We all hold our breath. Yes, eventually we all will go through those doors, but nobody wants to go first and nobody wants to be last.
The male nurse takes a list from his pocket and begins to read the names.
"Sofia Johnson, Emma Smith, Olivia Jones, Amy Jones, Brad Scott, Jacob Nile," Jacob gets up and follows the people filing into their 'appropriate doors', The nurse calls out two more girls and four more boys. He then tells us to wait in Silence. I look over at Ariana and she has tears in her eyes. Of course, she and Jacob are a thing. Personally, I wouldn't do something like that in a time like this, but you can't tell almost-16-year-olds off for being almost-16-year-olds. I open my mouth to say something comforting but no words comes out so I end up giving an awkward pat on the back.
About 15 minutes later the nurse comes back out and reads out twelve more names. Lily is one of them, so when only eleven people get up a worried expression crosses the nurse's face. He shakes his head and walks out the door that we all came in through. Since I'm at the back I can almost make out the conversation the the nurse must be having with security.
"Yes, she didn't turn up... Contact her parents,"
The guard's voice was too quiet for me to hear anything, but when the nurse came back in he had a poker face on so I couldn't even imagine what the guard had said.
Another 15 minutes pass and this time my name is called and not Ariana's. I get up feeling light headed. I almost stepped through the door marked male but quickly realised just before it was anything noticeable. The room I walked into was dimly lit with two little desks set up and cream coloured curtains sit wrapped around them to create some privacy. A short female nurse walked over to us and gave us a big smile.
"Is Sam here?" She looked around and then saw a tall, slender girl step forward. The female nurse introduced herself to Sam and then guided her over to one of the desks. Then the male nurse was back and he called my name. He gave me a small encouraging smile as if to say 'It'll be alright'. When, no, it most likely won't be alright, and yet I return the smile. Where it came from, I don't know. He guides me over to the other desk and sit me down opposite to where he will sit, drawing the curtain around the desk
"My name is Ethan, hello... Uh," He looks down at his papers, "Danni. I'm sorry I should have remembered that, I just called it out!" He smiles at me again. But this time no smile is returned.
He's manipulating you, Danni. I tell myself. He wants you to trust him, but in truth he's probably just another rich kid who got through the system because his parents knew someone on the board.
"Alright then, not much of a talker hm?" He says to me, not expecting an answer. "Then lets get straight to it. Please state your full given name." He looks up from his papers expectantly this time.
"Danni Lucinda Vergara." I state in my blandest voice possible.
He goes onto the computer that sits to his left and clicks three times before facing me again. "Please hold out your left hand." I do, and he grabs it tightly. He then pricks my pointer finger, and a squeak is released from me because it hurts. He pretends not to notice and dabs the blood that escapes my finger onto some paper. Then he gives me some bandage that has been soaked in a rubbing alcohol of some sort.
Then he says that I am number 675 and gives me a navy blue T-shirt that has that number on it. he tells me to put it on so I slip it over my grey T-shirt. I'm told to stand up, I do. Then I'm measured in height, I'm weighed, then he snaps a photo of me to have it on record. Then I'm dismissed. That's it. A security guard leads Sam, (who appears to have finished too) and I out a black door on the other side of the room. Everyone who was called out earlier is in the room behind the black door, the room is pretty much the same as the first one that we were in, except the walls are blue. I let out a sigh of relief when I spot Jacob, I run over to him and sit down. We are okay. Now we just wait for Ariana to step out of the doors.
Once we all are in the room, Ethan hands out pencils and slips of paper with questions on it. "These are here to determine your future so I would be very honest if I were you, there will be no talking during this as the answers are to reflect you alone. You may begin."
DO YOU PLAN ON GETTING MARRIED? What does that have to do with anything? I look around the room and everyone is heads down, thinking of the best answers on how to stay alive. I look back down on the test. I guess, maybe? Probably not, I mean, I don't really think about stuff like that, but I believe that this is a trick question. - They want the future to be a positive place with happy people in happy relationships. So whether or not I want to get married doesn't matter, I write 'yes' as that's what they want you to write... right?
IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING IN THIS WORLD, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Again, I would take away the fact that you kill 16-year-olds every year to reduce the amount of our carbon footprint on this Earth, but that's not what they want to hear. I would make sure that there was a greener future for the future generations. I think that's what they want to hear.
The questions continued on like how many kids do you plan to have, on a scale of one to ten, how healthy would you say your lifestyle is. Most of the time I lied about my answer, but they seemed convincing enough. We are finally able to go back home to await for the letter that really does, define your future.
