Iralyn bit down the rage inside of her. Any display of rage would cost her Virtue points, and after she fought that eleventh-year student to protect Veltola, she couldn’t afford to lose any more.

She was hovering at around one hundred and two points, and any score lower than one hundred earned detention after school until it went up, and if it stayed low for longer than two weeks, or if it hit under fifty, she would be expelled.

It’s stupid! So stupid! she wanted to yell, Why am I getting punished for defending someone? What am I supposed to do, just let them beat her up?

But she didn’t. That would cost her Virtue points. Sometimes, the stupidest things would cost points. Like questioning the system. It must have some sort of benefit, but Iralyn didn’t see it.

She knew what she was getting into when she stepped in — she had lived in this system for sixteen years. She knew she would lose Virtue points. That didn’t stop her, and it certainly didn’t make the system right.

She just hadn’t expected to lose one hundred and fifty. Over half of her Virtue points! She’d saved them up through hours and hours of community service. And now she had to start over. She wouldn’t be able to go to any of her favorite stores, either. Those all required over 150 Virtue points. 

Iralyn still couldn’t believe the number staring her in the face. 

“Iralyn, come down,” her mother yelled, “you’ve go Reparations this morning! Your father and I are leaving, but breakfast is set out for you!”

Ah, yes, Reparations. Iralyn had used to think that it didn’t serve any purpose, but then she realized that it actually did: it taught everyone how to lie and make everyone think they were sorry when they really weren’t.

“Okay,” she shouted back.

Her school’s uniform consisted of a pink shirt and either blue pants or a blue skirt. It was to represent the fact that nobody is defined by the clothing they wear, and it was one of the only parts of the current system she actually appreciated. Except, of course, this tradition was far older than Akaphis’ Virtue system. So did it really count? Maybe not. She could also wear the reverse.And, of course, whatever color sweatshirtshe chose had to be the same color as her shirt. She normally wore a pink shirt and either a blue skirt or pants depending on the day, but today, she wore the reverse: a blue shirt and pink pants. She had an old blue sweater that had been sewn at least five times, one that was probably going to be given away and therefore ideal for wearing for Reparations.

She wore the pants for the same reason she chose the old sweater: she would have to spend part of Reparations helping clean out the trash, and she didn’t want to get whatever was in the trash on her bare skin. That’s why she wore a sweater and pants, even though it was barely cold enough to warrant wearing both.

Once she was ready, she went downstairs, where her mother and father had set out pancakes for her. Even though they couldn’t say anything, she knew they supported her. Her parents weren’t exactly perfect proponents of the Virtue system. Neither was she, of course. So not everyone from school liked her. They definitely wouldn’t after this, though.

Well, at least she had baskeetball tryouts at the end of the day. That would be fun, assuming she could find a way to boost her Virtue by...twenty-three points. That number hadn’t really registered in her head, either. 

She glanced around the house for a way to get started. She put the bowl in the sink, of course, but that was mandatory. Not doing that would only lose her points.

The other part of earning back Virtue points was that it had to be something she made a habit of doing. That was to prevent people from gaming the system. One of the only exceptions would be if she was ssomehow involved in the incident, like if she had her backpack and collided with a middle schooler carrying their stuff around and helped them pick it up. The other exception was if she managed to help protect someone’s property. Which obviously didn’t apply to their physical body, or she wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. Then, there was the rarest exception: when helping someone woudl put her own life in danger. That almost never happened, though. She only knew two people outside of people like police officers and firefighters who had ever gotten points for that. Well, she could only cross her fingers and hope her parents had forgotten to unload the dishwasher. She unloaded the dishwasher before school on whatever days her parents had forgotten to, and it always got her a point or two.

She checked the dishwasher and had to keep from smiling. That would also dock her points: she was never supposed to get excited about a chance to earn poitns once she’d turned thirteen.

She put the dishes away, a small burst of hope forming in her mind when she saw her Virtue points tick up by two.

Then it was off to school.

It was a long walk. Over two miles. But she left early. It was Friday, which meant that school started at ten and let out at three. The only reason she was aiming to be there by nine was to get a head start on Reparations. Surely she’d run into someone who needed her help.

She had only made it a few blocks when she saw a lose dog racing down the streets, no owner in sight and a leash dangling behind it. She lunged and stepped on the leash. Not many people were walking at this hour, especially not where she was. She was glad it was Friday and that she had left early. That way, she could wait around for the owner and get extra Virtue points for her time.

It took almost five minutes before a panicked-looking man raced down the streets. “Has anyone seen my dog?” he shotued.

“Is this your dog, sir?” Iralyn asked, stepping forward.

Relief bloomed on the man’s face. “Yes! Thank you!”

Five more Virtue points and she was already only sixteen points away from the tryouts minimum. It seemed easy, but it was far too easy to make mistakes that cost Virtue points, like letting the door slam on someone behind you or losing focus during class or even something as simple as opening your locker more than ninety degrees. That made it hard for the person beside you to get into their locker, which is why it cost Virtue points.

She handed the man the leash and was off to school. She arrived at around nine fifteen. Only sixteen points to go in four hours. The tryouts roster closed by one fifteen.

Only four points per hour, assuming she didn’t lose any. 

She could totally do this. Hopefully…