The Wrong Side

Chapter 2

Experiencing Evaluation day, or E-day, once a year is bad enough. I'd rather not get too much into the details. I'll just say that I had put my shoes on the wrong way for the run and I had about a hundred brain farts with the written component. Also, the fact that I had barely eight hours of sleep brought my marks down significantly. Venning was disappointed with me, I could tell. When he left, he turned to me and said, "I wondered what exactly I'm risking my life for when I saw your performance today."

I guess I should explain that statement: No one knows of my existence except Venning and Ada, but Ada doesn't really count since she's just a robot. According to Venning, I have a dark family history and a lot of people would like to see me dead. I try asking what exactly had happened, but Venning always replies with, "You're not old enough. I'll tell you when you're an adult." I tried to trick Ada into telling me by attempting to hack into her servers but whoever programmed her, did a hell of a job, because I can't hack her and I'm the best hacker I know. Okay, that may not be much of a statement.

Venning says that he's risking his life by helping me. I asked him what he's planning for me and he said automatically, "I'm going to make you into a hero who's going to put an end to the hatred against the Endurance and repair the damage your parents did." That response prompted me to ask, "What damage?" To which he answered, "You're not old enough. I'll tell you when you're an adult."

It's a vicious circle.

After Venning leaves, I feel this weight being lifted from my shoulders. I love the feeling I get after E-day and I always celebrate by eating afterwards. I go into the kitchen and open the fridge, only to find fruit, vegetables and every other type of healthy food known to mankind. I don't have much luck in the pantry until... Aha! What's this? I'm reaching into the back of the pantry when my hands wrap around a package. I pull it out and it's an instant noodle ramen. It's the unhealthiest thing I've found so far, so I turn on the stove to boil water. I can hear Ada walking up to me from behind.

"What was that today?" she asks.

I shrug. I honestly don't care about E-day. I would, maybe, if Venning or Ada told me what I was being evaluated for. I think everything about today practically sucked. First: I had forgotten that today was Evaluation day, so I didn't prepare like I usually did. I normally get at least ten hours of sleep; I have water bottles filled and ready to go; I study for the written component. Second: I woke up late. I'm up at 5:15 on E-day so that I have a second to actually wake up and so that I can shovel a small energy bar down. Third: the sun came out early and the day got hot really fast, so the run was a bit of a pain as well as the rest of the examinations that were done outside. Fourth: I had a minor injury on my hand that was stubbornly painful throughout the day. It didn't hinder me that much. I just want to complain about something at this point.

"Your performance today was a disappointment."

"Yeah," I say as the water for my ramen boils and I start to cook the noodles. "I could tell based off of Venning's reaction."

"You know what this means, right?"

"No, what?"

"New routine."

I feel my entire body tense up as she says that. Ocaisionally, Venning sends us a new routine for either my physical or mental training. They're never fun. It usually means longer or more intense exercises, a change in diet and an earlier curfew.

"What now?" I ask. My ramen has finished cooking and I pour the pot into a bowl.

"Earlier rising. Longer run. It has changed to ten kilometres every morning instead of seven. Also, I have been instructed to remove any 'unhealthy' food."