Free The Declaration by Gemma Malley

Place.’
    As Anna watched Sheila standing bravely before Tania, her little back stiff and her eyelashes heavy with salty tears, she found herself thinking of Peter, hearing his words echoing around her head: ‘Your parents love you, Anna Covey. They love you.’
    Then she braced herself. ‘Sheila, you have to say it,’ she said flatly. ‘It’s true, after all.’
    Sheila’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head fiercely. ‘It isn’t true,’ she said in a low voice. ‘And I won’t say it.’
    Tania was getting red in the face. ‘She will bend to my authority,’ she said hotly. ‘I am her master now. She will do whatever I tell her to.’
    ‘You are not my master,’ Sheila said suddenly. ‘No one is my master. I’m not a Surplus. My parents love me and I’m Legal, and I hate you. I hate you all.’
    Tania stared at her, her mouth wide open, then she drew her hand back and slapped her hard around the face again. Then she pushed Sheila to the floor and started to kick her.
    ‘You do not talk to your master like that,’ she screamed. ‘You will learn some respect. You are a Surplus, Sheila. Do you hear? You are scum. You don’t deserve to breathe the same air as me. You don’t deserve to be in the same room as me. You’re scum, Sheila, you’re worthless.’ Tania looked around, her eyes flashing. ‘You’re all worthless,’ she said angrily. ‘You’re all scum. All of you.’
    Charlotte, a short, stocky Pending who slept in the next but one bed to Anna, muscled forward at this point.
    ‘If anyone’s scum, you are,’ she said, folding her arms and looking at Tania menacingly. ‘You can’t even cook properly. You’re scum and useless and no one’s ever going to want to employ you and you’re going to end up being put down because there won’t be anything else to do with you.’
    ‘I can cook,’ Tania said, drawing herself up to her full height and taking her eyes off Sheila to glare at Charlotte. ‘And I can sew better than you too. No one will want to employ you because you’re too ugly to have in a nice house. No one would want to look at you all day, even if you learn Decorum and make yourself invisible. You’ll still be ugly.’
    Anna glanced to the floor and watched Sheila inch away from Tania, wincing slightly from the pain, but her face still defiant. Charlotte wasn’t inching anywhere, though. Instead, she hurled herself at Tania, grabbing her by the hair and forcing her to the ground.
    ‘Useless . . . little . . . Surplus,’ she spat as she slapped Tania around the face. Tania wriggled on to her side and managed to aim a kick at Charlotte, who fell away, crying out with the pain. But before Tania could get up, Sheila appeared from nowhere, hurling herself on to Tania and punching her with little fists.
    ‘Stop,’ screamed Anna fiercely. ‘The game is over. It’s time for bed.’
    ‘I don’t want to go to bed,’ Charlotte said, looking Anna directly in the eye. ‘I don’t feel like it.’
    Anna’s eyes narrowed. ‘Surplus Charlotte, Know Your Place,’ she growled. ‘I say it’s time for bed, and you will do as I say.’
    Tania pushed Sheila off her and stood up. ‘And what if we don’t?’ she asked, her voice challenging. ‘Then what?’
    ‘Then you’ll be punished,’ Anna said fiercely. ‘I am a Prefect.’
    ‘I am a Prefect,’ Tania mocked, and a couple of the Surpluses laughed. ‘Well, Prefects have to Learn Their Place too,’ she said, pulling herself up to her full height and looking to the other Surpluses for moral support. ‘Maybe it’s time you played the game, Anna. Maybe it’s time you stopped being so high and mighty and remembered who you are. What you are. Just a Surplus, like the rest of us.’
    Anna stared at her. ‘I know I’m a Surplus,’ she said angrily. ‘I Know My Place. I think it’s you who doesn’t.’
    ‘Really? Well, maybe you’re right. Maybe My Place isn’t in this dormitory,’ Tania said, her eyes flashing.