I look up to see the grand panel, sitting at their high tables whispering to each other, deciding my fate. It's September 13th 2050, the day my life could end, or begin.   The one old, balding, grouchy guy stood up and started speaking. He didn't have to speak that loud since the room was empty, well besides the tall tables and me so his voice bounced off the walls. “Oliver Smith the panel has decided and you will be ….” I blacked out trying to process the rest of what he had just said. I knew it was going to be bad but not this bad. It all ended badly.  This all started about a week ago, last Monday, the start of a new school week. Everyone was happy and excited about the new week and what it could hold, just like every week, Mondays bring out the happy in people. But then again it might just be the pills. 

“Oliver! Wake up” My mom's voice echoed through the house. She rushed into the room and pulled my blanket off of me, “I'm leaving for work soon and if you get one more tardy you're grounded, you hear me grounded.” she rushed back out the door in a hurry to not be late to work. She was never worried about it though because what in life was there to worry about.  “Mom I'm up see, im up” I responded sitting up. I sighed,  I had to get up. I stumbled into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. My curly hair was an unruly mess, I tried to fix it with some water but even that didn't help, so I just let it fall messy, the wind from the drive to school would hopefully fix it. I brushed my teeth, changed my shirt then rushed downstairs. Then I scrambled to find all my books that I had scattered last night around my house. I grabbed my keys off the hook and ran to my car. I went to go and unlock it but it was already unlocked. So I opened the door and sat on the seat with a muffin and a note that read, you need to eat, don't forget your pill, heart mom. Oh shoot my pill, the pink pill, the happy pill. It was a pill that you have to take everyday, government issued of course, and if you don't take it you could be arrested.If I went back into the house to take it, I would be late to school.  I mean how will they know I didn't take it? I can't get grounded. I have a date tomorrow I thought. So I took the muffin, took a bite and started my car. 

When I showed up to school (with my hair looking great thanks to the wind) I ran straight inside and headed for my first period Spanish class. Even though I am pretty horrible at Spanish I enjoy the class, the teacher is nice and it's just an overall good vibe. As I stepped through the doorway, the bell rang. Just in time. I walked over to sit next to my best friend, Liam. He was the best part about this class. He was the funniest guy I knew. But today my teacher was annoying, and spanish was stupid hard, and today just felt off so far. I went through my other classes until the bell rang for lunch. All I can think is, finally. I was so done with today. I walked into the packed cafeteria and looked around for Liam when I eventually found him sitting alone at the table. BANG! My backpack full of books hit the table like a bag of bricks. Everyone's head in the cafeteria turned to see where the noise came from. “Is it just me or has today felt off?” I asked as soon as everyone looked away. 

“Nope just you.” He replied. 

“Well that's helpful, thanks. It's just today I'm not happy, you know.”

“Shut up, you finally did it. You stopped taking the pills huh?” He asked as if he wasn't surprised. Yes I had made a few jokes in the past about what if the government was drugging up everyone, and what would happen if we all stopped taking the pills, but I never really had planned on doing it. “I didn't do it on purpose, I was running late ya know.” I was whispering at this point so no one could hear me. 

“Well no I don't really know. What do they find out? You could be arrested, do you remember the last time someone stopped taking their pills?Not good. Haven't seen Bethany since.”

“Liam, That's just because she didn't want to go on that date with you.”

“Not true, she asked me out, '' Said Liam, under his breath. Anyways, I do remember the last time. It wouldn't end up good for me if anyone else did realize that I had stopped taking them. I just had to make it through the rest of the day. Only 2 more classes, It wouldn't be that hard. Just 2 more classes. 

As I was walking out to my car after school, the temperature had dropped like 15 degrees, which was some of the signs of fall, my favorite time of year. What's not to like the pretty leaves, halloween, halloween parties (the most important of all), and that would mean snow was going to come soon. The time of change was always a fun time of year with everyone so excited for it all. After fumbling with ym keys a little bit, I hopped into the car. Just before I was about to drive away, someone opened the passenger door. I looked over to see no one else but that blonde clown getting into my car. “Liam what the hell?”

“Well you know my dad, anyway long story short he had to leave for a little bit, and he was going to make me stay with my grandma, yea her. And I said no it's fine because I can just stay with Oliver, with the intention of really going over to Avery's house.  But then he called your mom so now I have to stay with you.” I rolled my eyes to his response and his not well thought out plan, which he planned like it was his first time sneaking out but it very much wasn't. So I pulled out and started my drive home. Liam was telling me all about his interactions with Avery today. But I couldn't really focus on his life, actually everything ended up going just perfectly for him. It always did, it always did for me too up until today. But today was different. 

Later that night Liam and I did end up sneaking out, he went to Averys and I went to the party down the block. We got back right after midnight, all I wanted all night was just to go to sleep and for today to end. So as soon as we got back to my house I fell asleep so quickly. 

“Wake up we're going to be late again!” I rubbed my eyes as Liam was running all around my room trying to find his stuff, yelling at me to wake up. I looked outside the window and it turns out the snow had come early. There was a storm rolling in, not a full blown storm just rain and constant cloud coverage. There was no sun at all which is probably why Liam had turned on every light in my room. Every light. 

“How about I just stay asleep and in bed forever,” I ask him.

“No way man, you're going to be grounded for sure, let's not mess around. I need you for that double date tonight.”

“I don't remember agreeing to a double date,” I ask as Liam runs around my room like a chicken without a head. 

“Oh yeah you didn't but since you're already going out with Taylor I figured that me and Avery could join you. It just makes sense right.”

