Fireworks

17

"Jason? Jason, Hadlee?"

I raise my hand and the test proctor walks around to my desk and places my booklet facedown. I take a deep breath.

The three other times I've taken the ACT, I was in a classroom packed full of students I grew up around. This time, I'm in the break room of a church with about twenty other kids from different schools.

I'm very nervous, but I know as soon as I open the test booklet my mind will focus on the task at hand. I've always been an exceptional test taker.

I've prepared for this, I remind myself over and over.

Today is my first day off of work since three days ago, and I can't help but wonder what chaos is going on at work today. I think the boys decided to conquer Godzilla today. I'm kind of sad I have to miss it, although I am glad that my chances of being roped into helping them set it up are now nonexistent. Yesterday I had walked past where the container that holds Godzilla was set, and I got a whiff of the musty, disgusting stench that's so rumored to follow the blow-up dinosaur.

Let's just say Diego hadn't been exaggerating when he gagged.

"As I hand you your answer document, turn it over to the back page. Your name should appear on the label at the bottom right. Raise your hand if you did not receive an answer document..." The test proctor repeats. He's an old Hispanic man that I think works at this church. Teachers are normally used to reading things like this for standardized testing, but he seems slightly unsure of himself. He was sweet, though, and had even brought little snack baggies for us to have before the test.

He continues with the instructions and eventually gets to the point in which he starts his little silent timer and tells us to begin.

I flip to the first page of questions and start immediately, my mind blanking of everything aside from the test. The first is English. I'm good at English, I got this.

The time flies by and I furiously work, only taking a few moments to skim back over my work before flipping the page and moving on to the next set of questions. I hesitate to change a couple of my answers, but I go with my gut and fix what I think needs to be fixed, though I'm internally screaming at myself not to change the answer I first go with.

I finish the sections quickly, though not effortlessly, and am glad for the quick ten-minute break we get between math and reading. I thought I would struggle a bit more with math but honestly, it's mostly just algebra and geometry review from the first year of high school.

I lean back in my uncomfortable plastic chair and stretch my shoulders and tailbone. When I twist to pop my back, I make eye contact with the boy sitting behind me, and I feel my eyes pop open wide.

"Jeremiah?" I ask, I can feel my eyebrows disappearing into my hairline.

"Hadlee, hey," Jeremiah says, scratching the back of his neck. "I didn't realize you were in here until he called your name for roll call," he says, his eyes sweeping up and down me.

I just blink at him a few times before giving myself a shake and forcing myself to smile. "I must have zoned out, I didn't hear your name. How have you been?"

Jeremiah used to be really good friends with my brother. He was there while I got my nose pierced and he basically used to be like another older brother to me. He's going to be a senior this year with me, although after my brother died he moved schools. He took it pretty hard, and his family lost contact with mine after the funeral, so it's not like it was a huge deal.

He smiles a bit and says, "I'm good, I'm at Shiloh now, so. You know, private school stuff,"

We both laugh a little awkwardly and I nod. "Yeah, I heard."