THE FITNESS TEST and THE NOSY DOCTOR

My alarm for the next day rang at 5:30 am, and I groggily woke up. I got ready, had the usual oatmeal breakfast and left for the fitness test.

The fitness test was to be held at the fitness centre two houses away from my house, so I reached there in no time. There were loads of students arriving and I found a seat for myself.

In five minutes, the instructor began yelling out instructions. The first thing we had to do was run till we drop. The last person running would get full in the exam and needn't continue the other tests. Everyone started running and jogging around the centre.

There were about a hundred of us, so it was a bit crowded, but after the third round around the centre, twenty girls dropped out of the race. Another three rounds later, only five girls including me were left. A couple of boys, too, had stopped running.

I saw Caleb running and caught up to him. He smirked confidently, "Let's see who lasts longer, princess."

He quickened his pace, and just as I was about to do the same, I remember that this was more of a long-lasting game. Not a speed game.

Twenty rounds in, I could feel my legs cramping, but I forced myself to continue. Right now, there were only twelve people in the race- two girls, and ten boys.

Celine, the other girl in the race, was right behind me and her breathing was getting shallower and shallower with every step. I advised her, "Breathe through your nose, not your mouth."

I heard her raspy and out of breath voice, "No one needs your opinion, Blondie."

I was about to open my mouth to protest that I was better than her and her stereotypical Blonde comment wouldn't work on me but someone else did it for me.

"Shut up, Celine." Caleb huffed.

I was the only blonde girl in this entire society, my father was blonde and my grandfather was blonde. My sister was a brunette like my mother and I was a blonde like my father. So everyone sort of, expected me to be dumb, but I was smarter than all of them combined.

Caleb matched his pace with mine and we jogged together in tandem. After ten more rounds, only four of us were left. Celine had dropped out, and only me, Caleb, and two other guys from my grade were left.

"Thinking of dropping out so soon, princess?" Caleb asked, taunting me.

I, in fact, was thinking of stopping but after hearing that, it fuelled my energy and I rolled my eyes. I simply hated that nickname he had come up with for me.

"Stop calling me princess!" I whined like a little child.

The instructor yelled at us, "Less yapping, more running." What the hell was he talking about? We were the only four kids left!

I knew I shouldn't have talked at all, because talking while running long distances, ruined the breathing pattern and affected the rate of blood pumped, leading to shortage of oxygenated blood supplied to the body, making it harder to run.

This was my fortieth round. I was done, but I wouldn't accept my exhaustion in front of Caleb. So I pushed through. Two of the other guys dropped out somewhere in the forties, and right now, my mind was so clouded, and my eyes were brimming with tears. Everyone looked at us in astonishment, staring at us to know who would give up first.

My ragged breathing and my pounding heart did not help me case. My legs were absolutely on fire, and I couldn't bear it. I heard Caleb's voice, "Are you okay, Aurora?"

I couldn't find enough breath to utter a word so I just shook my head.

"Just finish it off, you two!" The instructor shouted. I looked at Caleb. His gaze filled with determination filled me up with new hope and I ran a bit more.

The instructor hadn't expected anyone to reach more that fifty and he knew, if we didn't finish it off in five minutes, then he won't be able to move on to the other five tests.

Round 60 was pure agony. Every muscle in my body blazed with pain. The instructor had enough and said, "Both of you get full marks, okay?! You can stop!"

I looked at Caleb and he looked back at me. He smirked, "Didn't expect you to last so long, princess."

I was laying on the ground, unable to speak anything, and my lungs were hurting. I found it very difficult to breathe and everything around me was getting disorientated.

"Aurora? Aurora! What's happening?! Are you alright?! Talk to me!" Caleb yelled.

I couldn't breathe, and my brain was not getting enough oxygen and I felt so tired.

Caleb put his finger below my nose to check if I was breathing. "Sir! She's not breathing! There's a pulse, but a very faint one!"

I completely blacked out.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

I woke up to the sound of hospital monitors all around me. No one was there in the room as I took in my surroundings.

Five minutes later, Caleb came strolling in, with a water bottle in his hand, whistling a tune. He dropped it when he saw that I was awake.

"Aurora! You ran yourself to death! You should've stopped." He rambled.

I removed the oxygen mask, "You didn't stop either." I mumbled.

"So how long have I been out?" I asked him.

"Two and a half hours." He said quietly.

"Where are my parents?" I questioned.

"They left for a mission this morning. That is probably why you didn't see them." Oh yeah. They were going to 'talk' with me, and that's why they left me alone.

There was an awkward silence in the room and Caleb looked away.

I abruptly asked, "When will I get discharged?"

"I don't know. They said they need the results of the tests they did on you."

Just then, a female doctor burst into the room. "Good, you're awake."

"What's the matter?" I asked.

She paused, "The results of the brain scan we did on you came back. You have an unnatural number of neurons in your brain."

"We're born in a community where this is supposed to happen. So what?"

"So what?! You might be the most intelligent person to walk this earth! I need to give you a test." She said restlessly.

I groaned, "Haven't I had enough of them!?"

She dragged me to another room, and Caleb followed in suit, and hooked me on to some devices. "Aurora, I need you to think of the happiest time of your life."

I paused. The only time I felt truly happy and worriless when I was playing badminton with Caleb.

The doctor held a tablet where she was staring at intensely. She gave me a smirk. Uh oh, I hadn't realized it at the time, but this was the device where your thoughts could be read!

Caleb inched closer to look at the tablet and I tried to think of something else, but I couldn't. So I shut my eyes, and let all my thoughts crash.

The doctor let out a scream, "You broke the machine! How did you even do that?!"

"What?" Caleb said, bewildered.

I grinned and sheepishly said, "Sorry?"

She led me to another room and told Caleb to wait outside.

She intensely asked me rapid fire questions.

"Do you like that boy?"

"No." I said without hesitation.

"Are you attracted to him?" She tried again.

I tilted my head, "Yeah, he's not bad to look at."

"You had an overload of neuron impulses in your brain and the machine broke down." She stated. "How do you control that sort of thing?"

"I like, sort of, have tabs in my brain. When I saw that Caleb was going to see what I was thinking, I just thought of everything I could think of. Does that even make sense?"

"Nope, but I feel you will be the first rank 10 genius in four hundred years." She said, her eyes shining brightly.

I smirked, "Who said I'm going to be a genius?"

Her eyes widened in shock.

I walked out of the room, and I saw Caleb right outside. "How much of the conversation did you hear?" I said, agitated.

"The part where you outrightly denied being a genius." He said proudly.

"I didn't deny being a genius, I just took it into consideration." I said, rolling my eyes.

"You are not discharged!" The doctor yelled.

"I can discharge myself!" I shouted back. I turned to Caleb and said, "Let's go."

"You can't just- like what?" Caleb stuttered, as I grabbed hold of his wrist and led him out.

I couldn't wait to get my own car. Till everyone was eighteen, they had to walk everywhere. We couldn't complain, as the entire society was based on ten acres of land, with about ten thousand people inhabiting it. 

I don't know why I offered to, or what came over me, but I said, "I'm going outside today. You want to come along?"

"Hell yeah!" He yelled.

"Meet me at the eastern side of the wall, fifty metres away from the gate. Be there at 6:45." I told him in sign language, so nobody or microphones could hear us. 

Sign language was taught to assassins, when they went to Assassin Academy, but I knew that Caleb knew how to speak sign language. I had done a course on it when I was ten, and had recently learned it.

Alright, he tapped in Morse Code.

Stop showing off, I tapped back.