Last time on Matched.com, more Ky. Always fucking Ky.

Em apologizes again and Cassia assures her she doesn’t blame her.

Em is my best girlfriend. Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that. “You don’t have to keep apologizing,” I tell her. “I’m happy I lent it to you. At least we both got to enjoy it before they took it away.”

Cassia continues to be terribly nice and an all-around good character as long as Ky isn’t involved.

Then they see her mother’s back. Cassia is surprised.

“Was she gone?” Em asks, and I realize that my mother’s absence is likely one of those things that we aren’t supposed to mention outside of our family. Not that the Officials said that explicitly; it’s simply the kind of thing we’ve learned to keep to ourselves.

I can’t even tell here if the officials actually want it kept quiet or if everyone’s so used to not telling people things they just assumed.

Her mother already knows about the fact the artifacts are gone, but doesn’t say anything.

It occurs to me that if she did, she’d be ranting and raving against her own husband. He is, after all, an Official, too.

But there’s surely a distinction between the people who do what the government says and the people who say it. It’s not like all the officials got together and voted on what to do, someone gave them their orders.

Her father and brother are gone. He asked for the food delivered early so they could go for a walk together.

I’m happy, especially for Bram’s sake, that the nutrition Officials granted Papa’s request.

It’s hard to make rhyme or reason of how their society works. Sometimes, they have exceptions. Sometimes, there’s no chance of one.

We learn about the trip, slightly.

“We went to another Arboretum to look at some crops. After that, we had to go to some Farmlands.

She has to write a report about it, but can’t tell anything because it’s confidential. Might mean something interesting, but we know that anything can be confidential in this world.

Cassia thinks of Ky and her mother asks if she’s daydreaming of Xander.

There’s no point telling her that I’m thinking about the wrong boy. No, not the wrong boy. Ky may be an Aberration but there’s nothing about him that is defective. It’s our Government and their classification system and all their systems that are wrong. Including the Matching System.

Cassia, every boy but Xander is the wrong one to be crushing on. It’s not a judgment on Ky in particular. Stop assuming everything exists just to oppress him.

Furthermore, you’re totally capable of making out with Ky as much as you want – you just can’t be matched to him because he’s not allowed to be matched. As far as the system working or not, that’s no different than if he’d chosen to stay single. The matching system gets you the best match out of people in the pool.

Then she wonders how her parents can be happy together if the matching thing doesn’t work, despite the fact she’s not claiming the matching system matches you with people you hate.

Then her mom goes to bed and she takes out the napkin that I guess is what was hidden in the envelope. I thought the drawing was just on the inside.

So, his drawing. He draws a village where everyone’s lying on the ground except little Ky, and he’s holding the words mother and father. Also, the rain seems to be bullets. Older Ky looks away from the village.

Behind him, people in Official uniforms watch him. His lips curve in a smile that never touches his eyes; he wears plainclothes, a line indicating the crisp crease where he’s ironed them neat.

That is some impressively detailed napkin scribbling.

Then he wrote his little freeverse thing saying that he went somewhere to watch the rain but it turned into black stuff and killed everyone. Okay then.

His parents died. He saw it happen. Death came from the sky, and that’s what he remembers. Every time it rains.

Yes score one for interpreting obvious things, but it’s more important you figure out what that actually means. How could they die when you supposedly live in a world where that doesn’t happen? Why does he have to keep it a secret when deaths, even abnormal deaths, aren’t normally kept secret?

Something odd is going on at the game place too. There’s three officials when it’s usually at least twelve and they all look stressed, although the latter part could just be because of the former.

Uncharacteristically, Xander says he wants to play one-on-one games, then asks if Ky wants to play against him. Maybe he’s noticed what’s up between the two.

“All right,” Ky says without hesitation, nothing revealed in his voice. He keeps his eyes on Xander, waiting for the next move.
“What kind of game do you want to play? Skill or chance?” Is there a trace of challenge in Xander’s voice? His face remains perfectly even, as does Ky’s.

“I don’t care,” Ky answers.

So, Cassia, you’ve told us numerous times that Xander can read you like a book if you knew what books were in the first place and that you can do the same. So is he challenging the guy or not? And why? You may not be able to make out Ky, but Xander should be easy for you to understand.

Xander picks a game of chance which is again uncharacteristic. Livy shows up to ask how things are going.

She’s here for Ky, I’m sure of it, her eyes possessive as she watches his hands over the cards.
His hands are not yours to watch, I think to her, and I remember again that they aren’t mine, either.

But why can’t they be hers? He’s single, he’s fair game for crushing and for all you know Livy is as well.

Apparently, the game is called prisoner’s dilemma. You may be thinking that doesn’t sound like a game of chance. But they play it by picking cards out of a deck, with the cooperative/non-cooperative choices replaced by odd or even numbers.

