The Exam

"It doesn't matter to me. Powers don't determine people's personality and who they turn out to be," 

"and…and ...always depending on circumstances and situations? I want to live freely so regardless of whether or not you become a Red collared citizen and are taken to the red prison, you'll still be my friend," he continued speaking tapping my back as we walked, right as we  finally got to the entrance amidst tens of armed guards with high-powered energy weapons,

The minute he said that, my inner voice immediately whispered to me,

"I like him,"

I was a little surprised, liking someone was super rare for me but still, we both stopped talking as we quietly entered the lobby, where we were given numbers by the female receptionist sitting at the counter in the lobby before immediately directing us to an elevator.

Mine was a tag with the number hundred(100) boldly written on it, while Kin's number was ninety nine(99).

"If your number has already been called then blame your tardiness, which means you would have to take it next year," she said in a dismissive manner almost as if she wished we hadn't made it at all.

"After taking the elevator and getting to the second floor, look straight and you'll see the hall you need to go to right in front of you," she said, before bending down to attend to papers that mostly looked blank and would probably never even leave her desk. It was obvious that they were simply put there to give her an appearance of being busy.

"Thank you," Kin said while I simply turned around and headed for the elevator with a "I couldn't give a fuck about you, even if you wanted me to," look on my face.

I'm not one to wait around for Karma to dish out punishments to people, the way you treat me is simply the way you're asking to be treated.

Standing in front of the elevator, I waited for Kin to catch up, pressing the elevator button the minute he did, with both of us entering and watching the elevator close after us in seconds.

Before both of us could count to three, we got to the second floor.

"Are you nervous?" Kin asked me, before answering his own question without waiting for a reply.

"You don't look nervous and I don't want to be but I can't help it," he said as we both walked forward quickly heading to the room, with the word, " Examination," written on a sign at the entrance,

"What's your secret?" He asked me,looking and waiting this time around for an answer, but all I did was shrug a little before turning to look at his face, which was clear of any drops of sweat unlike before. An air conditioner was installed in almost every corner we turned to, including the elevator.

"Not caring," I say as I continue to walk beside him, as we both got closer to the place we needed to be. 

"Not caring as much as I should," I reiterate.

As much as I wanted to deny it, I cared a lot about the ability I would get since it would inherently determine my future.

I was just about to open my mouth to say more when a loud noise was heard from the room we were both heading to.

Shifting my head to the right, we both turned to look at each other before rushing as fast as we could past the entrance, where I immediately saw our age mates lining up in a straight line.

"What's happening?" Kin curiously asks a blond girl in front of him the moment we arrived in the room.

"Ssshhuuu," she whispers back barely loud enough for me to hear from where I stood on Kim's left side.

"Isn't it obvious?" She said continuing to speak in the same whispery tone,

"He failed the first test and he completely panicked and went ape shit the moment a ref-collared soldier stepped close to him. It's terrible…and to think this could happen to any one of us,"

Kin nodded his head as he paid rapt attention to what was happening at the centre of the room, when I finally decided to do the same.

I wasn't tall but neither was I too short to see past the heads of various students who had already lined up in an horizontal manner, facing the front and center of the room where different instructors and super-heroes were standing around a cylindrical tube, connected to thousands of long and thick wires.

Every person after the age of fifteen was meant to enter the tube, as the electrical impulses in each of our brains are charged to the fullest to allow each and every person from the city of Levingne or other cities awaken his or her powers.

I watched the boy who recently came out of the tube and out of the first of the three sectioned walls placed in the center of the room. Each room had iron doors and walls which none of us could see through but for the big red letter 'X' shining on the door, informing us that the boy in front of us had failed his first test which was the safety test.

I slightly pitied him, because from the way his whole body shook as I saw him step into the second box in the center of the room, I couldn't help but have serious doubts about his ability to pass the control test but "you never know" I thought, watching him disappear into the tiny cubicle.