Kayda trudged up the Hill, carrying her rucksack. Not that there was much in it. She wasn’t allowed to take anything home with her, after all, except her empty water bottle and her worn clothes. Not even knowledge of what she’d learnt, much to her parents’ frustration. And the only things she needed to take back with her the following morning were her refilled water bottle and her clean clothes.

  Every time she recalled hearing her name announced at City-Fest, her heart grew several sizes! Out of all the Unders, there were only five others who had passed. And she had topped them all.

  She joined the queue at the Checkpoint Cubicle, glad to rest her legs for a few minutes. The Boundary – and No-Man’s Zone – ran right through the steepest part of the Hill. Which meant she’d never been able make herself climb it until that first morning after City-Fest – her first time through the Checkpoint.

  She could just step over the Boundary, of course. It was only a couple of centimetres high, after all. But that skibbing No-Man’s Zone could have been an invisible wall from earth to the Silvery Way for all she knew. There was no way to reach the Boundary except through the Checkpoint. And the only way through the Checkpoint was with her thumbprint.

  When it was her turn, Kayda pressed her thumb careful onto the pad next to the door. Although she had no reason to fear, her anxiety always spiked during that brief moment before the light turned green.

  The door slid open, and she stepped inside quickly before it snapped shut behind her. A shadowless light filled the space along with a strange scent. Not unpleasant. Not even unfamiliar, although she could never place where she’d smell it before.

  A guard sat behind a thick pane of glass, his arm fitted into a sort of sleeve that protruded through to her side. She rested her chin on the cradle as that strangely-clad arm stamped a silver star onto her birthmark. It would be erased automatically on her way back. Her thumbprint on another pad opened the second door.

  Kayda stepped out. Across the Boundary. Over the Hill.

  More climbing was involved. At first, she’d returned every night, and climbed back up again each morning. But as her coursework had increased, she’d begun to spend nights camping out in the Over Reading Room. There were mattresses there that the newly-passed Unders like her could use. It was a kindness to those who had further to travel to get home. She was grateful for that. Because she had needed to use one of them quite a few times already. For there was so much to learn, and she was not allowed to take any of the work home with her.

  The Checkpoint Caff sat at the crossroads, and just a little further up the Hill stood the Graduates’ College, with the dormitory to the side. One day, she would get to move in there. She was sure of it.

  “Kayda Walker,” someone said, and Kayda turned to answer, reminding herself to dip her eyes appropriately. Even though she’d pass her Zam and had the right to be there, she was still an Under, and therefore not allowed to look anyone in the eye, nor speak unless asked a question. Her birthmark was all that was needed to prove this. “Come with me.”

  And so she did.

  And an hour later, Kayda’s smile stretched wider than it ever had before. Although the watering of her eyes was less from her pride, and more from the stinging sensation between them, providing a huge distraction for the rest of the day.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Sitting through her classes, taking notes on her tablet, it was so hard to keep her hand away from that spot, but she schooled it into submission. At last, after eight hours of learning how behave in the Over, she was released.

  As quickly as she could, Kayda bounded down the Hill to the Over Reading Room, opposite the Checkpoint Caff. She threw her bag onto a desk to reserve it, and hurried to the toilets.

  Not that she needed to go. She needed a mirror.

  And there, between her eyes, sat her red birthmark, now forever emblazoned with a gold star.

  Kayda Walker had been the first of her cohort to earn this prize of the star being tattooed on. The quickest to earn it in twenty-three years, she’d been told. Just fifty eight days!

  That evening, Kayda lost track of time. The evenings were coming in earlier now, and she’d forgotten to check the clock. A random glance at the window to admire her tattoo again caught her attention though: the sky was already beginning to turn bright colours, announcing that Curfew would begin soon.

  Kayda slammed her books shut, secured them away in her locker, and ran out the door. She joined the queue at the Checkpoint, waiting patiently for her turn. Once she had put her thumbprint onto the sensor and the light turned blue, she ran as fast as she could, racing the sun down the Hill. But as she rounded the corner and her partment came into view, she heard the sound that she dreaded – the buzzing of the locks being set in every building Under the Hill.

  She was too late. Kayda swallowed the growl rising in her throat. Yet another night that she wouldn’t get to see her parents. Fourth night this week. And the whole skibbing nine days the week before. She’d made it Tenthday. She let the growl out when she realised it wasn’t last Tenthday, but two skibbing weeks ago. Before last night, it had been twenty-four days since she’d seen them.

  The door to the Over Reading Room didn’t lock until half an hour after sunset, and it wasn’t far from the Checkpoint. If she hurried, she could make it.

  At least there, she could revise a while longer.

  In the growing twilight, Kayda’s legs worked her way back up the steep slope to the Checkpoint. It was unmanned except in the mornings when stars needed stamping, for there was no need the rest of the day.

  Unusually, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. No one should be out, now that Curfew had come. Except the Greymen, at least.

  She’d been taught about the Greymen just last week. They were the poor souls born so disfigured that they couldn’t walk without the special pods they lived in. They were a proud bunch, and served the City gladly. But they didn’t want anyone to notice them, because that might shame them. It was the kindest thing she could do to just ignore them and look away.

  But that one looked familiar somehow. As the little Greyman turned away, curiosity got the better of her and she stole a quick glimpse. The side of his face caught the moonlight.

  “Doesn’t that poor soul look like my brother?” she murmured. His family must have chosen similar traits when they’d designed him.

  She threw another glanced his direction as her thumb found the pad. He turned back towards her again just as the door closed, blocking him from view. With her tattooed star, all it took was her thumbprint on the other pad, and the light again turned green.

  Once the second door had opened, she encouraged her tired legs to jog up the steep slope.

  At the doorway of the Over Reading Room, she allowed herself to look back over her shoulder. Could that be the same Greyman, lurking at the edge of the Boundary? Had he followed her?

  But she shouldn’t look at him, so she pulled her eyes back, and stepped into the safety of the Reading Room and her studies.

  The first thing she did was drop her jacket onto one of the mattresses along the back wall to reserve it. There was another girl who often slept there – a bit older than her. She was an Under, too. Her star hadn’t been tattooed on yet, though. It might be a while before she got hers – she only worked in the Checkpoint Caff, after all. Earning that right would take someone like her a long time. If she ever did. Her name had been the last called out at City-Fest, after all.

  Kayda smiled at her success and retrieved her books. Studying her reflection in the window against the darkening skies, she tried to imagine her face once she had earned the right to have her birthmark finally removed.

  Because she knew she would.