My alarm rings, waking me up. I sit up, disheveled, and run my hands through my hair. I look out the window of my pod, seeing small drones flying by, carrying aluminium-wrapped packages. Scanning the addresses on the packages, I sigh, not finding any for me. As I fall back into my bed, my eye catches the calendar. Today was January the first, the first day of the new year, and the first day of testing. I stand up quickly, barely away from hitting my head on the ceiling. I get ready, picking up my access card and stepping out of my pod, meeting many other students my age doing the same. I walk quickly to the testing building, reaching a sizeable line of black-and-white clad people. After about an hour of waiting, I am standing at the very front of the queue. The large glass doors, set with silver and detailed engravings, swivel open in front of me. I lower my eyes to my feet and watch them carry me inside. Once I’m fully inside, an ‘ahem’ makes me snap my head back up. I see a stern woman sitting at a desk with her hands folded neatly, her silver hair tied up in an unrealistically neat bun, her slightly wrinkled face in a permanent scowl. “Hello, Miss Grace,” the woman begins, unfolding herself from her perfect stance and reaching for a small pile of papers. As I watch her pick them up, I notice a flash of my stupid face on my identification papers. “Please, take a seat.” I see the woman don a pair of black, square glasses. I nervously take a seat, and I nervously stutter, “Umm- where’s the test?” The building had gone through a series of renovations since the last test, and I was slightly confused. “You don’t understand, Isabel Grace,” the woman replied calmly, standing up. “I am the test.” I stepped back, watching the woman’s image flicker a little. “You’re-you’re a hologram.” I exclaimed, shocked. The woman nodded. “You don’t say. Take a seat, please.” The silver-haired woman sat back down, assuming her perfect position again. I shuffled forward and sat down on the edge of a cold, plastic chair. “Let’s begin,” she said coolly. She closed her eyes, speaking loudly and clearly. “Question one, please.” I shudder as a chill runs down my spine, and my vision changes from the interior of the tidy testing building to a blank void. I look at my hands, which look superficial and slightly pixelated. A table materializes next to me, with a ripe, red, and juicy apple placed on it, over a circular ruby-colored mat. As I turn to it, ‘pop’ sounds from my other side. I shift my view over to the source of the sound, and I see a fat wad of money lying on a table barely different than the other, separated from the fine wooden table by a blanket underneath it colored a rich green. I feel myself motioning to pick up the money, but then I apprehensively pull my hand back. ‘What if this is what I’m not supposed to do?’ I asked myself, nervously. I then turn to face the apple, the crisp red apple, the juicy, delicious apple… My mouth begins to water. I grab the apple and take a bite, hardly hiding my disappointment when it vaporizes in my hand, as well as everything else, and I am left with the empty void again. The area above me begins to glow a deep red, redder than the apple itself. “Did I get it wrong…?” I ask, half to myself and half to the tester. I felt a blazing heat from the red, and then everything went black.
WHOO THAT WAS A LOT TO WRITE ACK
