Freaks Like Us

My class was tense as Mr. Pater answer the class room phone, its ringing having interrupted his amazingly droll lesson. The whispers of “please be me, please be me,” suddenly stopped when Mr. Pater ended the call and hung up the phone before heading back toward the front of the class. “Aries Williams, you’re to go to the front office and bring all of your things. I’ll write you a note.” Mr. Pater said causing me to wince as twenty interested pairs of eyes rocketed my way.

Good natured kidding started from my class mates as I was jokingly accused of having done something punishable to the offense of being sent to the principle’s office. Rolling my eyes at my class mates I closed my notebook, and silently prayed that they weren’t calling me up there for the thing that I thought they were.

Shoving my notebook into my bag, I stood and took the note Mr. Pater was holding out towards me, before leaving the room and closing the door behind me.

I was a good a kid, as in creepily good, and when I wasn’t good, I was good at not getting caught. I had never been called to the office before, and probably wouldn’t even know where it was if not for the fact it was where the Student council speeches were read.

Nervously I walked down the creepily quite halls, wincing as the Christmas bells I had tied to my bag jingled as loudly as they could. It was just my luck to get into trouble the day before Christmas break. Then again, I didn’t even know what exactly I was being called to the office for, it could be anything.

There was only one thing that I had the potential to get in trouble for, and that was the kind of thing that a teacher would deal with, and that’s only if I were to get caught. And I had covered my tracks pretty well, they were more likely to blame Will or Wesley before they even thought to look elsewhere, and they most certainly wouldn’t look at me.

Reaching the main hallway without incident, I froze in front of the office door before swallowing hard, oh gosh what if I had gotten caught? Pushing open the door I came to a hard stop.

The woman seated behind the reception desk was dressed a plain pant suit, and looking at my tights and sweater like I had purposely chose the most insultingly comfortable clothing I owned just to flaunt it in her face. Her brown eyes were condemning behind her tortoiseshell eyeglasses as she told me to go to the principal’s office and knock. I gave a small smile and thanked her before hightailing it to the pointed out office.

Going by the previous interaction, the receptionist was either super unhappy with her current place in life, or I had done something really bad. The first was highly likely, seeing as I was already in the running to be voted soccer mom senior year- and we were nearing the end of sophomore year.

Stopping outside of the principal’s office I tried to hear what it was the two low voices in the room were saying, and when that failed, I gathered a couple of nerves and knocked. I waited until I heard Dr. B, the amazingly chill principal who was friends with my mom but still scary enough to yell at me and make me cry, tell me to come in.

Pushing open the door I flashed my best attempt at a smile at Dr. B and the other man in the room before moving towards the only other open chair. Dropping my backpack on the ground I slid into the seat and tucked my hands between legs to keep them from shaking. I was never good when all of the room’s attention was on me, unless the attention is from my peers, so the attention of Dr. B and the stranger were making me uncomfortable.

“Thank you for coming Aries.” Dr. B’s voice was nice and calm as he leaned forward in his seat. He seemed oblivious to the fact that I couldn’t not come, he was the principal, not somebody a 15 year old denied. Instead of pointing that out though, I chose the smart road and just nodded my head. “Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Jericho, he’s from a rather large company that I will let him explain.” Dr. B introduced as he turned to look at the other man.

I turned as well and shook the hand that was held out to me, not speaking because I wasn’t sure what to say. And I had long ago learned to speak unless I knew what to say, or else the results were less than appreciated.

Dropping Mr. Jericho’s hand I leaned back in my seat and waited for him to start speaking, when he did not, Dr. B cleared his throat. “Ms. Williams, do you remember the test that all students were required to take a couple of months ago?” He asked me in that way adults do when they think they’re about to say something that is going to go way over your head.

I personally found that offensive, I was in the top 20% of my class.

Again, not actually saying this, I instead nodded. “Yes sir, did I do something wrong?” I asked as I linked my hands together in my lap, trying hard not to start vibrating with nerves.
I was not going to start crying, which is what I did last time when I was taken to a principle’s office. That time it was the assistant principal, and I had been called there because I was out of lunch money.

Looking as if he were about to speak again, Dr. B was interrupted by Mr. Jericho. “I am from the company that designed the test, and said company sent me here with an offer.” He told me as he twisted around in his chair, turning his shoulder to Dr. B and completely disregarding him. “Your parents have already signed all the papers that are required, and if you agree to go with me, you will call them on the way.” He told me, driving my confusion level through the roof with his scarce explanations.

