Gifted and Talented

Chapter 3, Roleplaying

After finishing the math section, there was a section that Cara had never seen on any test before. It was titled "Roleplaying". The first question said "Pick an element". There were four choices, with four letters next to the choices, like a typical test question. The four choices were fire, water, earth, and air. What was the correct answer? Cara had no idea. She thought back to the title of the section, "Roleplaying". Could it be that this wasn't a question, but the beginning of some sort of role playing game? She had seen her brother playing those before. In that case, there was no right answer. Cara flipped to the next page to see if that would give her any insight. To her surprise, the rest of the pages in the Role Playing section of the test were blank. She went back to the first question in the section, and circled fire. Immediately, words began to materialize at the bottom of the page.

Fire. Good choice.

Cara almost jumped out of her chair. A second ago the bottom of the page had been blank, and now there were words, words that seemed to be personalized to her answer! This could be possible to do, taking into account the fact that there were only four choices, but it seemed unlikely. Below, more words began to appear:

Question 2: You have the power to manipulate fire. How did you discover your ability?

This question was not multiple choice. Beneath the question were several lines for writing down an answer. Cara thought for a bit, and then wrote down:

I discovered my power while camping with my family several years ago. We were sitting around the campfire, roasting marshmallows, when I accidentally tripped over my brother's leg, and fell on my face, right into the fire, which was at its hottest. I lay there, in a state of shock for a second, until my mother grabbed my arm and pulled me up out of the fire. My hands had come in contact with the coals for a good second, and I didn't have a single burn on my body.

After Cara finished, more words appeared on the next page.

Interesting story, is it true?

Cara replied, "No."

Are you sure?

Cara had never been very creative, and she had never been very good at writing convincing fiction. This short story seemed to come come naturally, as if it were true, but she had no memory of ever having this happen. Besides, that was impossible.

Very flustered, Cara scribbled "Is this all a scam?" on the page.

The response was only four words long.

Magic is real, Cara.

Maybe this was all a dream. Maybe she'd wake up any second and be back in Connecticut, and go back to her ordinary life. She hoped not. Cara had so many questions, and wrote them all down on the test, hoping it would give her answers. Nothing happened. Even after waiting several minutes, the test had not changed. Very annoyed, she moved on to the next section on the test, only to find that the english language and science sections  had vanished.

"Cara Goldstien?" One of the test supervisors walked over to her and took her test. "Please follow me."

Cara followed thee supervisor into a small room, where a young woman was seated at a desk.

"Do you know any magic, Cara?" She said.

"I know a couple card tricks," Cara responded.

The woman laughed, "I mean actual magic."

"I'm not magical!" Cara protested, "The only thing remotely magical that's ever happened to me happened today!"

"What about that time you went camping several years ago? That doesn't strike you as out of the ordinary in any way?"

"You mean that story I wrote about in the test? But that was fiction!"

The woman laughed that laugh again, "It's so funny how people black out events they don't want to remember! Give me your hand, Cara."

Cara stuck out her hand, and then the woman, with lighting fast movements, pulled the  fire poker out of the fire place, and touched it to Cara's hand.

"OW!" Cara jumped, holding her hand in pain.

"Take a good look at your hand," the woman said.

Cara looked, and found that her hand looked completely normal, in fact, it wasn't even red.

"You did go camping Cara, you just blacked it out of your memory. Don't worry, you're not the only person I've known to do this."

Cara was in shock. She tried to speak, but no words left her mouth.

"You have extreme resistance to fire, although your power may go beyond this as well." The woman continued, "That's what you will be spending the next four years accomplishing here at Reed." 

Just then, the door opened, and a man poked his head into the room.

"Are you done with the debriefing? Miss Goldstien's room is ready."