Scoring Potential

Isabel's confident smile wavered for a moment before returning to her face. "Fine! I might as well set the bar high for all you losers to try and measure up later." She taunted a couple of her friends with pokes and jabs before stepping to the front of the room.

Mr. Chiron looked at the two men installing the chair and sighed, "Isabel give me more than 15 seconds to plug the chair in please." Isabel smiled the kind of smile that makes fathers spoil their daughters rotten, "Sorry mister Chiron I didn't mean to inconvenience you." Chiron being well versed in this game of hers frowned and then turned to his left before sitting in his beaten up chair that sat behind a desk with towers of paper flowing from it. Chiron efficiently pushed all the papers off the counter into a garbage bin next to his desk and then reclined his feet on the desk. "This is really my favorite day of the year because I just get to watch my hard work pay off." Ralnas smirked before softly muttering, "you mean OUR hard work."

Finally, the two men succeeded in getting the chair set up before one went into the hall and brought a pillow to sit on. "Mr. Chiron is there a special meaning behind the pillow?" Jenira asked. "What? Oh uh no not really, we just discovered that the chair is actually really uncomfortable to sit in last year so I brought a pillow from my house for you to sit on. Don't worry I already tested to make sure it doesn't affect potential on myself. I stayed a solid 678 the entire time."

Jayce raised his eyebrows hearing this and looked up from the spirited kickball game that was happening in the courtyard between some of the younger students. He turned his head to Micu and saw a similarly surprised expression on his face. Raising his hand and calling out before being acknowledged he asked, "Mr. Chiron you're only a 678?"

"Well I used to be 680 but I haven't trained as hard for the last two years and as you can see my potential has slipped. If I were to dedicate myself to working out I'm sure I could get back to my old score but at this point, I don't see much reason. Plus if you kids get cocky about having a higher score than me I can always forget to read your name off at graduation tomorrow." Chiron grinned with a glint in his eyes and the students could tell he'd thought about doing this before. "I'm also old so my potential is pretty much going to only go up or down a few points. Yours, on the other hand, can go anywhere from here. Last year we had a girl who scored a 550 and now she's peaking at 710 after working her socks off with a lower league team. She's planning on entering the capability exam again two days from now. Just like a lot of you I reckon."

He then smiled and put his feet back under the desk before pulling out an official-looking piece of paper with the initials C.E. on the back. "I will have to write down all scores of those of you planning on entering the exam so if you want me to record it just let me know after you get your results back. Any other questions?" he glanced around the room, "No? Okay, then Isabel if you will do the honors."

Isabel grinned with anticipation and climbed into the rather odd looking chair with wires jutting from every direction. The two men attached a variety of monitoring devices to her arms and back of her head before wrapping a slender belt around her waist. "It shocks you ever so slightly, this belt is just so you don't hit your head on anything." One of the men said. Isabel nodded before twisting in the chair and taking a deep breath. Chiron asked her if she was ready to go which she responded to with a nod. One of the men flipped a switch on the back of the chair and a bright blue light flashed from the chair. "Ouch!" Isabel slightly jumped from this and then straighten back up to force herself to relax. The chairs light went from light blue to dark blue and then finally violet and then shut off. Isabel smiled and climbed down from the chair. Chiron sat up and pulled a pencil out from a drawer in his desk.

A robotic voice hummed to life and then uttered, "755 potential score" then went silent. The class clapped and cheered for Isabel who daintily courtesied and returned to her seat. "Would you like me to record your score, Isabel?" Chiron asked from the front. "I would, thank you Chiron, err, Mr. Chiron." a beaming Isabel responded.

Jayce sighed and thought to himself, "If the top-ranked person in our class is only 755 then what hope do I have of being noticed by the elite team..."

Chiron smiled and then recorded her score. "Okay, everyone, the chair needs about a minute to recharge in-between uses. Consider this class a low-key day and let's keep things fun. I brought some snacks to pass the time."