I blinked a couple of times as I waited for my brain to process this new information. “Go with you where, exactly?” I asked, noting that his voice was firm, not the soft one that adults had a tendency to use when they were dealing with people my age and younger *cough, Dr. B, cough*.

Mr. Jericho directed an easy to read look towards Dr. B, who scowled at the “get out” vibes that Mr. Jericho was sending out, but ultimately listened. I watched in shocked silence as my usually tough principle stood and left the room, only to have his seat taken over the second he was out of the room.

I was personally shocked. That was such a huge sign of disrespect, and Mr. Jericho had just shown it in front of a student, someone who was supposed to respect the principle.

Mr. Jericho didn’t seem to notice my shock, and he didn’t waste any time before he started talking. “Aries, I may call you that, right?” He asked, pausing just long enough for me to start to answer before he interrupted me. “Well Aries, your test scores were the fifth highest in the country and thirtieth highest in the entire world. Due to these scores it has been decided that you will enter, with your consent that is, what is now being called, simply, the Experiment.” He paused obviously waiting for me to ask what the Experiment was.

And normally, I would do just that, except this guy had managed to do the one thing, or okay one of many things, but it is defiantly the largest, to piss me off- he interrupted me. So instead of saying anything I just crossed my arms and leaned back in my seat, my nerves gone for the moment.
Despite my angry exterior, inside I was doing a mini happy dance. I got the fifth highest in America, and thirtieth in the world! Take that Ms. Istock!

Mr. Jericho at this point seemed to realize that I was angry about something, yet he still had the audacity to laugh at me! “I heard that you were fiery, that’s good, that’ll help with the Experiment.” He chuckled out, causing the little bubble of happiness inside me to burst and be replaced with anger.

Scowling, I waited for him to continue.

“The Experiment is a body and mind enhancer. It has five major steps that you will be walked through, three of which actually happen before the main part of the Experiment.” I was told as Mr. Jericho leaned forward onto Dr. B’s desk and presses his fingers together into a temple. “If you agree to participate, you will be flown to South Dakota, which is where the Experiment is based. Once there you will spend two weeks learning the basics of a field that will later be your specialization, you will also undergo rigorous physical training. After those two weeks you will undergo the first stage of the Experiment.” Mr. Jericho abruptly stopped his explanation, presumably seeing the look of total confusion on my face.

Blinking a couple of times in shock my mind scrambled to come up with a question that would hopefully not totally embarrass me. However, I was coming up blank so I instead said the first thing that came to mind. “I’m failing science.”

Mr. Jericho laughed, a real laugh, not the annoying chuckle he did before. “Ah yes, I heard. With you we could spend more time working on that while doing individual studies. You see, the classes are specialized to fit the student.” He told me before he resumed his annoyingly long explanation. “After the third phase of the Experiment, you will have two months of school work before you undergo the main step. The step takes roughly a week to complete, in that time you will be put into a coma, after that the rest of the steps will be relatively easy. Your parents have already signed all of the necessary papers and, if you agree, we will go to your house, pack your things, and get on the plane we chartered to go to the base of the Experiment.”

I blinked a couple of times as his words sank in; how long was this experiment going to take? Of course there were a few more pressing subjects that I wanted to ask about, and now my brain seemed to be working. “What exactly will the experiment do to me? And will I be able to come back to school at the end of it?” I really didn’t give that big a damn about school, but I did have a couple of friends, and I would miss them.

Also I was a horrible gossip; I would need somebody to talk to about this Experiment.

Mr. Jericho seemed to have some idea of where my thoughts were. “Ms. Williams, if you do not accept our offer, and even if you do, you will be unable to tell anyone about the things that we have discussed in this room.” He told me as he stood from Dr. B’s seat and moved to stand in front of me, his feet almost touching my bright pink backpack. “The Experiment, as I said, will enhance both your physical and mental abilities. As of now the Experiment is simply an experiment, we’re not sure where it will go. However, there are future plans that state the test subjects could potentially be used for military operations.” He informed me.

I wanted to do something with my life, and living in the shadow of two perfect older sisters makes standing out in anyway an extremely difficult task. So when somebody shows up and tells me that I could do something amazing, something that could save lives, well there was very little chance of me saying no.

So that was how I found myself standing and reaching my hand out above my back pack towards where Mr. Jericho was waiting with a knowing smile. My hand was being shook as the words “I’m in,” left my mouth.