"Come on Aer! It's already eleven and we need to meet up with Moyra in an hour and a half for lunch."
"Five more minutes..." I mumbled to my brother as I raised my pillow to cover my head.
Something feels off.... I thought to myself as Lus walked across my cluttered room.
There was a noise and sunlight streamed into the room past my now open curtains.
"No can do sis. You said that twenty minutes ago when I tried to get you up." He said as he flopped into my beanbag chair pulling his phone out, the sunlight turning his hair almost gold.
I made a mental note to draw that someday, and got up, remembering the previous nights fun. All the dancing, music and random conversation. Then I remembered. Remembered what was giving me an off feeling.
"Hey, Lus?" I said as I pondered my previous thought.
"Yeah?" He answered, preoccupied by something on his phone.
"Do... Do you happen to know anyone, uh, I don't know, slightly taller than you, dark hair, defined facial features.... A guy?" I said, slightly nervously, although I was confused as to why.
"Hm? Oh no, why?" He said, completely engrossed with whatever he was doing on that wretched device.
"Uh, oh no reason. Just wondering. Anyways," I said ending the previous conversation, "I need to get dressed so you're going to need to skedaddle."
At this, he put his phone down and gave me an odd look.
"What's up with the original word choice?"
"Would you believe I decided to start using vocabulary originating from the eighteen hundreds?" I said making a face.
"No," he said laughing, "but now I'm curious."
"Too bad, there's nothing to be curious about," I said, hiding my face behind my hair inconspicuously.
"Alright then, see you downstairs in twenty." Lus said as he left the room, shutting the door behind him.
I let out a huge breath of relief, glad he didn't try to press the subject, and suddenly realized just how sore I was from the night before. Groaning, I realized that it was going to be a long day.
• • • • •
We were all supposed to meet in the park, and Moyra was there first, she always is. "The bench" was always our meeting or safe place when we were younger for games, and as we got older, our place to just hang out.
"Remember when we took that picture here? On our fourteenth birthday, in the snow..." I asked Lus, taking off my headphones and wistfully trailing off.
"Yeah, that's one of my favorite pictures of us." He said looking ahead at the bench with Moyra already sitting on it, staring oddly at the envelope in her hand.
She noticed us and waved us over.
"Hey." I said as I walked up, sitting beside her, Lus on her other side.
"So," Lus said,getting straight to the point, "how're we going to do this?"
"I was thinking we could do it one at a time, to get rid of any possibly of confusion." Moyra suggested.
"Great idea," I said, feigning my light, airy tone, "I think you should go first, you've been waiting for us for so long it's only fair."
Moyra gave us each a quick nervous smile before looking down at her envelope. She slowly peeled open the seal and pulled out the letter on the inside, and sucked in a breath.
"Guys I just want you to know, that whatever happens, we'll all be okay." Moyra said with a new confidence that wasn't there before. "Nothing could ever bring us apart. Even if one of us does get sent out, so what? We'll call and text, it'll be fine. We'll be fine."
At this, she took a deep rattling breath and opened the paper.
"I...I...I..."
"Spit it out!" I said jokingly.
"I...I did it! I passed! IQ of one hundred and nineteen!" She squealed jumping up and down crazily.
"Moyra, we knew you'd do it, congratulations," Lus said, "but now I'm getting excited so would you guys mind if I...?" He gestured towards his own pristine envelope.
"Go forth, brother!" I said as he began to ravenously tear his envelope open.
He stared at the paper with complete and utter joy.
"Oh my gosh, I passed too! IQ of one hundred fifty-three!"
Moyra hugged him, but I sat back a little, worrying for myself.
"Okay Aer, now it's your turn." Lus said, looking at me with an eager look in his eyes.
"Alright, just one second." I replied, and as I opened my envelope, in the nervous watch of my best friend and brother, I memorized the moment.
Plucking the letter out of the envelope, I knew immediately something was off.
There are more words..... Why does mine have more words?! Breath.
I thought to myself as I began reading the letter.
To Aeron Katsouros:
We regret to inform you that your test results were indeed just short of the limit.
IQ=99 IQ Needed to Pass=100
In the rest of the letter, we have provided you with all of the information you will need regarding the Farms, your journey there, and what to -and not- to bring.
My heart dropped, and I sucked in a breath.
"No..." I whispered, the blood draining from my face.
"Aer? Aer, what's wrong?" Moyra said quietly. I didn't answer.
"Aeron, answer us. Aer? Aer!" Lus said, becoming frantic.
I dropped the letter, and he grabbed it from me, crying out after he read it.
"Aer, no. No. You can't go. No. Aer!" Lus said now angry. Moyra covered her mouth and gasped, understanding now what happened.
"Lus! Calm down, it'll be ok remember what I said earlier, we'll be fine!" Moyra yelled attempting to calm Lus down as I continued to sit in silence.
"NO! You don't understand! It won't!" Lus screeched crushing my letter still in his hand and throwing it to the ground.
"It won't..." He furiously muttered one more time with his hands on his head before turning and running
"Lus!" Moyra screamed, before finally leaving too, visibly holding back tears.
"No..." I whispered one more time into the emptiness. I was alone.
YOU ARE READING
Below Average
General FictionThey said below averages would be sent to The Farms. They said we would have a normal life once our IQs went up. They lied. They say that the people we call below average are sent away. But we hear the screams. We hear their screams as their breat...
