Almost everyone in my district has the same birthday. I live in District One, so the Mating Season occurs in January. In District Two, the Mating Season occurs in February, and so on. As I've mentioned before, my birthday is October 1, 2045, which is also Joshua Rodriguez' birthday; a sign that we were meant to be together, despite our love being forbidden.

My moms, on the other hand, have different birthdays. My mom Elena was born on June 20, 2020, and my mom Lilia was born on December 22, 2019. The idea of people having different birthdays than each other is a foreign concept to me, and quite frankly, I find it to be very odd.

Back then, people would have individual birthday parties with cakes, presents, friends and family. The "Birthday Song" only took one minute to sing since only one person at a time was being sung to. Now, all members of each district celebrate their birthday together at the end of our birth month -- October. The birthday song takes hours to complete as every name of every district member is included in the song.

There is one large cake and no presents. Nobody is considered "special" on our birthday. I can't imagine having a whole day dedicated to celebrating my existence. It seems so complicated.

Here and there, I try to envision what it would be like to have a special day all to myself, where people would sing, "Happy birthday dear Rylie Paige Henson," but, like my feelings about Josh, these thoughts are immoral. At least, that's what I was taught.

After opposite-sex marriage was abolished, a new way of reproducing had to be invented so the population wouldn't die out. Male couples are given a surrogate, and female couples are given a sperm donor.

The Fusion is only to be performed during each district's Mating Season. At no other time are any couples of any kind allowed to perform The Fusion. "It's just unnatural," they say.

My mom, Elena, used to tell me stories about when her parents (her mom and her dad) had her. They performed The Fusion together! I don't understand how this was able to occur. I mean, males and females have different parts, right? So, how do they make it work?

If you were playing with blocks, you wouldn't put a square block in a round hole, right? It just makes sense to be with someone like yourself. At least, that's what I was taught.

Even though I only started liking Josh last year, we've been in each other's lives forever. We were born on the same day, in the same hospital, on the same floor. He has two moms, just like me.

Obviously I don't remember my birth, but my moms used to tell me the story every year on our birthday. They would smile and laugh as they reminisced over my birth. They talked about how I was the most beautiful girl they'd ever seen.

They would argue over who I resembled most, despite Elena being my biological mom. However, my sperm donor has hazel eyes, just like Lilia. That's where I get it from.

That was always an inside joke to them. It made them feel like they were both truly my "parents," and that brought them even closer together.

Then, their tone would shift from nostalgia to disgust when they mentioned that Josh and I were holding hands in the baby incubator room. They said that even though we were too young to understand love, it seemed as though we were "soulmates from day one."

Occasionally, Lilia would gag at the fact that Josh and I at one point held hands, something I'm too shy to do with him now. When the nurses saw us holding hands, they quickly moved me to another baby incubator room. "The nerve of that infant! Displaying heterosexual tendencies at all, let alone at three hours old!"

Once I started liking Josh, I stopped asking my moms to tell me the story. Our birthday just passed last week, and I went to bed early without engaging in our annual tradition.

I hope they don't suspect anything.