Smart

Not Mundane

It had been three days since my mom went bonkers and told me to sneak out of the city illegally. And I assure you, that was the last thing I expected her to suggest. It was also the day of the Spring Festival, which meant it was the first day I could see Tag since Johana discovered him in my room.

We all got into the back of our smart-drive car, all of us being my parents and I. Terrik had his own smart-drive car for his family, and Johana rode with Assic's family, to her dismay. I didn't care. I was going to be free.

At the fairgrounds, the car dropped us off and my parents immediately migrated to the GMO showcase tent. Such nerds.

I went to a cotton candy stand, handed the man fourteen ration stamps with my ten dollars, and got two bags of blue cotton candy. Tag walked up next to me and I smiled, handing him a bag.

"How's Spring been?" Tag asked. "Hope I didn't cause too much trouble."

"No, nothing happened, thankfully," I said. "I have something to tell you, but not here."

"Okay," Tag said. "I know the place."

He led me to the edge of the fairgrounds where a patch of trees grew together. The perfect hiding spot.

"My dad won't let me transfer," I started.

"I know that," Tag said. "Do you want me to say too, and see if we can get the same day when we're twenty-one?"

"No, no of course not!" I laughed tensely. "Anyway, my mom wants me to go. So much so that... She's going to fake documents for me to go."

"Whoa. Ellie breaking the law? Not possible."

"I know it sounds crazy, but she's serious," I said. "Once I get out, the city can't do anything."

"But you'll never be able to go home," Tag said. "They'll be able to arrest you if you come back. I get to go home as much as I need."

"Exactly," I said. "But then I can have a job, have a place to live without my parents, have a life longer than twenty-two years. That's all I need."

"Well, you've got a lot of work to do," Tag said. "In Itex, stuff isn't just given to you based on some test. You have to work for it."

"Work for it? What do you mean?" I asked. "Like make money and buy things?"

"Yes, but not only that. You have to find your own job, pay for your own food and utilities, and if you want a family, gosh! There are so many things you have to do alone."

"Alone," I said, pondering. "Then where do you start?"

"You get a job and a place to sleep. Here," Tag said, whipping a guidebook to my Mind-Sphere. "This is all the basics to all the weird things they do in Itex."

I opened up the document in my Mind-Sphere and started reading. At first, it looked bad. Itex's laws were drastically different from Diego's, for starters. But that wasn't it. The more I read, the more horrified I became.

In Diego, generations of smart (read genius) people had devised the perfect, hassle-free society run by people who were average (read normal smart). Then they started to weed off the people who weren't smart, like me, but somehow, I still popped up.

In Itex, none of this existed. It was like the old world. You got your own job, and the money you made from that job payed for everything. Money was livelihood, not luxury. And I had no idea what skills Itex needed.

"Are you okay?" Tag asked, staring at my mystified face.

"Yeah," I said. "Well, I guess I have a lot to prepare for if I'm going to do this. I mean, I kind of have to."

"Yeah," Tag agreed. "Hey, why don't we go see a tent? I mean, it is Spring Festival."

I shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

As we walked to an electronic mania tent, Tag explained to me what he was going to do in Itex.

"So electrical engineering's your thing?" I asked. "You're not that good at math, though."

"The requirements are so low, we could sleep through it and still make 85 percentile," Tag said. "Not saying that finding something to do is easy, but once you've found it, it's easy to get in."

I nodded. "Okay, that doesn't sound so bad."

We walked into the electric-blue electronic mania tent. Inside, a robot ticket collector greeted us. I fed in six dollars for two tickets.

"So, what do you think you want to do?"
Tag asked as we walked into the exhibit. "Genetics, like your parents?"

When I was a really young child, genetics fascinated me. The blueprints for all carbon-based life. Tinker a little and you get a whole new species. But when we actually took classes on the stuff, they'd always moved too fast, and I was always one-step behind, the concepts – and the grade – just out of reach.

I shook my head. "Never been any good at it."

"Come on," Tag said, stopping. "I know how hard you try in that class. You really want to learn it for real, don't you?"

I shrugged. I guess. "But I'm never going to get it."

"No, Amery, that's not true," Tag insisted. "The schools here teach way too fast for you, but you've been able to keep up with an 80% average. That's all you would need for Itex."

"That's it?" I asked. "You mean–"

"With the grades you get here, twelfth grade in Itex will be a walk in the park at summer time."

We walked into the first exhibit, a gutted android without a shell. She smiled at me. At least, I recognized the output as a smile, if she had a face.

"Can you tell me what Alexa is saying?" a man asked, money jangling inside the box in his hands. I put in two dollars.

The android clicked and tag listened intently. "The only thing to fear is fear itself," Tag deciphered. The man tried to hide his disappointment and failed.

"Good job, young man," he said, handing Tag four dollars. "You're the first this year."

Tag smiled. "Thanks." We moved on.

Exhibit after exhibit, all I thought about was potential. The potential I could have in Itex. When we exited, it was already lunchtime. By then, I'd decided what I was going to do

"Life in Itex isn't going to be mundane at all, is it?" I asked.

Tagsmiled. "Not mundane atall."