Until the age of twelve, I was a normal girl on the Ark.

I had a mother and father who both loved me, Arielle and Peyton Walker. I had two close friends that I could completely, one hundred percent rely on, Nathan Miller and Tabitha Kenton. I even had a crush on a guy who might like me back, John Murphy.

Life was great.

At twelve years old, my father decided I was old enough to start showing an interest in some career. So he took me to his lab to find out if that's something I would like.

My father was an engineer on the Ark. He was the senior engineer for close to ten years. He was almost always the smartest person in the room.

Everyone will tell you it was Jake Griffin that found out the Ark was dying. That's a lie. It was my father and I. We were in the lab one night when I found a mistake in his equation. It had originally said we had a hundred more years of oxygen left. A hundred more years before we had to go to the ground. Now it said six.

"Dad?" I called, tilting my head to the side.

For a couple weeks now, I've been coming to my dad's lab and watching him. Tonight, I just sat at his desk, looking through some of his formulas.

And then I found an error.

"What's up precious?" he asked, walking over.

"I think there's a mistake," I said. "Right here."

I pointed it out. He leaned over, grabbed a pencil, and looked it over. His eyebrows were furrowed as he worked through it. But in the end, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped a little.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

I quickly looked down at it. The title of the page was 'Life Support'. And at the bottom it said 103. But with the mistake fixed, it now said 6.

"Daddy," I said slowly. "What does that mean?"

"We have six years until oxygen on the Ark runs out," he said plainly. That's what I liked about my dad. He was always straight with me.

"Six years?" I gasped. "That's now enough. Earth isn't gonna be survivable for another hundred years. We can't run out of air."

"We'll figure this out," he said, putting his hand over mine. He looked down at me with that reassuring smile of his. "But I need you to promise me you won't tell anyone. It will cause chaos. Give me a year to see if I can fix it. Then we'll tell people."

I nodded.

"I need you to promise me," he said. He was serious now.

"I promise," I said with a nod. I wouldn't tell anyone that we were going to die in six years, whether that happens in the sky or on Earth.

Six years until we completely run out of oxygen. Six years until we had to figure out another place to live. Six years until we die in space or on Earth.

My father and I swore to each other that we would keep it a secret. He would work out a solution and that would be it. No one would have to know and no one would have to freak out. He didn't want to start a riot. He only told one other person, his second in command at the time, Jake Griffin.

After this, life was still great.

I helped my father in the lab every single day. I chose engineering as my specialty even though I didn't actually have to choose for two or three more years.

My mother was a teacher on the Ark. She taught everyone about Earth. She knew everything about Earth. She taught me how to track, know what is poisonous, what parts of an animal is edible and what the rest of the parts are, how to fight off predators, and so many other things. Not many people liked that class. They didn't think it was useful. I thought it was incredible.

Mom taught me self-defense. She said we should be teaching it to everyone but the council didn't think so. So she just taught me.

"Swing it hard," she instructed. "Don't ever be afraid. Just go for it."

She held up the pillow again.

We were practicing in our living room. We'd pushed everything aside and she taught me some basic moves.

We were working on a roundhouse kick. This allows me to stay a good distance away from the attacker while causing a good amount of pain and imbalance.

"I know you're probably never going to use these moves," she said. "But I think they're fun to learn. It's a good way to stay in shape and-"

"Mama," I said with a laugh. "I like learning."

"Well let's see what you've learned," she said. She nodded.

I prepared, putting my right leg farther back than my left. I quickly lifted my right leg, balancing on my left, and swung my leg through the air. I hit the pillow from her hand and kept going. My leg wrapped around and I spun. I made sure to end in a fighting stance.

"Impressive," she said with a laugh. She bent down and picked up the pillow again. "Can you do it again?"

She liked to challenge me like this. And I loved it.

My first best friend lived across the hall. Nathan Miller. We'd been friends for as long as I could remember.

His father was a guard and was working toward Chief Guard. My mom didn't work as much when I was younger. And dad got to pick his own schedule. Basically, at least one of my parents were home at all times.

We watched Nate. We basically grew up together. We've been like brother and sister.

I was the first to be told he was gay. It is actually a fun story and I remember it like it was yesterday even though we were only ten years old.

"Cory," he whispered, sitting up quickly.

I sat up too and looked up at him.

"What?" I whispered.

We weren't supposed to be awake. My parents were in the next room and would yell at us if they knew we were awake.

"I have to tell you something," he whispered. He was looking at the small closet near the foot of my bed. "But you have to promise our friendship won't be ruined."

"Pinky swear," I said, holding up my pinky.

He smiled a little, looking over at me. He shook my pinky and then took a deep breath.

"I think I'm gay," he said. His bottom lip quivered a little, as if he was expecting me to freak out.

I let out a breathy laugh and smiled.

He looked hurt. So I grabbed his arm and tugged him a little closer.

"I thought you were gonna say you like me," I said with a smile.

He laughed a little. "You're a great girl but I think I'm into dudes," he said.

"Understandable," I said with a nod.

"You don't hate me?"

Being gay wasn't a bad thing. Many people were perfectly fine with that. But some of the older generation are still not super okay with it. They think it's wrong.

Could loving someone ever be wrong?

"Why would I hate my best friend?" I asked. "I love you."

"Love you too," he said, laying back down.

I laid down as well and we both stared at the ceiling, not speaking. And then at the same time, we started giggling and couldn't stop.

"Hey you two," Mom said, peeking her head into my room. "Sleep."

We stopped giggling at once.

"Will you sing Mama?" I asked.

She sighed and walked into the room. She pulled the covers to our chins and sat in my desk chair. And she sang our lullaby.

All was right in the world.

My other best friend was Tabitha Kenton but I always called her Tabs. We met in school. She lived over on Farm Station but sat next to me in all our classes. We became good friends and she would often join me for sleepovers, especially when Nate outgrew them. We became really close really fast.

"He hasn't stopped looking at you," Tabs said, leaning forward to half whisper over to me.

"Really?" I gasped. "Are you sure he's looking at me?"

She glanced behind me again. "Definitely," she said with a nod. "You should talk to him."

"Oh no," I said, shaking my head. "I can't do that."

"You can," she said with a nod. "Or maybe I can talk to him."

"No," I said, leaning forward suddenly. "You go over there and I might have to kill you. And then I'll be locked up. And then I missed the opportunity to talk to him."

"Okay," she sighed. "Drama queen. I won't bug you for like…the rest of the time in here. But I will bug you again tomorrow. And the next and the next and the next until you go talk to him."

"Okay," I said with a smile. "Tomorrow."

See I had a good life.

And one night changed it all.