Fight With Fire

22

A hush travels through the theatre like a wave would travel through the fans at a sports event. A professional looking woman has stepped up to the microphone. She has straight red hair pulled back into a high ponytail. She looks no more than 5 years out of placement. Everyone is seated in the velvet chairs of the theatre waiting for the awards ceremony. The woman scans the crowd with slightly narrowed eyes before addressing the crowd.

"Hello everyone, I am Carly Roy of the council and I am pleased to welcome everyone to our first awards ceremony." The name rings a bell and I am hit with a realization. The stiff woman in front of me is the most powerful person in recent history. Carly is the girl who sat in a plain room for hours on end barely moving her year of testing. The head of council had recently died and she was nominated right out of placement. "I would like to congratulate everyone here for their completion of testing this year. There are a few honorable mentions before your examiner will congratulate 1 person. Now," Carly pulls out a small piece of paper and unfolds it, "Please stand when I call your name, save your applause until the end." Carly reads the names on the paper quickly. "Alexandra McDonald, Jack Wilson, Adrian Adams, Finn Rodriguez, Harley Davidson, and Grant Jackson."

I watch as these students hesitantly stand up. Alex, the impressive Oari from testing is smiling as her friends pat her arms encouragingly. The others have similar reactions with two exceptions. Finn stands up with a bored expression. He runs one hand through his blond hair almost lazily. Someone give him a pair of sunglasses and a leather jacket already and he would fit the role perfectly. Then he sees me and gives me one of those heartbreaking smiles which I can't help but return.

I look for Adrian and I find in a back corner hiding in the shadows. Although he is standing, he is slouching so much that he isn't even a full head taller than everyone sitting. The clapping stops and they all sit down. Carly leaves the mic and John steps forward.

"Hello, I'm John Louis and I was your examiner this year. Before I announce anything, I would like to apologize to anyone who is frustrated with the process of testing this year. It was not meant to inconvenience anyone but instead to challenge you to think differently than you do here. Because after placement you will be forced into a situation much different than you are used to. Now I could lecture you about your future or I could give out this award. Now there is one person who understood the testing better than I did. So could I bring Ella Sanders up here?"

I freeze in my chair as everyone's eyes stick to me. There is no applause. Just silence as I make my way up to the stage. I try to make the same expression as Finn did when he stood up. Almost as if I have no care in the world. I reach the bottom of the stairs and that's when the shouts start. It starts with one faceless protest and turns into a chorus of shouts as I walk toward John on the stage.

"What about the Flier?"

"Give it to the 1st ranked!"

"She is just an Oari!"

Protests go through my ears and start to spin in my head. The scary thing is that the loudest voices are the ones in my head. I agree with every word I hear. I should not be the one up here.

"Everyone calm down!" John tries to calm the crowd. Finn stands up and starts yelling as well.

"Everyone shut up. She deserves this award and you guys are all just jealous! What are you trying to accomplish from these screams?"

"We want the Flier." Every turns trying to figure out who the voice belongs to. A shadows gets up from the back and starts walking down the aisle. "That is what you want right? What you guys are wasting your voice on?" Adrian looks up to me and starts speaking louder making sure everyone can hear him. "Well where are you? The legendary Flier that is hiding from everyone?" Adrian says this sarcastically pretending to look around and even looks under a row of seats. Everyone remains silent and Adrian nods like he was expecting this.

"What makes this person so great? That they are rare? That they are alone? That they can hide from you?" Adrian puts his hands to his cheeks, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Oh my god they know how to wear extra clothing. Oh my god they are actually smart enough to fly where no one can see them." Adrian stops and coughs a few times into his sleeve. "Is he or she even real? Wouldn't that be funny if they don't exist?" He laughs bitterly.

"Some say that this Flier must be a huge coward to hide. Or really selfish for keeping everything to themselves. But who freaking cares? We are all hiding something! We are all scared! So stop obsessing over someone because they are mysterious. Go find another mystery to solve and just acknowledge what is in front of you."

He says this last comment pointing at me. If only he knew wrong that statement is. Everyone is silent as they take in these words. Adrian is keeping eye contact with me. I am so focused on him that I don't notice John move back to the microphone.

"Because it seems that you are all so set on justification, I have a few questions for you guys." Everyone looks to John as he starts talking except Adrian and I who are still staring at each other.

"How many of you had personal questions in the interview that you answered completely honestly?" His question snaps me to attention and I break eye contact with Adrian. John looks around the room and a little under half the people in the audience raises their hands.

"Okay, now how many people knew, after the interview, knew that you were still being observed?" John looks around again and all the people who Carly mentioned raise their hands. John nods.

"How many people knew or figured out that I was your examiner during testing?" No one moves. In testing he introduced himself to me so it is unfair to complement me on knowing this.

"Now, how many of you saw Ella in the room after the interview." Now everyone raises their hand. I see a lot of surprised faces as they notice that everyone is raising their hands. John just smiles and motions for everyone to put their hands down.

"Now many of you are confused. Ella figured everything out and even understood my motives for having the testing the way I did. Then she did something that does not happen very often." John pauses waiting so that everyone is with him. "She surprised me. She asked to stay. Everyone left and she stayed in that chair all day. I didn't understand why until I realized that she was helping you. Some of you could have been stuck in the room all day but Ella made sure that no one was there for more than an hour. Everyone that figured out that testing wasn't over, whether you realized it or not, was encouraged or helped by Ella."

John motions to me and steps back leaving all eyes on me. Finn stands up and starts clapping. Others follow and the sound bounces off the walls deafening me. Finn smiles and cups his hand around his mouth cheering. I smile and stumble at the praise.

This is one of those moments where everything escapes me. That giant ball of thoughts disintegrates. I can almost imagine myself, centuries before, standing on a stage like this, being praised for a performance. Whether I was singing or dancing or acting didn't matter. What mattered was that I was doing something I loved and that there were people in the audience I knew that were cheering the loudest.