SIX EXAMS and BADMINTON

"-you have to be more serious, if you want to be an eight like me and your father!" My mom rambled on. I could've told her is supposed to be 'your father and me' but I figured that it would just anger her more. "Are you listening to me, Aurora?!"

I rolled my eyes and just said, "I'm going to my room."

I sat on my bed staring at my blank wall. I had six exams tomorrow, and I hadn't even opened one book. I groaned and stuffed my face in the pillow. And I fell asleep.

The next day, when I woke up, it was 5:30 am. I took a shower, got dressed and ready for the long day ahead of me. Six exams- Two hours long each, with only a fifteen minute break between them.

If that's the game they wanted to play, I'd give them a heck of a match. I walked to my school, and reached right on time, 6:00 am. I got my schedule from the reception of the examination hall and reported to my first exam. Chemistry, ugh.

I hated Chemistry, but it was pretty easy- Titrations, Electrochemistry, and Thermodynamics. I could see my peers struggling though, I would've helped them if it weren't for the strict invigilation.

I submitted my Chemistry paper in an hour, leaving me an hour and fifteen minutes to do whatever shit I wanted.

There was no one in the halls, everyone was stuck in the examination room where they practically tested how DUMB you were. Two minutes later, Caleb, a guy a year younger than me came out of an examination hall.

We were friends, he was my only friend, as we quite often played badminton and tennis together. By quite often, I mean everyday.

"How was your exam?" He asked.

I waved him off, "Just the usual." I said like I was ordering coffee. I had never had coffee though. It was strictly prohibited for kids or adults to had anything with extra sugar or fat in it.

"Yours?" I tried to keep up the conversation.

He sighed, "I couldn't understand the shit written on the paper, so I wrote my name and handed it in. Anyway, I'll earn it back in the fitness exams tomorrow."

"We're playing badminton today?" I asked.

He yelled, "Hell yeah! I'm gonna beat you one day, Aurora!"

"You wish, Jackson!" I retorted.

I couldn't ignore the fact that I was attracted to Caleb Jackson. I was pretty sure all the girls in his grade, the grade below his, and my grade liked him. He was inarguably the hottest guy around. He had electric blue eyes, with a silver ring around his iris, and black hair which made his jawline look sharper than it already was.

Snap out of it, Aurora! He's fucking one and a half years younger than you! The fourteen year old boy had no idea, that me, a fifteen year old girl, about to go to training school in one week, had a huge liking toward him.

I would be going to Erudition Academy, the training school for geniuses, this year, while he would be going to Assassin Academy, the school for assassins, next year.

Caleb had told me something that he had never expressed to anyone- that he wanted to become a soccer player. He was amazing at soccer, no doubt, but in this coveted society, one was either a genius or an assassin. I had never expressed my desire to become a lawyer to anyone either.

I did get where Caleb was coming from- he had two elder sisters, one ten years older and the other seven years older than him. They were some of the finest geniuses in the world. My own sister who was six years older than me (same age as Caleb's middle sister) was the top student in her batch. Caleb and I had a lot of expectations to live up to.

I sat idly on a bench till the bell rang and loads of students came pouring out in the halls. They bore sad and gloomy faces, indicating that most had failed, and would probably have to repeat the year again.

My second exam was Mathematics. I knew the Riemann Hypothesis would be a leading question in the paper. Surely enough, it was. I knew that if I solved the Riemann Hypothesis, it was automatically make me a rank ten Genius.

The paper was basically:

Solve:

A. The Riemann Hypothesis

OR

B. i. The Twin Prime Conjecture

ii. The Collatz Conjecture

iii. Navier- Stokes Existence and Smoothness

Technically, this was not fair. Either do one mega impossible question, or do three impossible questions. I proceeded further with Question B, and finished my paper in an hour and thirty minutes. I could see the looks of shock from my peers as they still scratched their head, clueless about the answers.

This time, I found Caleb sitting on the bench and he noticed me.

"I am literally going to fail." He muttered.

I rolled my eyes, "Relax, your fitness tests will go amazing."

"That's just not the case! I suck at studying and maybe, I'm not cut out for this." He stated.

I chucked bitterly, "Neither am I, buddy. But we have no choice."

"Can you take me outside the wall one day?" Caleb asked hopefully.

"You'll get to go when you're 24." I told him.

The wall, was the one thing between us and freedom. It wasn't exactly a wall, people outside viewed it as a silver-gated society. There was security everywhere.

I, however, had found a way to sneak out of the society and Caleb had spotted me doing that. Geniuses and assassins were only let beyond the wall for three things:

- Missions

-Missions and

-More missions

"But you've been out there!" He protested.

"Not so loud!" I put a finger on his lips. The proximity of his body near my body scared me, my finger on his lips, which was shooting electric daggers into my body. I felt his breath hitch, his heart pumped erratically for a moment, but then, it was back to normal again.

