Below Average

Chapter 1-Moyra

     Today was exam day at Belaiv Academy. I had studied hard, but if my IQ after the final exam was under 100 I would have to work on the farm. I wasn't cut out to work on the farm. With my long burning scarlet hair, face full of freckles, and thin arms, I could just barely lift all my school books at the same time. I grabbed a muffin and left. Since all the exams were on computerized desktops, I wouldn't be needing anything. I examined my kitchen, with its perfect white walls and countertops. It was eight, giving me plenty of time to get to school.

     I walked down the street to where the Katsouros's lived. Daedalus and Aeron were waiting on the porch outside their house waiting for me like they did everyday. My eyes were drawn to directly up to Aerons hair. It always made a statement, like her. The top layer of her hair was bleach blonde, but the layers underneath were a mix of different shades of blue, green, and purple. She had said it was to me when she got it done that was to represent a peacocks tail feathers, because they are majestic and beautiful. Her hair was parted far to the left side, with a few inches of the front of her hair on her right side shaved down. Her tanned skin looked foreign next to my pale skin. Her arms were thin, but much stronger than mine underneath her navy flannel shirt and skinny black jeans. She was studying the sky, through her wide framed glasses, looking for new images to memorize and sketch.

     Daedalus, was standing next to her, with his button up shirt, and dark blue jeans. He had a broad build and long legs built for running. He was taller than both Aeron and I by 3 inches at 5 foot 7 inches. He shifted one foot to the other staring at the floor. If you looked at Daedalus and Aeron, you could never tell that they were twins. They didn't act the same, nor dress or look the same. Daedalus looked up as I neared them. My sweater was baggy with my black skinny jeans, and red hair pulled up into a fish tail braid down my back. I saw Daedalus look into my grey eyes with his blue ones. Aeron stood oblivious to anything happening around her.

"Hey," I said, but in my voice you could hear the soft layer of worry that I had tried to suppress down inside me. "You two ready?" At this Aeron's attention snapped back into reality. Her bright green eyes looked at me with familiarity and warmth. Us three had known each other ever since we were 3 years old. We were the best of friends, and were always with each other. People would have to be stupid to separate us, but no one here was stupid. Everyone one had an IQ score between 100 and 200, which was incredibly difficult to reach. Anyone under 100 went out to the farms, which from what our parents had told us, were down in Alabama and Florida. We lived up in Michigan, at the top of the glove.

"Maybe, I really hope so, Daedalus?" Aeron asked. She didn't have much confidence in her voice. Daedalus caught it too. "I'm good." Daedalus said. The three of us had studied the past three nights for hours at a time. Daedalus and I had studied together before, with Aeron in the corner doodling the whole time. I was afraid, but now my concern was't for myself, it was for Aeron.

     I couldn't imagine my life with any of us missing. I just couldn't. There wasn't a time any of us had left the classroom for any reason, we all went together. Our teachers had never argued with us, they thought that we had brought out our inner selves when we were with each other. I started to walk to the school, with Daedalus at my side and Aeron trailing behind, studying the too familiar path, once more.

     "Are you okay, your face is turning green?" I felt sick on the inside too. "I'm okay." I said quickly.  "Are you sure?" Daedalus asked again. "I don't know, I mean, I don't want to work on the farm," my voice was raised, and my face felt like it was going bright red. Aeron, or Aer, took a few quick steps to be in line with us. This is the first time that I had ever seen Aer do that. It was very unlike her, but I guess she really does care about me.

"Moyra, its okay, we are all worried, but it'll be okay, we'll do fine." I didn't know what was going to happen, but just sensing Aer was supporting me, it made me feel better. "Okay, I feel better, thanks Aer." And I wasn't joking. Daedalus, being in the middle of us two, wrapped his arms around mine, and Aer's necks. We walked in toe up the marble stairs of the Belaiv Academy.

     We went into the first room on the left-where we were taking our exams. We sat down at the back desk group on the left side of the room. I sat next to Daedalus with Aer across from us. Mrs. Rup came into the room and sat at her desk. We had had her as a teacher since we started going to Belaiv Academy.

"You may, begin." Mrs. Rup said with an extremely saddening voice, but I had no idea why. I glanced at down, the desk turned on with a brilliant white light. I looked the first few questions, which seemed extremely difficult, but I was confident in myself. But in the back of my head, I was still worrying about Aer.