Prologue

There was a time; a time when America was plagued by freedom- and drowning in their greed and satisfaction. Their debt to China was all but forgotten by everyone except two peoples- the Chinese government themselves, and Gregory Illea. Knowing the weakness of the Illean people, the Chinese planed their takeover. War was initiated, and the Chinese, in all of their superiority and intelligence, overcame the Americans- but not without a fight. They were resilient in defending their country, but were easily manipulated, and were simply overcome. As a significant person at the time, Gregory Illea saw this as the perfect time to stage his own takeover.

Quietly manipulating the people to bend to his will so that he would become more powerful than ever before, he devised a plan to hold his new found power. And with that, the caste system was born. Those who defied him and refused to support him were put on the lower side of the scale- the eights, sevens, and sixes. They were left to fend for themselves and were looked down upon by all of the higher castes, which were occupied by those who found favor in his eyes. Twos, threes, and fours were in this category, and all were placed according to Gregory's favor or lack thereof in their respective castes. To make it seem ordinary, he placed the commoners into castes based on family work and their level of defiance or loyalty. Fives were introduced in when they were neither rebelling nor supporting, and they were simply ignored by all other castes, to which they adapted by becoming the background singers and artists that were to be heard yet not seen. And finally, where else to put the leaders than in the only remaining category: The Ones. The old, Republican ways were simply not enough to Gregory, because he wanted to rule, not to be ruled by the people's opinion and voice, so he set up the monarchy that would rule from the province Angeles, where he would finally get what he wanted: full and utter control over the people. In the opinion of Gregory Illea, all was well in his picture of glory. All except for one thing. Rebels.

Those who defied and stood up for what was right were called rebels. Two groups, the Northerners and the Southerners, had only one mutual goal- to end the caste system once and for all. Though both had different ways of achieving this, both were one and the same when it came to their goals. Constant attacks rained down on the palace and all of Angeles. Never ceasing, never changing, always life-threatening. To appease them for a while, Gregory Illea created the Selection for is oldest son, James, in which 35 girls came to the palace to compete for his heart and the crown. After choosing his bride, the newly wedded Angela Illea, he was killed by paid assassins and was soon replaced by Porter Schreave, a distant cousin, as the new king and husband of Angela. They had one son, Clarkson Schreave, who grew up and had his own selection at the age of 19. During the many weeks of the Selection, he came to love Amberly Station of Honduragua, a four. They married, and throughout many tears and miscarriages, they produced Maxon Schreave.

Maxon, a hardworking, kind, and intelligent person, grew up under the cold and stark reality of a father with no compassion, with a calm and nurturing mother that only saw the good in people. The absolute contrast of the two styles of parents caused him to grow up with a soft but guarded heart, a welcoming and inviting persona, and the need for his princess, the one that would make him happy and make him let down his guard with her. Lucky for him, the Selection was coming up on his 19th birthday, and it was his only chance to find love in the world in which he lived. With the pressures of choosing the right one, not only for himself, but for the entire country, looming in the distance, he had to prepare himself heavily for the task ahead: Choosing a wife.

While Maxon was living in the lap of luxury, worrying away the time he had left before the Selection, another laid in the luxurious life of a two, worrying about problems on a totally different scale. America Singer, age 18, was worrying about the pressures of being a good girlfriend and maintaining her job of a professional singer, and the unspoken fear of a life without love. With no friends except Aspen, and a full time job, she needed a reprieve from the pressures of everyday life, so she signed up for the Selection without her boyfriend's knowing. She desperately needed to leave the life that she lived, needed a break from everything happening, so she signed up for love, for a different future than the one that she was expected to live. While both Maxon and America had their problems, would they solve them with each other, or will they ever meet? Find out in, "The Lives we live".