Rosa Vines was one of fifteen utopian societies.  Jack was one of the many different people who lived in Rosa Vines. Each  society has different rules and laws that had to be followed if you wanted to continue living there. If you disobeyed the rules there would be consequences. Just like Jack, every child would be placed in Tropic Isles at birth. Tropic Isles is where children grow up and go to school. They are all taught the same thing and learn about the societies around them. At the age of 12 they will take a test that determines what society they should be placed in. It was as if your whole life was controlled and if you did as you were told you would be okay. This is the story of Jack, a boy who learned the consequences of disobeying rules.
Growing up, Jack was a good kid. He lived simply and abided by the rules. In Rosa Vines there was only one rule that everyone had to follow, You could not lie. For every lie you told, 10 minutes would be taken off your life. Jack knew the rules very well and followed them religiously.
Every kid from any society went to Highland  High School.When Jack got to high school, he made friends with a kid from the Grand Lakes society. The kid's name was Garrett. Garrett seemed like a normal guy when Jack first met him. One day Garrett invited Jack to go hunting with him. Jack knew his parents thought hunting was a terrible activity, but he decided to accept the offer in fear of being teased by his new friend. Jack needed an excuse to tell his parents as to why he would be home late. He knew the rules of his society but decided that 10 minutes wouldn't make a big difference. He promised himself that he would never lie again. He called his mom and told her he had to stay late after school to work on a project. Bam! As soon as he said those words he felt as if someone had slugged him in his chest. His mouth went dry as a bone and he knew he could never lie again.
Jack and Garrett set off into the woods with their guns in hand. They sat perched behind bushes for what seemed like hours. They heard a rustling sound off to their right and when they turned their heads ever so slowly, they saw a massive deer streaked with what looked like gray ash. Garrett signaled to Jack to take the shot. Jack has never fired a gun so he was positive he was going to miss his target. When he fired the gun he was pleasantly surprised that he hit the deer square in the head. Because he was so excited that he hit the deer he hadn’t noticed the few blood drops that had splattered on his white shirt.
On his way home Jack was humming to himself gleefully. When he walked through the door, his mom greeted him. She noticed the blood on his shirt and asked about it. Jack had to come up with a quick response so he wouldn't get in trouble. He told his mom he got a nosebleed and it got on his shirt. As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt the same pain he had felt in his chest the first time he lied. He quickly realized that he had gone from not lying for 15 years to lying twice in one day. Once again, he told himself he would never lie again. He stopped being friends with Garrett because he feared how much  of his life would be shortened if he had to keep lying to be friends with him.
Years went by and Jack never lied again. He got diagnosed with cancer and was given only 3 days to live. Jack spent that time with family and friends. On the third day Jack was on the brink of death and was talking to his mom. He was just about to tell her he loved her when he died. As he died, Jack looked back and realized he would have been able to tell his mom he loved her if he hadn’t lied those two times years back. He could have had 20 more minutes with his mom but instead chose to be selfish and lie just to have a few hours of fun.