Ranked

(written in 2020)

It was almost her turn. She fiddled with her fingers as she anxiously waited for her name to be called. Today is the first day of the year that she turns 17, meaning she is individually Ranked now for the rest of her life. She was sitting on the only chair in the middle of a small square room. The rooms walls and ceiling were grey, and she sat facing a door. A Ranker stood in front of the door with their arms crossed staring straight at her. The Ranker was tall and wore a padded skin-tight long sleeve and skin-tight pants. They also wore gloves, boots and a mask. This particular Ranker was in all white. The mask was shaped to fit each Ranker’s head perfectly so that you could not see any of their facial features or the colour of their hair. You couldn’t even see their eyes or even their ears. This made every Ranker anonymous. The Ranker unfolded their arms.

‘Clara Field, it is ready for you now,’ the Ranker spoke with a robotic voice, their masks conceal what they sound like.

The Ranker stood back from the door and opened it while gesturing Clara toward the door. Clara stood up and walked through the door as the Ranker closed it behind her. The room she walked into was just as big as the last room if not a little bit smaller. As she turned to look back at the door she had just walked through, it disappeared. She was all alone in the blank little room. She thought back to the last time she was Ranked with her family and looked towards the ground for instructions. The ground lit up with foot marks that she walked over and stood on. As she stood in the instructed place, she smoothed out her long straight black hair and tried to brush out the creases made in her white dress from sitting down. The floor beneath her started to rise so that she was on a pedestal. Then the wall that she was facing became a mirror, and she stood on the pedestal staring at herself. She started to smile. Her long straight black hair was pulled back from her face with a white headband and her brown eyes stared back at her. Her dress was tight but when it hit her waist it flowed out and stopped at her ankles. This showed her white block heels that weren’t very high but made her exactly five foot three. She stood with her arms by her side looking at herself for what felt like quite some time. Soon the other walls turned into mirrors too, but she did not dare move her head to check if that was what was actually happening. She had to keep renewing her smile. Soon the walls turned off and went back to being regular walls one by one. Clara kept smiling and staring straight. Then the wall in front of her became a white screen. It then showed the number 70. 

‘You have been Ranked at exactly 70,’ the wall said to her in yet another robotic voice.

‘Thank-you,’ Clara said and did a curtsy.

‘Here are things you need to improve on for your next Ranking if you wish to get higher,’ the wall spoke again.

The wall flashed up a close picture of her eyes and text next to it that told her that green eyes are more desirable. This is when Clara stopped smiling. The wall flashes up a side profile picture of her nose with text saying that it should be smaller. An image of her arms came up telling her that they needed to be hairless. Next an image came up of her face saying that she needs to learn how to put on her makeup more flawlessly as there was a smudge of mascara on her left bottom lash that was hardly noticeable. More and more images of herself flooded the wall with text saying how she could improve herself. Soon they stopped and the pedestal she was standing on lowered, so she was once again standing on the ground. The door she had come in through had reappeared and the same Ranker was standing there ready to escort her back to her house.

As Clara was being escorted back to her house the Ranker gave her a bracelet. The bracelet had buttons which projected screens that showed her official Ranking that she can show various shops and places so that she could gain access to them now. It also showed the points that she could improve on, as told by her at the Ranking. As she walked beside the Ranker, she looked around her at the corridor that she was being led down. The corridor had people just like her being led by Rankers to the Ranking rooms, as it was Ranking Day. Most of the teenage girls and boys looked just like her, some had been dying their hair since they were a child, some wearing eye colour changing contacts and some with taller heels than others. They all looked basically the same, which was what gave them more opportunities in life. As they approached a corner, a girl and her Ranker came towards them. The girl wore a light blue dress that did not show off her curves at all. Her hair was blonde and curly, but she had tried to pin it away from her face with blue clips. She also was not wearing any shoes and was quite short. Clara recognised her as Becky from her mathematics class at school. 

‘Becky gets a 20!’ a boy from behind Clara shouted out towards Becky.

Becky started running then, presumably towards the boy that shouted.

‘At least I don’t look the same as you!’ she yelled as she kept running.

Her Ranker soon caught her and grabbed on to her arm firmly to stop her from running. The Ranker then slapped her across the face. Clara kept walking beside her Ranker and as she walked past Becky and her Ranker, Becky started to cry. It was Clara and Becky that had cut their fringes together just two days ago, as they wanted to do something new. However, Clara’s mother was so disappointed in her, that she made her wear a headband so no one would know. Clara and Becky can no longer be friends. She didn’t understand why they had to be all the same, it was boring. According to the history books at school everyone used to be able to be different a long time ago. What changed?