This was a vague sign of him being attracted towards me. I could only hope that he didn't hear my heart thumping in my chest at our touch. He smirked as if he knew something I didn't- which was highly unlikely, and the bell rang again.

The next exams flew by in a daze, right now, I was really looking forward to playing badminton with Caleb. Biology was easy enough, I literally finished the History paper in an hour and Geography whizzed by.

My last paper of the day was Physics. I sighed. It was already 5:30. I flew by the questions, not being able to contain my excitement to see Caleb again. Then I approached the second last question.

Q39. Explain the Matter-Antimatter and form an equation.

What the fuck was antimatter?! I groaned. I tried to figure what it was but all my mind drew was a BLANK. I banged my head onto the table.

I proceeded with the last question and solved it within seconds, leaving me stumped on antimatter. I raked my head, but all I could think about was nothing. The bell rang. My eyes widened in shock. I just had one hour left. Where did the time go? My paper was taken from me and I left the examination room.

I checked my watch and it was 7:30. I left for the sports arena directly from school, as I knew I had a pair of sports clothes in my locker there.

I arrived at the court to see Caleb waiting for me. I jokingly asked, "How was your day?"

He fake smiled and told me, "So good, y'know."

We started practicing and played five matches continuously (I won all of them by a landslide). When we finally stopped for a water break he asked me, "You're going to go to Erudition, right?" I nodded. Well, you should go to Assassin, you're so fucking good at sports. Heck, you even found a way outta the wall!"

"I never really thought about it. My great grandparents, grandparents, parents and sister all went to Erudition." I told him truthfully.

"Do you know what antimatter is?" I asked him, diverting the topic.

"Oh yeah, I studied that." Wait. People actually study for this shit? "Some guy named Paul Dirac theorised it. That's all I remember." He said sheepishly.

"I totally screwed that question!" I said, finally remembering the answer.

Antimatter particles share the same mass as their matter counterparts, but qualities such as electric charge are opposite. The positively charged positron, for example, is the antiparticle to the negatively charged electron.

"Who cares?! I screwed the entire paper!" He said. "You should still consider Assassin Academy."

We continued playing and after five more extremely intense matches, we collapsed onto the benches outside the court. We looked at the people gaping at us in shock at how well we played. Every time we'd play, we'd always attract a crowd.

"I'm totally exhausted." I said, out of breath.

His eyes shined mischievously, "Did Aurora Belle just admit that she's tired?!"

Uh oh. We'd made a pact that we'd never admit that we were tired, as we both had nerves of steel and were as stubborn as asses.

"No, you wanna play another match?" I challenged.

His eye ticked but all he said with a stubborn jaw, "Bring it on."

We played and played and played till the owner of the arena finally came up to us, "Kids, it's 11:00 pm, I need to lock up and go home. So, I'm gonna politely ask you two to GET OUT!"

We left the arena, and made our way to our home. Caleb's house was between my house and the arena so we walked along each other. My house was about a mile away from the arena. We walked, trying to outpace the other. Caleb's feet brisk walked and my feet were tired from brisk walking, so I jogged up to him. Trust me, brisk walking is harder than running.

This turned into a race and after ten minutes, both of us were out of stamina and breath. That's when I took in the surroundings and noticed that we'd crossed his house.

"Hey, your house is there." I told him, pointing at his house.

He rolled his eyes and said, "I know where my home is, silly. I'm walking you to your house."

Oh. Okay.

We walked in silence for a couple of minutes, and I tried to look away from Caleb. I could feel his gaze at the side of my head.

"Aurora?" He asked.

"Hmm?" I tilted my head.

"How's the other side of the wall like?"

"Truthfully? It's amazing. It has access to all the banned sites like youtube and spotify. Our parents might call it a little stupid, but that's what makes it more humane. There are skyscrapers and ice-cream shops at every corner." I told him, mesmerised.

"What's your favourite part of it?" He asked me, looking into my eyes.

"Unlimited chocolate." I said.

All the unimportant websites and browsers were banned from our devices, and our society was basically a dead zone for signals. No one could hack into it, no one could penetrate information.

We reached my house and he waved goodbye to me. "See you tomorrow," was all he said.

I internally smacked myself. Fourteen year olds and fifteen year olds had fitness tests together. I totally forgot that.

I sneaked inside my house through the basement door, which I kept open when I didn't want to alert my parents and wake them up. I drank a glass of water and headed upstairs, to my room. As soon as I switched on the light, I saw my parents sitting on my bed, waiting for me. Great.

Before my mother could say anything, I snapped, "I've had a long day of exams, get off my back."

"Alright, we'll deal with you in the morning." My father said sternly.

I lay on my bed, thinking about my future, and drifted to sleep.