I slipped behind a wall, leaning against it for support and gasping for breath. He’d been a shark- one of those people that don’t listen to authority, that play by their own rules and laugh at ours. The ones that those of us who have everything to fear want so badly to be, but will never admit it. Nor will we have the chance.

Sharks don’t generally waste time with the rest of us. We rule abiding conformists don’t catch their attention. But this shark had been different. He blinked his big green eyes at me and asked me if I was who I thought I was.

I had blinked back and said that I didn’t know what he meant. And the shark shook his head in disappointment, for a reason that I couldn’t fathom, and he walked away, seemingly disheartened.

And I wanted to go after him, to ask him what he meant, to learn to become who I was. But as soon as the thought crossed my mind, the green-eyed shark was far away, and I was running away, not stopping until he was gone and rebellion had left my mind.