Test 1

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IAT Schedule

Test 1: 7:30M - 12:00M

Break Time: 12:00M - 13:00M

Test 2*: 13:10M - 3:30A

*The ending time for the second test is subject to change depending on circumstances unforeseen such as major injuries.

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"Wow," I quietly muttered tp myself, "This is going to be a long day."

The Interstellar, Annual Test was going to be almost half of the day. 

Discounting the hour long break, there was going to be nearly 10 hours of testing. 

That is exactly a third of our day devoted solely to testing, that still takes a lot out of the average student.

My school day lasted for 10 hours every single day, and that was a lot for me. It started at 7:00M, 7-hours into the morning, and it ended at exactly 2:00A. Luckily, there were various breaks in between the classes that would last an hour each, but that didn't make the days pass any quicker.

Teachers would talk long enough to break world records on a daily basis, and kids would either be talking with others, or focusing on other things. I, along with many others, focused on sleeping through the verbal torture.

Putting aside the old days of endless torment, I started to get some sleep because tomorrow was going to be the biggest day of my life.

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Early in the morning, at the lovely time of 5:00M, I woke up, and started to get ready for school.

I got into the shower to get myself clean, and I took a 30-minute shower. It was one of the best parts of my morning, so I just let the water run.

After the unnecessarily long shower I quickly gathered my things together, and made myself some pancakes.

I needed to have some fuel in my stomach for the big day.

After I made, and ate breakfast at 6:00M, I started to make the lunch I would eat during the break. I was feeling lazy for this part, so I just made three quick sandwiches.

When I finished all of my daily prep, I headed off to the testing center commonly known as school.

It wasn't a long commute, but it certainly wasn't always an interesting one either.

Sometimes it had a lulling effect, it could've been the way the trees were transitioning into winter, or it could've been the few hours of sleep that brought a lethargic feeling over the entire trip.

When I arrived at the unholy gates, I lazily strode through, and looked around for the entrance.

Every student that I could recognize from the talent test was standing around a door; even the contract kids were there crowding the singular entrance near the gym. 

Nobody would blame anybody for being nervous, but the crowd around the entrance before 7:00M even needed?

It wasn't even 7:00M, it was 6:50M.

We weren't given any extra time, but there weren't this many kids going to school on time before the test was announced.

Whenever I would get to school they would only open the doors 30-minutes before school started, and most of the students wouldn't come until 8:00M, so why would they change their habits for this one day.

They didn't put any effort into their future, so why would they care now?

Instead of joining the crowd, I decided to just enter the school through a different way.

At the back of the school there was an old door.

It wasn't rusty or disfigured in any other way, but it had a small bug, and it was that small bug that would allow a student to get in there if they knew how to finagle it well enough.

Very few people knew how to open that door--I was one of them, so I decided to go do exactly that.

Back in my first year I quite liked school, so I tried to be as nice to the teachers as I could while trying to come off as a total teacher's pet.

Sadly that didn't work.

Along with being the weirdest child in the class, I also learned how to get into school without any help because I was a total nerd.

And as a nerd, I wanted to get to the library because it was a spot to read.

Thankfully, there wasn't anything hard about getting into school.

All you had to do was walk along the side of school until your reach a certain spot; climb up to the first roof; find the entrance door, and show it the backside of your student ID.

It was very important to use the backside because it couldn't see the photo on the front. 

After a round of testing, I concluded that it saw your picture it would realize you were a student.

So if you only showed it your card's backside, it would assume you were part of the school's staff, or something along those lines, but it didn't matter because you would be in the school.

This entrance was typically reserved for ultra nerds because only those people would normally want to get in early, so as I made my way towards my usual climbing spot I didn't see a lot of people.

When I got to the spot I didn't see anybody, so I quickly threw my stuff up onto the roof, and climbed up along the bricks that were slightly jutting out of the walls.

It didn't take a lot of time to climb up the walls of the school because it was an easy climb.

It seemed like they left bricks out for kids to do exactly this in a peculiar order, but I couldn't tell if that was intentional because my school was absolutely trash.

I swiftly climbed up it only using my arms because I needed to warm them up somehow; our uniform was still short-sleeved in the winter time.

While I was climbing I noticed another kid coming over to the nerd entrance, but I didn't care. It wasn't my exclusive entrance, so who am I to care if someone enters.

