A/N: The Matched universe is the creation of Ally Condie. Original characters; possible spoilers through Reached.

Our Personal and Physical Health instructor, Mr. Enochs, grins as he hands out the Match brochures.

"Read these thoroughly," he says. He doesn't need to. Whether to be Matched or be Single is the most important decision—the only decision—on our path to adulthood. The fragile port-paper that's dry under my fingers will crumble to dust in a matter of weeks, but my choice will last the rest of my life.

Outside at lunch, in the thin autumn air, we sit at the hard fiber tables with our foil-wrapped lunches, trying to squeeze our uncertainties into the twenty minutes that's optimal for eating.

The schedule says we have forty-five, but everybody knows somebody who's been called in for psych evaluation after sitting too long over a meal. Liane's already checked out one of the soft red rubber balls we use for the dodging game. She bounces it absently against the dry ground.

"It says to consider carefully whether being Matched is right for us," she says. "But how do we know?"

"'Healthy psychological adjustment is best achieved in the context of family relationships,'" I quote from Mr. Enochs' lecture. The breeze off the distant purple mountains pushes my hair in my face again. It's pale and fly-away, unlike Liane's shiny, dark curls. I wish I could ask her to braid it for me, like she did when we were kids.

"Hey, Maura, I was awake for that," Liane says. "That's a generalization, like saying, 'a successful sort achieves optimal results for all members of the data set.' Where are the guidelines for how you know what's optimal?"

Tom Lowry interrupts, leaning forward over the spiky elbows he's propped on the table. "It means only Aberrations aren't Matched."

"No, it doesn't." I pin a paragraph with my finger. "It says right here that our Leader is a Single. The Leader's not an Aberration."

Liane presses her lips together like she's hiding a joke, but all she says is: "Lots of Singles have responsible jobs. My mother's supervisor at the livestock facility—"

"That doesn't mean they're not Aberrations. If an Aberration's got skills that are tough to duplicate. . ." Tom pushes back black hair that's always flopping in his eyes. "I'm just saying, if you don't choose to be Matched, people will wonder. They're always going to wonder."