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Martha Maynard.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œShe was born in nineteen-ninety-six, frozen in twenty-twenty, and awoken sixty-seven years ago.”
    â€œYou mean you searched from your head?”
    â€œMy central processor can connect wirelessly to the computer mainframe of this household.”
    I shook my head, trying to absorb all the information. There was someone else like me, someone born in the nineteen-hundreds. Nineteen-ninety-six, to be exact—that would make her about my age. Except she lived longer than me by eight years, putting her in her twenties when she was frozen. My head wrapped around the math, making me yearn for Pixie Swap level three.
    â€œYou mean to tell me she’s around eighty years old?” I might as well go meet Exara’s great-grandmother.
    â€œYes, but she had a similar experience to yours, making her an adequate product of my search.”
    â€œIs there anyone closer to my age?”
    C-7 shook his head. “There are subjects awoken in their teens, but they were frozen many years later than you. The next closest patient is Cindy Lewis, born in twenty-thirty-four, frozen in twenty-forty-seven, and awoken in twenty-one-eighty-nine. Subject is no longer living and would, therefore, not prove useful to your purposes. Other subjects frozen around the same time as you didn’t survive or were awoken much earlier. Some, I’m afraid, are still in cryosleep, waiting for the doctors to find a cure.”
    â€œRight.” Shivers went down my spine as I thought of those poor frozen people. Maybe I was lucky the doctors woke me up after all.
    â€œMy apologies, Jennifer.” Could C-7 feel my disappointment, my heartbreak? It certainly seemed like it.
    â€œDon’t worry about it, C-7.”
    The robot resumed work with the food processer, and the buzzing rang in my ears. All I wanted was to watch those videos of my previous life, but Pell waited for me. I’d have to settle for fairies on lily pads and equations that made my brain hurt.

CHAPTER TWELVE
    Special
    E xara’s screendesk lay empty. Secretly, I celebrated, plunking down at the screendesk behind hers. Guilt came next, and I halted the party before it raged out of control. What if she was deathly ill? Or even worse, what if she had to be frozen like me? Even though I already hated her, I didn’t wish my fate on anyone.
    â€œMorning, Jennifer.” Maxim whispered from behind as he took his seat.
    â€œHey Maxim.” I tried to look cool and calm while my heart raced in his presence. “Is Exara sick?”
    â€œExara never gets sick.” He wore a sea-green tunic today, the color bringing out flecks in his eyes. “Her personal dietician makes her take a regimen of vitamins. Her immune system is hyperstrong.”
    Oh, excuse me . Was she so special she could cut class whenever she wanted? “Where is she?”
    â€œShe’s at her bi-monthly beauty treatment.”
    â€œWhat? Did an eyelash accidentally fall out?”
    Maxim laughed. “You’re funny. No. Her eyelash didn’t fall out. She gets a facial, teeth whitening and straightening, color enhancement for her skin, hair, and eyes, and any accumulated fat cells burnt off, among other things.”
    I shook my head. “All that, huh?”
    He nodded like it was a nail appointment. “Life in the upper levels isn’t what it used to be. Finding a decent career is getting more and more competitive. You need every advantage you can have to get ahead and stand out.” It was the first time I saw something close to anxiety in his eyes. “Even how you look is important, right down to every eyelash.”
    â€œWell, I’m doomed.” I turned around in my seat, shaking my head. Did he buy into all that crap? If so, I didn’t want anything more to do with him. I tried to focus on the morning announcements, but Maxim wouldn’t drop it.
    As our homeroom teacher talked about