When I reached the top I found my stuff standing there still like some stone statue. I checked just to make sure nothing was touched or broken, but nothing was, so I picked it up, and moved to the door.

The door still looked pristine, but if you looked closely you could see some new scratches that it got from somewhere. I took off my backpack, and fished around for my ID, while I heard some other people climbing up the wall.

I hadn't used the door in a little while, but I was sure it would work. I pulled out my ID, and walked towards the door. I made sure I had the backside facing toward the scanner, and pushed it against the old thing.

Then I heard a little beep, and I instantly pulled open the door before it could lock itself for some random reason. 

I had the timing memorized from my past expeditions into the school, but even then this door would randomly lock itself right as the beep even entered my ears.

This time I wasn't scammed, and I was able to make my way into the empty halls.

There was just something unsettling about walking into school, and being the only student inside.

The long hallways felt like they could eat me up, but I knew they wouldn't because they only did that to those who hadn't used any ID to get in.

I solemnly made my way toward the gymnasium alone. Despite the decently long time it had taken to get inside, I thought I would be greeted by students swarming through the hall towards the gym, but there was only a single file line instead.

The line wasn't too long, so I just hopped in the end, and waited my turn patiently.

This orderly line wasn't something our teachers could make, and I didn't know how our results would be graded, or if I was even being watched, so I decided to just lie low for now.

Shortly after I joined the line I was at the gym's entrance, and was just asked by a lady, who was running what seemed like a weird security check, to show my student ID.

She was in a weird attire that looked like an old police uniform from before the war, but I couldn't tell. I wasn't all that interested in the uniform's history.

The really weird part was how she seemed to be able to tear me apart. 

There wasn't any evidence for it, but I could just feel her ability to crush me into pieces just from her gaze.

Her steely eyes bore into me like she was a hunter, and I was her prey.

I didn't want to put up any fuss, so I peacefully showed her my ID, and was let into the gym.

When I entered the massive space, I was redirected by a man--in the same uniform as the lady--towards the seats where we had our school's gym class.

The seats weren't part of the floor; instead, they were chairs that went to other classes, and after gym class, we would have to redeliver the chair to their previous classes.

The seats were already packed in the back, so the man told me to go to any open seat that I liked, and I did.

When I got down to seat I wanted, I put myself in the middle of the empty row because I didn't want to stand up to let people through.

Our school, no matter the setting, had always been giving us rows of seats too close to each other. It didn't matter if it was a school assembly, a row by row class, or even government tests like these; the seats were always too close together.

Gradually the seats around me started to fill up; surprisingly, Juliana sat by right next to me once again. 

This time her friends had joined her, and they were all talking about the most random things which seemed to be a little morale boost.

I don't know why they were doing it here when they could have done it outside, or in a spot away from me, but it didn't matter. The old man that was there when we awakened our talents was back, and I could see him and his lackeys walking toward a stage set up in front of all the chairs.

This time he wasn't showing any emotion, and for once he looked like an old man I could respect.

The lady from the entrance had joined the gang onstage, but the man who told kids to choose their seats was still locking the doors behind her.

I set my backpack filled with sandwiches on my lap, and waited for a horrible speech to be given from the old man's probably senile mind.

"Students!" his voice roared throughout the gym, but it didn't echo along the massive, wooden gym; instead, it was forcefully directed toward only the mass of students.

There still didn't seem to be a microphone, or anything controlling his voice, just like the talent awakening.

The students that were nervous and scatterbrained were now focused on the old man, and were waiting for what he had to say.

Interesting, could it be..., I slipped my hand into my backpack with blatant disregard for the old man's speech, and dug around for something. 

I quickly pulled out the glasses I had been given yesterday. Put them on they displayed the talent information from yesterday, so I dismissed it.

I turned my attention to the old man, and waited for the glasses to show me his talent. I had a hunch that I knew what it was.

His voice had been special from the start, and despite his old appearance, there seemed to be vigor within every word coming out of him.

So I patiently listened to his horrible speech as I waited for the glasses to search up his talent.

"I need every bit of your attention for these next few minutes, so we can have a nice, smooth, and comfortable testing process," the old man lazily said. 

