IQ 138 by Ainsley Dillon (top novels of all time .txt) 📕

“If you must know,” I terribly start, “I was born not 15 miles from here, and I have a mother, and I had a brother and a father.” she interrupts me.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Keaner, but you speak of your father and brother in, past tense?” I clenched my fists together, but I still snap back without remorse.

“I haven’t seen or heard of them after they passed your test.” I say without remorse, “And to continue, my family began to believe I was a Morph when my hair turned colors.” I paused, letting crazy lady and the people watching soak my message in.

“I’m sorry… What?” crazy lady says.

“One of my powers as a Morph is that I can change my hair and eye color at will.” As an example, I use my anger to make my hair undeniably red. The crazy lady gasps and sits back down, not hiding the fear in her eyes.

“When did your parents call or alert the authorities of your development?” she asked.

“My mom never did.” I said, “She assumed people were dealing with likely problems and didn’t want to annoy.”

Crazy lady acted as if she was going to explode.

“I hope you know, Ms. Keaner, that no one else, in this world, has developed this,”she pauses, thinking of a word, “Talent, of yours.” I shift around in my seat, hoping someone bursts through the door, and saves me from my doom with the crazy lady. But, the next best thing happens.

A whole armada of fists start pounding on the door, and crazy lady looks to the guard, and he opens the door. Zachary and Keith, and my whole testing class fall into a big heap in front of my feet. I can’t help it, I laugh.

“I think we’re quite done with you, Ms. Keaner.” she snaps and the large man pushes me out the door, through my classmates. I fight tears as I see the crazy lady have a nervous breakdown in front of my class, just to complain about children born with Morph capabilities.

“They just don’t understand…” she weeps,”They’re given all of these abilities and they see them as something they’re entitled to.” she pauses. “You know what they are?” No one answers. “Monsters… just monsters!” And, the best thing happens. Her hair turns white, and back to her original dull black hair again. 

I turn, speechless, and walk away from the door, my face shining with tears.

Before I can get out the door, I am joined by Zach, Ally, Keith, and Cally. They all laugh and giggle like little children, and Zach grabs my arm before I reach the door.

“Hey,” He stops, leaving room for more laughter, “Come on, you just disturbed crazy lady’s drama party, come celebr-” he stops when he notices my tears. “Maiah I’m sorry, what happe-” I cut him off.

“Just leave me alone.” I say dramatically, and walk out the door and to the limousine. The door opens automatically, and I slink inside.

After a few minutes of being alone, I can hear protests outside the door where I’m sitting. I can make out the distinct voices; Cally and Zachary, and a low, gravely voice I can only assume could be the driver. Then my door opens, revealing my group of friends staring down at me. They all enter one by one, and then the door closes behind them.

“What was that?” Zachary asked me. “We distracted the crazy lady and got you out of there, but it looked like you were about to leave too. What the heck did she ask you?”

“Past, present, and future.” I mutter.

“What?” Cally said confused. I’d forgotten; no one else had gotten to do broadcasting day but Zachary and I. Before I could explain, Zachary explained for me.

“She asked us about our past future and present.” he said, and returned to the expression he wore when he first came out of the office.

“Well, it only seems a fair trade if you tell us the story of your incident as well.” I laugh, and Zachary fades more and more into the back of his seat.

“Only if you graciously tell us first.” he says with a smirk.

“Fine.” I began. “The first thing she did was ask me about my past, and I explained how my hair can change color and-” Zachary interrupts me.

“Your hair can change color? Maiah, the only person known to have that ability is Ava Fulkerson.” he pauses, and there is a silence.

“Well then, crazy lady is Ava Fulkerson!” I said.

“Are you crazy?! That can’t be true, she’s been missing for years, she can’t just appear and be the head of the test facility and hope her dad doesn’t notice her!” Zachary says, his face filled with disbelief.

Chapter 5: Math… Finally

I sit in the limousine, trying to think of how to explain something that Zachary has learned his whole life is wrong. I decide against it. We can always talk about it tomorrow. I decided to lean my head against his shoulder, and let myself slip into a deep nap.

*****************

We pass the plastic trees again, so I know we are almost to the facility where we would be taking the first math portion. Sadly, I don’t think I’m looking forward to my favorite subject after what happened today. My eyes are drooping closer to closing every second that passes by. I sit up off of Zachary’s shoulder as the limousine stops.

All of the kids slowly step out of the limousine compartments, while men I hadn’t seen at the facility before led us through twisted and long hallways. Eventually they started to lead us to our separate testing rooms with our partners. The men gave Zachary and I a loaf of bread, as if we were supposed to be famined while we took the test. To pass the time before the test, Zachary and I came up with a game we called field goal, where we would take something we found on the floor, and chuck it in random places to see if we could make it in.

After a time, the nameless men came in and handed us a packet labeled “Differential Equations”, and another titled “Algebra”. Both of them combined were only about half the size of the History portion. This shows the priorities of the United Nations. They think we need to know more about what has already happened than what can help us create what is going to happen. I open up to the first page of the Algebra packet, but the men walk up and stop my pencil from beginning of the first equation.

“No,” one of the men said in a gruff voice.

“But, why?” I asked curiously. The other man puts a firm hand on my shoulder, as if that would stop my question. His hand is cold and clammy, and my hair turns green with disgust. Zachary stands up and reaches out to somehow stop the man from asking anything more. As soon as the man sees my hair, he flinches, removes his hand, and retreats back to his corner. The other man takes a step forward and says;

“That packet is the second math portion. Take the first part first, and then you may start the second one.” he says as if it was an order. My hand slowly backs away from the Algebra packet and directs itself towards the Differential Equations. Zachary sits back down and opens his own packet. The men stay in their corners of the room, but do not leave before I start my test.

The differential equations start to fly past my eyes, and my hand is flying, scribbling down the numbers as fast as I could. I finish at problem 216, 15 minutes before Zachary. As I close the packet, Zachary looks up and smirks, circling his index finger around his right ear, and points to me, and then my packet. I cross my arms and sigh, my hair turning a bashful red.

After Zachary finishes, a bell rings and, assuming it was for a late dinner, Zachary and I try to walk out of our testing area, but we were stopped by the nameless men.

“Ms. Fulkerson isn’t ready for you two to go to lunch yet.” the taller of the two grumbles.

“Yeah, and why is that?” I inquire, and I can tell by the look on Zachary’s face that, that was not the right question to ask at the time.

“Well, after that fiasco on the Broadcast today, she needs to have a talk with you about, what is that she said again? Oh, yeah. Etiquette.” The man gives Zachary and I what I think to be a stink eye.

“We didn’t really know she was going to have a nervous breakdown, we just- well, I just needed to bust her out of there, I could see her hair change to a deep sad colored blue from the windows in that room.” He looks at me, and I can see the deep worry in his eyes. The creepy man stands up and regards Zachary with a wary eye as he says;

“There were no windows in that room, Mr. Gefferson. I’m sure you’re quite aware.” One of them says, and Zachary turns red, and I mouth, What does he mean? How did you know my hair turned colors?

Later. He mouths back.  

“Now, come with me, children.”  the creepy man says, and we are lead down a series of halls. We stop next to a set of iron doors, and they seat us in a pair of wooden chairs. The men stop next to us, one by me, one by Zachary, and they press a button on their watches. All of a sudden, iron bands bound our hands to the table.

“Hey?! Wha-” the mysterious man holds a finger to his lips, and he holds out a syringe filled with a pukey-green liquid.

Publication Date: 10-15-2015

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Dedication:
I would like to dedicate this book to myself, and Sarah, who got me started out on BookRix.