The Untouchables

The Test

I woke up with a gasp. For some reason, my heart was racing and my mind was reeling. I was drenched in cold sweat, the sheets tangled around my legs. All I could remember was a man in a tuxedo slowly walking towards me in my dream. 'No, not a dream. A nightmare.' I told myself.

After a minute or so, I leaned back until I was lying down on the bed again, going over the schedule for the day until I was sure it was permanently etched into my brain. I knew I shouldn't have felt this nervous about taking a Government-issued Test, but just the thought about taking it made me feel...uneasy.

"Lightning, get up, get up, get up! Wake up, sleepy head! Time for school, time for school! Today's the day! Last day of school, last day of school!" I heard my best friend, Maggie, yelling at the top of her lungs while jumping up and down on my bed.

"Ugh, do you have to be so loud at this time in the morning?" I groaned, pulling the pillow over my head in hopes that it would block out some of the noise.

"Nope, not an option. You look like a mess, and we only have," Maggie paused, checking her watch. "About half an hour left before school starts." I looked over to my clock and saw that she wasn't joking.

I sighed, stretching my body and standing up, my feet hitting the cool floor refreshing me as my body gradually began to feel warmer. " Alright, alright, I'm getting up now." I yawned, grabbing some clothes and a towel before heading into the bathroom. 'Maybe a cool shower will help for once...

~

As I took a step out of the shower, I began to hear what sounded like Maggie singing faintly inside of my head, almost as if she were a part of me. I shook my head, the singing suddenly fading. 'You imagined it. It was probably nothing.' I thought to myself as the steam from the shower slowly began to disappear from the mirror.

I quickly threw on a pair of basketball shorts, an over-sized t-shirt, and a pair of beat-up Converse that were fading from black to a weird blue-gray color. I brushed the knots out of my hair while brushing my teeth until they were visibly clean and my mouth was tingling.

Just as I was about to grab a few tangerines for a breakfast on-the-go, I began to get a dry feeling in my throat that only water could solve. Desperate to fulfill my need, I ran to the kitchen sink and ducked under the faucet while turning on the tap, gulping the water down until I was sure that I was out of breath.

"You know, we have those water bottles we bought for this very reason." I turned off the faucet and craned my neck to find Maggie leaning against the counter next to me, holding out a water bottle and waving it in my face. Looking on the ground, our backpacks were on the floor next to her feet, leaning against each other in a way that prevented them from falling over.

I wiped the water from my mouth, standing upright to face Maggie. "My throat had this weird, dry feeling to it." I explained, squeezing the water out of the ends of my dark brown hair. "Did you turn on the heater? Or is it just me? It's hot in here!" I began to tug on the collar of my shirt, grabbing my backpack as I leaned against the kitchen counter.

"It's the same temperature as it's always been, you're probably just hot or dehydrated from taking a hot shower or something, now come on, we have to leave now or else we're not going to get to school on time." Maggie replied, waving my comment off as she picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulders.

By the time that we got to school, we could see that everyone was dressed identically to each other. While the girls wore dull, gray-lined, pale blue dresses, brown ballet flats, white knee-high socks with their hair pulled up into perfect buns, the boys wore pale blue and gray plaid collared shirts, black ties, light brown slacks, and black dress shoes, their hair neatly groomed in various styles that gave them a sense of sophistication.