"This first segment will be the easiest of what is to come today. You will be undergoing a standardized test that every person does after they awaken their talent. Don't be afraid to show everything you have, because this could be the test that saves you during admission review," he practically groaned.

Unfortunately, he continued his speech, "This is the only moment you will have to prove yourself worthy of a bright future. This is your only chance to change how your live will be lived. This is the one shot you have at realizing your dreams."

"So don't be afraid to try your hardest. Get out there and show me what you've got!" He concluded with a bored tone.

Suddenly, every student started to applaud and created a noise that rivaled a sonic boom. 

Despite the short amount of words, and the lack of enthusiasm in his tone, this speech took over five minutes.

And most of the kids seemed to be paying attention to him.

It was a little odd because it was a really mediocre speech, but I had a reason for it.

During his speech the glasses had come up with the astounding revelation that his voice wasn't his talent.

Instead, it was determined that there was something augmenting his voice, but it wasn't his talent which wasn't a shocker because there are talents that augment others.

So when the glasses said that it wasn't the old man's talent I took a look around at his entourage, and quickly found the person augmenting him.

It was the man from before that had directed kids toward the seating area.

Sadly, the glasses could only find out who was applying the augmentation, yet it didn't show me the talent, but that wasn't a huge issue.

I was only left disappointed.

After nearly a whole minute of applause, the old man spoke up again, "You will now be called up by row. Your row will be assigned to one of the test administrators, and during the test, you will listen to them. After everyone is assigned we will be splitting off to various testing areas that were prepared before hand, and the tests will begin."

Soon after he finished speaking, the rows were all called, and taken into their own groups. Afterwards, the instructors quickly brought everybody over to their testing areas.

The tests we did were ones I had researched last night. In fact, we started with going outside, and doing one of the running based tests like the 100m, and after that, we did a 10 minute run test.

I ended up only getting a 9.99 on the 100m, but I only managed to run 3 miles in 10 minutes. 

An important thing to note about these tests was that we weren't allowed to use our talents' active effects. An example would be if somebody, who had an ability to control fire, took the 100m test, they wouldn't be able to use fire, and propel themselves down the track. Another example of cheating would be using your healing ability on the 10 minute run. The healing effect would continue to provide high levels of energy throughout the ten-minutes.

Simply put, if you used your talent, you were disqualified on the spot.

The test administrator was noting down every result, and probably some other things that they needed to record, and they were supposed to be stoic, but our's wasn't.

Whenever somebody did something stupid, or awesome his face would give it away.

He was in the same old uniform that all the other lackeys had, but he was wearing dark glasses that covered the upper half of his face. But even with a semi-covered face, he was expressive.

There was a group we passed by on the way to a test, and one of the men in the group tried hitting on their female administrator, and he was promptly put into submission. Our administrator was giggling the whole time, but after a look from the female administrator, he put a stoic expression on his face. 

There was also another funny moment when I finished my running tests. Despite his best intentions, when I got the 9.99, he looked flabbergasted. After a second, he recovered his stoic expression, but throughout the 10 minute test he looked as if he was seeing some new species of Ihron.

When Juliana did her tests his look was even more bizarre. She ran the 100m in a lightning fast 10.37, and in the 10 minute test she ran 2.5 miles.

Halfway through her run, his face just shut down.

Juliana's friends were also pretty good, but they were a little bit off of Juliana's level.

As a whole group they averaged around 10.42, and 2.4 miles.

Needless to say, our instructor was shocked nearly every time Juliana or I took a test, and that continued throughout all of the first testing segment. 

We didn't only do running, but even for the boring part of the day, it was sluggish.

You could only get so excited seeing a person run laps, or punch wood, and yes, we had to punch wood. 

It wasn't fun at all.

Instead of being able to just pick the hardest board that we thought we could break, we had to make our way up from a flimsy board to the amount of board that would stop us.

I was able to break the hardest board they provided which was the equivalent to four regular planks put together, but I felt I could have broken one that was equal to five.

Other than the Juliana and her friends, none of the other people in our group were anywhere near my level, so most of the time it was just watching the occasional good performance, but it was overshadowed by all the horrible performances.

Thankfully, nothing unexpected happened during the first few hours, and everything went smoothly. We even finished early, and when everybody in our group had finished, the break started.