RQ results.’
Everyone is exchanging glances, nervous thoughts ticking over behind their eyes as they sift through their words and actions over the last few days.
‘Once you leave here today, speaking to anyone about the conduct of the RQ this year breaches the rules and will result in failure. An Implant block will be put in place to prevent inadvertent slips. So now it is time to go and pack your things; transport home has been arranged for everyone. Be ready to leave in an hour. Final test results and placements will be sent through to all of you next week.
‘Good luck!’
We trickle out, go back to our rooms to pack, then wait out front for transport. Gecko’s school is the first to go. He runs over, gives me a quick hug, and is gone. The loss at his absence is sharp. I’ve only known him for what: three days? It feels longer.
Everyone is talking about the RQ while we wait. Many are incredulous that they aren’t being given an actual test; more are nervous how they’ve done, evaluated when they weren’t even aware of what was going on.
Was that gunmen episode all part of this test by stealth?
At least they were all where they were supposed to be yesterday, not hiding out on a balcony. At least they didn’t breach an instruction with the express penalty being RQ test failure. Rafferty may be trying his best to convince them my reasoning was good.
But I don’t need luck. I need a miracle.
Refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position; denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd.
Annie Besant
15
The door opens as I walk up to it.
‘There you are! How did it all go?’ Sally says.
‘Let me in, and I’ll tell you,’ I say, and she moves out of the way. I come in, dump my bag on the floor and pull the door shut behind me.
‘You’ve not looking happy.’
‘I don’t think I did very well. Results are coming next week. All right?’
She shakes her head, arms crossed. A look on her face that says she expected nothing better. ‘I hope you did everything you could to do well, I really do.’
‘But you don’t believe it, do you? So what does it matter?’ I look around the room and realise what is missing. She’s usually here this time of day, humming in a chair in front of the vid.
‘Where’s Nanna?’
‘In her room. She’s not been that bright while you were away.’
Before she finishes the sentence I’m already halfway up the stairs to Nanna’s door. It’s locked? I grit my teeth and enter the code. She’s in bed, eyes closed.
‘Nanna, Nanna – it’s me, it’s Luna.’
She stirs, doesn’t open her eyes.
Sally follows me in.
‘I’m sorry, Luna. The doctor isn’t happy with how she’s doing. She really needs care all the time now. Your father and I feel that—’
‘No. You are not putting her in an institution.’
‘But Luna—’
‘No. I’ll look after her. I shouldn’t have left her to you.’
Sally shakes her head, and leaves.
I stay with Nanna all afternoon. She stirs a few times; her eyes open and look at me at one point, and she smiles, but doesn’t really wake up.
It’s early evening when Jason opens the door. ‘Mum says to tell you dinner in five.’
‘That gives us time to talk. Did you miss me, monkey?’ He comes in a few steps but then stops, hesitant. ‘It’s OK. Come in. She won’t bite. But I might!’ I grab him in a headlock, twist him around, and he giggles.
‘We need to have a serious word,’ I say, and let him go. ‘Do you go to school with a boy, second name Taylor? Older sister Jezzamine?’
‘Yeah. That’s Ollie. Why?’
‘Did you tell him about Nanna? About how she freaked out the day Melrose was here for lunch?’
He doesn’t say anything, but his face says it all. I sigh. In a twisted kind of way, I’d almost hoped that Jezzamine was lying. Now I know how wrong I had things with Melrose, and it really hurts to think how awful I was to her. I should have believed her, shouldn’t
Everyone is exchanging glances, nervous thoughts ticking over behind their eyes as they sift through their words and actions over the last few days.
‘Once you leave here today, speaking to anyone about the conduct of the RQ this year breaches the rules and will result in failure. An Implant block will be put in place to prevent inadvertent slips. So now it is time to go and pack your things; transport home has been arranged for everyone. Be ready to leave in an hour. Final test results and placements will be sent through to all of you next week.
‘Good luck!’
We trickle out, go back to our rooms to pack, then wait out front for transport. Gecko’s school is the first to go. He runs over, gives me a quick hug, and is gone. The loss at his absence is sharp. I’ve only known him for what: three days? It feels longer.
Everyone is talking about the RQ while we wait. Many are incredulous that they aren’t being given an actual test; more are nervous how they’ve done, evaluated when they weren’t even aware of what was going on.
Was that gunmen episode all part of this test by stealth?
At least they were all where they were supposed to be yesterday, not hiding out on a balcony. At least they didn’t breach an instruction with the express penalty being RQ test failure. Rafferty may be trying his best to convince them my reasoning was good.
But I don’t need luck. I need a miracle.
Refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position; denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd.
Annie Besant
15
The door opens as I walk up to it.
‘There you are! How did it all go?’ Sally says.
‘Let me in, and I’ll tell you,’ I say, and she moves out of the way. I come in, dump my bag on the floor and pull the door shut behind me.
‘You’ve not looking happy.’
‘I don’t think I did very well. Results are coming next week. All right?’
She shakes her head, arms crossed. A look on her face that says she expected nothing better. ‘I hope you did everything you could to do well, I really do.’
‘But you don’t believe it, do you? So what does it matter?’ I look around the room and realise what is missing. She’s usually here this time of day, humming in a chair in front of the vid.
‘Where’s Nanna?’
‘In her room. She’s not been that bright while you were away.’
Before she finishes the sentence I’m already halfway up the stairs to Nanna’s door. It’s locked? I grit my teeth and enter the code. She’s in bed, eyes closed.
‘Nanna, Nanna – it’s me, it’s Luna.’
She stirs, doesn’t open her eyes.
Sally follows me in.
‘I’m sorry, Luna. The doctor isn’t happy with how she’s doing. She really needs care all the time now. Your father and I feel that—’
‘No. You are not putting her in an institution.’
‘But Luna—’
‘No. I’ll look after her. I shouldn’t have left her to you.’
Sally shakes her head, and leaves.
I stay with Nanna all afternoon. She stirs a few times; her eyes open and look at me at one point, and she smiles, but doesn’t really wake up.
It’s early evening when Jason opens the door. ‘Mum says to tell you dinner in five.’
‘That gives us time to talk. Did you miss me, monkey?’ He comes in a few steps but then stops, hesitant. ‘It’s OK. Come in. She won’t bite. But I might!’ I grab him in a headlock, twist him around, and he giggles.
‘We need to have a serious word,’ I say, and let him go. ‘Do you go to school with a boy, second name Taylor? Older sister Jezzamine?’
‘Yeah. That’s Ollie. Why?’
‘Did you tell him about Nanna? About how she freaked out the day Melrose was here for lunch?’
He doesn’t say anything, but his face says it all. I sigh. In a twisted kind of way, I’d almost hoped that Jezzamine was lying. Now I know how wrong I had things with Melrose, and it really hurts to think how awful I was to her. I should have believed her, shouldn’t
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