Below Average

Chapter 2-Daedalus

Butterflies swarmed my stomach. I was more than halfway done, yet I still felt the nerves like I hadn't even started. My blood was pumping so hard that I could hear it and my eyes were dry from staring at all the confusing digits. At question thirty-one, the pain already in my head grew as though someone was drilling it from the inside out. I assumed the test would be simple. I had been mistaken.

Although the first half of the questions may have been elementary and given me a false sense of security, the second I saw the shape patterns, I began to doubt my abilities. Question thirty-one was finally finished with five minutes lost in the thought process and I was more tired than ever.

The digital clock on the wall told me that there was about three and a half hours left to finish the test, but I wasn't worried about the time so much as I was worried about my sister. I paused and looked up. She was running her hands through her multicolored hair and there was a red mark on her face where she had rested her hand. I watched Aer struggle for quite a while before I remembered the time limit. Aer looked up and I quickly shifted my attention to Moyra who was putting in her answers slowly, but surely, and quicker than Aer.

I went back to work and struggled on question fifty–the final question. The answer was in the front of my brain, but I couldn't quite remember it. It popped into my head and I finished a couple minutes later. I pushed the send button so the teachers could review it, finalizing everything I had accomplished. I stood and looked at the clock. I finished in an hour and forty-five minutes. My mother had finished in just over two hours.

"Done already Daedalus?" Asked Mrs. Rup. "Yep, it was a breeze." I made a hand motion that I had picked up from Moyra. "Well, I hope you did well." Mrs. Rup replied. She sounded worried, but why? I knew thay after my amount of studying I should be fine... but Aer?

I walked out and picked up my phone from Mrs. Rup's desk. I went down the steps of the school to the nearest bench, and sat down stretching my legs along the bench with my feet hanging off the end. I was moderately tall, but compared to the rest of the boys in my class, not so much.

I knew I would be waiting for quite a while for Moyra to come out, and longer for Aer, so I turned on my phone and went to my photos. I brought up a picture of Aer on my phone. I looked at it. It was my favorite picture of us, taken on our 14th birthday. We were sat together on a bench at the park grinning like crazy in the snow. I stared at it, the sides of my mouth curving up. But all that happiness faded when I began to wonder if I would see her again after tomorrow when the scores were released.
Come on Lus! The more you think about it that way, you'll jinx it! Aer will pass, and Moyra will pass. There is nothing to worry about, nothing will change.
Even as I told myself this, I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach convincing me that something indeed was about to go very, very wrong.