She doesn’t know the game? I turn to her in surprise. It’s one of the simplest, most common games.

Clumsy setup for exposition is unusually clumsy. There’s probably a Hundred Games thing to go with their Hundred Everything Elses. Everyone should know every game by now.

Livy is watching Ky so it’s time for Cassia to get nasty.

even if she sees him in the same amount of detail that I do – which I doubt – she doesn’t know anything about him. Would she still be so interested in Ky if she knew about his status as an Aberration?

Nasty for Cassia is still nice compared to most of the other books’ versions of nasty. It’s nice for most of the other books’ versions of nice, even.

Continuing to be a pretty good character, instead of continuing her little jealous fit the last line stops her and she starts questioning her own motives. She became interested after she learned about his status, after all. Then she thinks that maybe Livy is the better one for just being interested in Ky for being Ky.

But then again, I realize, I never know. She could be hiding something, as I am. We could all be hiding something.

While that’s a nice insight into the hidden depths everyone has, it’s also more relevant – her society runs on the idea everyone is happy, so everyone acts happy with it. How many of them are secretly unsatisfied, secretly hiding bits of the way things used to be? It’s entirely possible for everyone to want things to change without anyone being willing to admit to it.

Anyway, back to the game, it’s a draw.

“Let’s go walk around for a minute,” Xander says, reaching for me. I want to look at Ky before I twine my fingers with Xander’s, but I don’t. I have to play the game, too. Surely Ky will understand.

And once again under Ky’s influence Cassia is awful. Still, she does have a moment of sanity and wonder if Xander would understand if he knew about her and Ky.

They walk off and once they’re alone Xander says that Ky throws games.

“You tied. He didn’t lose.” I don’t know what Xander’s getting at.

“Not tonight. Because it wasn’t a game of skill. Those are the ones he usually throws. I’ve been watching him for a while. He’s careful about how he does it, but I’m sure that’s what he’s doing.”

Now, clearly this is supposed to be Ky’s super blending skills, but if Xander noticed it, I’m sure the officials have. It’d look far less suspicious to play games and just not try that hard than to make sure you always lose.

Xander’s confused because how good a player influences your job opportunities, but says he’ll keep quiet about it because he respects Ky’s decisions.

Xander’s right. Ky does have his reasons, and they are good ones. I read them on the last napkin, the one with the stains that I know must be tomato sauce but that look like blood. Old blood.

Cassia, you don’t know what old blood looks like. Also, no, he doesn’t. You know he has a traumatic backstory but you have no idea why that made him so obsessed with blending in, so as far as you know, his reasons are still unknown. Now, the obvious guess is because the society were the ones who murdered everyone for not being perfect drones (or maybe just to get a replacement kid, the timing is pretty suspect), but you don’t seem to be reacting as if that’s what you think and it would be a pretty big leap for you to make.

After their chat, Ky tells Xander he wants to play again, this time a game of skill.

And something in his expression suggests that he might not throw the game this time. He might be in it to win.

And the girls dutifully follow to watch another game. As far as I can tell, none of them have played at all.

I sit between Ky and Xander, equidistant from both of them. It’s as if I’m a piece of metal and they are two magnets and there’s a pull from either side.

Now this is the sort of metaphor I expect from imagination-hating science cult atheists. Good job, book!

Then she starts recapping yet again that Xander is great but she’s sure Ky would be even greater. She’s also stuck on the whole Ky should have been her match thing. Move on already.

I want to reach out and grab his hand and hold it to me, right over my heart, right where it aches the most. I don’t know if doing that would heal me or make my heart break entirely, but either way this constant hungry waiting would be over

THEN FIND OUT IF YOU CAN BREAK UP WITH XANDER WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

Ky continues to be the super-sue.

Ky’s hand hovers over the board. For a moment, as he holds the piece in the air, I see where he could put it to win and I know he sees it, too, that he planned the whole game for that last move.

And then he puts it down elsewhere and throws the game, then sits back with a faint smile.

Ky’s move may not be the brilliant one I know he could have made, but it’s not stupid, either. He made the move of an average player

…

Ky can play this game. He can play all of their games, including the one in front of him that he just lost. He knows exactly how to play, and that’s why he loses every time.

So add that to another thing Ky’s super awesome at. He’s so good at maybe-chess that he can get to a point where he would win, then play at exactly average skill to lose. Presumably we’re meant to believe he always plays a perfect middle-of-the-road game. In addition to being a drawing prodigy, and having a detailed education on banned subjects by age ten, and also being incredibly athletic, and having unparalleled social skills to blend into a new group perfectly. Next, maybe Ky will introduce Cassia to wine by finding some jugs of water.