Phoenix's POV

The day seemed to drag longer than usual today. When I got home, my dad was still at work which is usual for us. I start making dinner for us as soon as I get home.

     Tonight I'm making my specialty, and my dad's favorite meal; hand-made chicken parmesan with spaghetti. it takes longer to make it by hand,but I enjoy it plus cooking and my doodles are my only times I get to be creative.

     All creative jobs have been outlawed due to the feeling of being inferior to another always being present when one looked upon or heard any form of art, including songs. The only music we have is classical because it has been proven the increase learning capabilities, still we don't know the authors' names​ or the titles of the songs and we can't​ reproduce it because instruments have also been outlawed.

    I wish that some of my friends knew of these things, but not even their parents know about them. I know of them because my father tells me stories about times long forgotten because he lived through them.

       I'm not sure how old my father is, but I know that he lost track of the years he has lived. Fae can remember dates well, but lose track of years easily after the first hundred or so.

         My dad tries to teach me things that have been forgotten like cooking from scratch, he even saved a few fiction books that have names in them, but only allows me to read a couple pages on special occasions, good thing fae can memorize stories fast and never forget a word of them or else I'd be stuck on one page until I read it so many times I see it when I closed my eyes. I love the books even though they are old and fragile.

        My favorites include the ones with fae and dragons and soulmates, but I've learned that fantasies are only in books. I know that's a contradiction considering that I am what most people consider a fantasy, but fae and humans living together without fae hiding their identities and the choice to love and soulmates living happily ever after together is seemingly impossible.

     I both hope and fear that I'll meet my amor aeternus, I hope because I want to know that kind of amazing love, I fear because I don't want to lose him to one or both of us being matched to someone else.

    We are randomly selected between our sixteenth and​ eighteenth birthdays whether or not you will be matched, if you are selected to be matched then you will be randomly paired with another of the selected of the opposite gender.Tomorrow is my sixteenth birthday, so it will be the first day I will be eligible for the detestable matching program.

         Right as I started plating our meal my dad came in. "Hey, how's my phoenix."

      Dad has always call me his phoenix ever since I was five and accidentally set my bedsheets on fire during a nightmare. That was the first time I found out that I'm​ fae, before that dad wasn't sure if I would have more fae or human qualities.

     "Same old, same old, dad. How was your day?" I respond.

     "I've had better, I've had worse, so today was boring." He said in his tired voice, which has become increasingly present these days. He's been working so hard lately to try and get enough hours and money to get off work early, so he can spend more time with me tomorrow and he wanted to get me a gift.

         Dad sighs and rubs his hand over his face and begins to speak in a tired, apologetic tone, "I asked my manager if l could get off early tomorrow for your birthday, but he said that because another maintenance worker reached retirement age recently, we all have to work extra to fill his place until the next assigning ceremony, so he gave me a double shift because I asked to get off early. I'm so sorry my beautiful phoenix."

       I have to distract myself so I don't make my father feel worse or set fire to anything, thankfully dinner is a great distraction for now. So I say "It's ok, we should eat our dinner before it gets cold. I made your favorite, my chicken parmesan meal, so at least we can enjoy that together, right now."

      I managed to get through dinner before I went up to my room, which in times​ like this I'm glad dad charmed it to be fire proof, because as soon as the door closes the dam barely holding back my fae emotions breaks and I cry. When my tears start to fade my anger towards the government comes out in the form of angry fire balls that fly across my room until the sorrow comes back this time for my inability to change the wasteland that is our society into place where humans and fae can truly live not just exist.