[ WP ] A society where people are assigned temporary names until their 13th birthday , when they pick their permanent name

`` Oh, how *very* exciting it all is!'' mother piped up among the crowd bustling through the marketplace, `` you're about to become a real woman, you know -- and the first step you get to choose! What have you thought of? Catherine, Elizabeth, maybe something a little more exotic... ***Melissa? ***'' she said, as her rambling joined with all the other voices and was carried off into the sky above. 
 
 Today was exciting, that was sure, but it was also nerveracking without mother losing her marbles. I'm not really sure how other people live, but it seems like everything's been just a blur up to this point, and now, as I live this moment, it's so clear and crisp, and everything's so real -- but soon the stories about me in that vague time, and even in this time now, will have me labelled something different... and I ca n't help but shake off this feeling of sadness for losing this anonymity I've been afforded for the last dozen years. 
 
 `` Yes, very exciting! I'm not sure what I want to do yet, mother... but please do n't take it personal if I do n't choose any of those... extraordinary options!'' I said, looking to her beaming face that oddly showed more happiness than I'd ever seen before. I was very much hoping she would n't give me the weekly talk she had begun since January about how I was basically sharing in my own birth with her now, and how special this opportunity was. 
 
 `` No, no, of course, do whatever you feel best! Although, if I were to chime in, just for a moment,'' she spoke up as if her voice was only just now created, `` Perhaps you should consider something classy -- Leila, or Priscilla? Or, I mean, I do n't want to *cramp your style* like I know kids today hate, so you could go more edgy, Kaylin... Ooh, maybe Fiona! Yes, Fiona sounds nice,'' and this continued on for a while as the nice market-goers had to raise their own voices to even pierce the excitement oozing from her very skin. 
 
 That night I stared at the faint glow of pasted stars on my ceiling more than ever before. To be honest, I'd never contemplated what those meant to me -- I just remembered dad had tossed them in the cart when my eye caught them, filling my mind with visions of Jupiter and Saturn, spinning around so far away yet so near in the grand scheme of it all. 
 
 I started to feel too profound and turned on my side, watching the petals of the flowers mother had plucked for my bouquet quietly drift up, silently pulling at the stem; the cool air of the AC passing by my skin as my eyelids grew heavy. 
 
 ___ 
 
 At 12:00, a blue light illuminated the room, my eyelids finding sudden energy to pull me from sleep. I was 13 now... and with every passing moment, I remained anonymous just that much longer, felt obscure among the masses as this floating prompt called out for a choice. 
 
 I thought back to earlier that night, staring at the stars; slowly, like drops falling from a leaf, the memories trickled back of the room that evening when they first glowed in the twilight -- dad had broken the ladder earlier that week, and had to climb wildly over my bed, all the while shouting out *'' To infinity and beyond! `` * which would have of course only made my younger self die of laughter. After that was hugs and kisses, and some time after that he became one of the stars I looked at each night, wishing for something to glow and give me that happiness again. 
 
 And then I gazed at the keys that were on the screen, and as these memories came back, of stars and love so true it hurt to think of, I had an answer to the cry of the radiant floating square. 
 
 My fingertips made dull thuds as they found their way to each letter, slowly spelling out what I would live on for the rest of life, and still have as a reminder of all that there was before this time too. 
 
 ***Stella***