“Yeah okay whatever, then someone could stop you from saying stuid stuff.” Liam is always doing this, he's a funny guy you could say. He came up to me and quite literally dragged me out of bed. He shoved me towards the bathroom and yelled at me to brush my teeth. As I was brushing them I looked over my shoulder in the mirror to see Liam looking through my closet. He threw a shirt at me and said, “You should wear this, It would make your eyes sparkle” there was so much sarcasm in his voice it was overwhelming. 

 “I think I will wear that shirt, my eyes need a good sparkle every once in a while.” I tried to match his sarcastic energy but I don't think it worked as well. I looked down at my sink and saw the happy pill sitting next to it. I don't want to take this tupid thing, I'm happy without it. It's pointless. What will happen if I don't take it? Exactly nothing will happen. I slipped the pill into my pocket. I wasn't going to take it but just in case i'll have it with me. Today was the exact same as yesterday, boring and all I wanted all day was to go home. Everyone seemed to be happy and to make it worse the sun still didn't come out all day. But it was all okay because tonight I had a date with taylor. Taylor and I had been dating for 5 months. But if you ask her she'd say we've been dating for 5 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, and 12 hours. That's all you have to know about Taylor. 

I went to pick up Taylor, said hi to her younger brother, and me and her were off to the restaurant. We decided on going to some new pizza place in town. When we got there Liam waved us over to a table he and Taylor had already gotten. Me and Taylor walked right over there and sat down. It was a cracked old red booth, which me and Taylor shared one side of. The whole restaurant had seemed like it had been there since the 2020’s but the restaurant had just moved in last week. It was a time jump. Normally I would love restaurants like this but today something just fell off. I dont know how to describe it but I was just annoyed at everything, sad almost all day, and even most of Liams stupid jokes couldn’t cheer me up. Everyone around me seemed so happy too, and I was the only one in the world who felt like this. I spent all dinner thinking about this, but it never came to me about why I had been feeling like this. It wasn't a bad feeling necessary but rather like a pair of sunglasses had just been taken off of me and I wasn't seeing everything in a pink happy filter anymore. I got through dinner. Taylor ordered a pineapple pizza which I love, but Liam hates it so he and Avery shared a pepperoni pizza. Which was funny to watch because ever since I've known Avery she's been vegetarian, so she just picked off the pepperoni and folded it into her napkin, which no one but me had seemed to notice. Me and Taylor left pretty soon because it was a little awkward. I drove up to her house, then after a few minutes she got out and marched right into her door. Now I love Taylor and all but I was so happy to be at home, be able to go to sleep, ignoring all the homework I have. I passed out again as soon as I got home. Which was around 11. 

“THE FRICKIN HAPPY PILL!!!” I yelled, bolting up from my sleep. I got up sumblery and walked over to my jeans I had been wearing the day before, and there it was the pill, still sitting in my pocket. The little pink pill was illuminating the red glow of my alarm clock, it was so perfectly shaped, designed  to be taken with ease. Maybe my psycho theories were right. The pill had been drugging people to only be happy and excited. Through the rush of finally figuring it out, I finally fell back asleep just as my clock read 4:33am. 

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. My alarm clock was blaring, I didn't want to go turn it off. Eventually it turned off, after 15 minutes or so I suppose. My mom never came home last night, probably a late night at the office, so my grandpa came in in the morning. “I have to go soon, busy day, but you need to get up and get your butt to school.”

“Yes grandpa I'm up, see you later.” And with the slam of the front door I was home alone. Finally, I fell back asleep and didn't get up until before noon. I didn't want to leave my bed at all, but my phone was blowing up. I rolled over and onto the floor, over to my desk and grabbed my phone. There were at least 100 texts from Liam, All were about the pill. And how some people got arrested at school for not taking them. Apparently they knew because of something about how they were depressed. I don't even know but the most recent message was about him coming over now to get me to come to school. Well the door was unlocked so he could get in, so I made the executive decision to go back to bed. Liam's loud footsteps woke me up around 1. He came rushing into my room yelling something. I didn't open my eyes yet, Then the front door opened again. That idiot probably forgot something. 

“BRO STACEY GOT ARRESTED BECAUSE SHE STOPPED TAKING THE PILL SOMETHING ABOUT HOW SHE FELT MORE FREE WITHOUT IT SHE SAID NOT BEING HAPPY ALL THE TIME WAS STILL GOOD, HAVE YOU TAKEN THE PILL AT ALL THE LAST FEW DAYS!!!” He was yelling so loud and so fast it all came out as one sentence. All I did was point to the 3 pills that my mom had left out the past 3 days. 

“Sh*tttt man, this could end up bad isn't your grandpa a police officer, maybe don't leave them out when he's right down the stairs. The next 6 minutes happened in a blurr, my grandpa came running up the stairs, and stopped into my room. He was yelling about something involving my safety and how he had to take me in., and he just wanted the best for me, but he was going to take me to his boss. Next thing I know I was in the horrid high chair room, with a grand panel deciding my fate about how I was going to be punished for not taking the pill. Suddenly I gained consciousness again in the council of high chairs.(Yes, like the chair for babies) Stupid name but whatever. 

“Now you may not understand this but other emotions are not important, only happiness is needed in life, so for everyone's safety as you know everyone must take the pill. The best thing to be created. We have decided this way back in 2030.  But for you who have disobeyed these laws you will be punished.”All these words came out of this standing, older lady who was sitting next to the bald guy in a high chair. 

That bald man then stood and started to speak,  “Oliver Smith the panel has decided and you will be ….” Now the remainder of what they said is between me and the council of the high chairs. You may all decide for yourself what he said next, but I'll leave you with one hint. It didn't end well.