Chiron dug through his desk and pulled out a box of cookies, three bags of pre-popped popcorn, a couple bags of Doritos and a small basket with various fruits. The students stood up from their seats and congregated around the cookies trying to ensure that they all got one before they were gone.

Chiron laughed and glanced at the two men who gave him the thumbs up. He called up the next student and continued the process the rest of the morning. By lunchtime, there was a mix of students anxious about their score, students who were buzzing with glee after scoring high enough to compete in the capability exam and those who had seen their dreams smashed to bits with a low score. Friends comforted friends who were down, celebrated with the happy ones and mingled throughout the other classes sharing gossip about who scored what.

In their typical sunny corner, Jayce ate a piece of celery like it was made out of glue. Each bite took him minutes to chew and his eyes seemed like they were about to turn completely white and roll out of his skull. Jenira teased him, "Jayce you're going to score highly why are you so worried?" He looked at her with the fear of death hanging over him which caused Jen to recoil slightly. "Jen isn't it strange that none of us have been called up yet? Do you think it's a conspiracy?? What if Chiron knows I have a bad score and is saving me for last to get revenge on all those times I pretended to skip class?!?! I'm such an idiot I've ruined my own life forever!" Jayce wailed and then let his head sink into the cafeteria table with a "thunk".

Jenira turned to look at Ralnas and Micu with pleading eyes. They both looked at each other then back to her before both making a break for the bathroom to not have to deal with their friends' rapid mental collapse. Jenira sighed and just put her arm on Jayce's back and rubbed it in a show of support.

None of the others would admit it but they also found it strange that not one of their group had been called up yet and it was starting to stress them out. They knew that they would cheer for each other even if they didn't all score high enough to get scouted by a high-level team but they had been planning to enter the Capability exam together since they had become friends in year one. To do it as a trio or even a duo would seriously mess with the life plans they had mapped out during boring lectures or on cold days that kept them indoors.

The bell rang for classes to resume and for those in the forgotten class that hadn't been called yet it seemed like concrete blocks had been tied around their legs as they ambled back to class.

Chiron was smiling when they entered and announced to the class, "So far your class is 15% higher in overall potential points than last years. And there are only six of you left to be tested so even if you are all merely average then you will only decrease that overall percentage by 4%." Chiron was obviously beaming about this and was quite proud of his gains even in only one extra year of training. His mind was already imagining the leap in prestige that his school would receive when he announced these results. He could already see the next generation of heroes giving interviews after winning championships saying "It was all thanks to Mr. Chiron!" Coughing to bring himself back to reality he looked over the class and noticed the six yet to be called had all turned as white as ghosts. "What did I say?" he wondered.

Jayce heard the words "merely average" and his heart stopped right then and there. He almost fainted from his seat and had to grab both sides of his desk to stop himself from collapsing. His mind repeated merely average again and again as though he was being attacked from all sides by some evil spirit. After a couple seconds, he gasped as he realized he had been so stunned he hadn't been breathing before violently coughing.

Most of the students in the room laughed figuring that Jayce was playing another one of his jokes on their professor. Jayce sheepishly grinned and then brought himself back to the present and breathed deeply before reminding himself Chiron hadn't explicitly said that they were average only that he didn't mind if they were. Turning his head he looked at his friends and noticed they had probably gone through a very similar ordeal to the one he had just experienced. Laughing along with the class now Jayce pretended it was a joke and forced himself to relax.

Chiron still looked confused about what had just happened but shrugged it off as nerves and then went back to his list of students to call up. "And next we have the lovable Jenira, miss Marrow would you please take your seat at the chair?"

Jen stiffened then stood and walked to the chair with her head down, as though she was going to be beheaded at a guillotine. She slid into the chair and forced herself to breathe deeply as the two men applied the measurement equipment to her body. One whispered to her, "It's okay miss, I promise it won't be the end of the world before winking at her." She smiled and raised her arms so they could wrap the belt around her as she prepared to hear her fate.