d have enough money to at least catch a transporter to the job site. He knew where Wexler Street was, and he wouldn’t make it there on time if he walked the entire way.

Garrett stood and stretched his stiff muscles. The lack of sleep was not faring him well. He’d hoped to get more sleep before his first-ever day of work. Checking the time again, he saw it was 3:43 am. His job didn’t start for another hour and seventeen minutes, but he worried that if he didn’t get started now he wouldn’t give himself enough time in the event he got lost.

Remembering April’s advice the previous night, he forwent a shower and simply changed into some clean clothes and washed his face. While he got ready, he made a mental note of each thing he would need to purchase for his apartment. Hopefully, he’d be able to save enough money to rent a better place soon, preferably with better floors and walls, but until then, he at least needed a curtain for the bathroom, food, and a spare set of sheets.

By the time he’d left the apartment, only an hour remained before his job was slated to begin. Walking down Warren street, he wondered what would happen if he were late to work? He couldn’t be fired since it wasn’t an official job so what would the penalty be? He’d have to remember to ask April after work. Also, if the job was only supposed to take five hours, was he supposed to go home at the end or would he be sent to work elsewhere? Banishment to the Undecided sector really should have come with a manual.

As he continued down the street, he realized he had no idea where he was going. On the way to his apartment complex yesterday, he’d hunkered down to avoid the glares of the people disgusted with what he’d done. Now, he was kicking himself for not paying attention to the path they’d taken to his apartment. Nothing around him looked familiar. If he couldn’t find a marker to get his bearings, he’d never find his way out of the sector. Perhaps if he could stumble upon the Darrington Library, then he would know how to get outside the sector.

Looking up and down the street, few others walked the dark streets besides the scattered homeless individuals. Not wanting to disturb them, Garrett moved on down the street hoping he’d find someone else headed to work like he was. Crossing one deserted street to the next, Garrett wondered if he’d ever find anyone. He hated how the Undecided sector didn’t have visible addresses like those on his side of town. He sorely missed his sciorb. If Dave had let him keep it, he could have looked up directions to the entrance of the Decided sector.

Garrett stopped walking, standing frozen in place.

He couldn’t call it that anymore—his side of town. The Undecided sector was his side of town now. He’d have to get used to that. It’d be that way for the rest of his life.

“Hey, you can’t stand hogging the entire pathway like that!” complained an annoyed voice.

Garrett spun around to see no one at eye level. Staring down, he saw a kid around five to six years old with dirt smudged on his face and in his blond hair staring up at him. “Oh, sorry.”

“Why are you just standing there anyway? Don’t you have somewhere to be?” The kid scowled at him, puckering his lips in disdain.

“Yeah, well…um, I’m looking for the entrance to the Decided sector.”

The kid looked him up and down with suspicion. “You aren’t from around here, are you?” he asked.

Garrett pursed his lips but said nothing.

Making an O with his mouth, the kid answered his own question. “Ah, you must be that Decided kid who decided to become one of us.”

“Do you know where the entrance is or not?”

“I know, I know, no need to get all upset.” The kid held his hands up. “You continue down this pathway, cross eight streets, and then take a left. Go down five more streets, then take a right and it’ll be four more streets down. You got that?”

Garrett stared down at the scruffy kid who had his hands on his hips, his dull brown eyes appraising Garrett as if he were an imbecile. “Yeah, I got it.”

“Really?” The kid raised his eyebrows. “Say it back to me.”

Rolling his eyes, Garrett hurriedly replied, “Down eight streets, left and down five streets, then right and four more streets.”

The kid began