CSYA Ch3: Testing
#8 of CSYA
Thrax woke up, wearing the orange jumpsuit that he had been given, and in the solitary cell he had been placed into yesterday. That was when he realized that the events of the past few days was not a dream, but a nightmare that had escaped into reality. His parents had abandoned him to this godforsaken place. He was about to cry again when the door opened.
Two guards walked in, one with a collapsible table-chair, and one with a platter of food. The one with the table-chair set it up and the food was placed on it. They left quickly without a word to Thrax. Thrax got up and walked over to the chair and sat down to eat. The food was not what he had expected, sloppy gruel that looked like colorless vomit, but it was actually a decent meal. There where eggs Benedict, bacon and sausage, pancakes with various flavored syrups, yogurt, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. With milk, orange juice, and apple juice to wash it all down with. He ate heartily, The food was amazing, so much so that he wondered why he hadn't come here earlier.
As soon as he was finished the guards, as if on queue, came back in and took away the platter of food. Then replaced it with a packet of paper and two pencils. Thrax looked at what was placed in front of him, it was the promised IQ test that he was supposed to take. He grabbed the pencil and began the test.
There were a variety of questions. Some of them were blatant, while others were abstract. Some were trying to unscramble words. Others were to find the pattern and fill in the missing figures. He answered all the questions to the best of his abilities. He took almost two hours to complete the IQ test, the word scrambles were the hardest ones for him to complete.
Once again, as soon as he was done the guards came back in, but this time there were three of them. The first two grabbed Thrax by the arms firmly - enough so that he could not escape but was not uncomfortable - and told him that it was time to take the PQ test now as the third gathered up the papers.
They all lead him to the elevator, and went inside, pushing the button for the first and sixth floors. The two guards who were holding Thrax lead him out on the first floor as the third one stayed on for the sixth. They lead him out of the building and around the outside to a brick wall that spanned the gap between the two L-shaped buildings. In the center of the wall was an iron door that opened inward.
They lead him through the door, and down the alley between the two buildings of the correctional school. The alley led to a courtyard, which had many areas and equipment for exercise: a running track at the edges of the courtyard, an Astro Turf field for football as well as one for soccer, an Olympic sized swimming pool, a spot for long-jumps, a place for pole-vaults, spots for pullups and areas for many other physical activities besides.
The guards let go of him then, and finally one spoke for more than just a quick word. "For the PQ test, we prefer to have all our students as uninhibited as possible, as in nude. However, being with wings, you will have to wear a harness to keep your wings closed so you wont try to fly away and force us to shoot you down. Any questions?"
"Just one," Thrax replied, "will anyone...?"
"Of course not, there will be no pictures taken of you as you take these tests, nor will anyone judge your looks or lay a finger on you in an inappropriate area," the guard who was clearly the designated speaker answered. He then went over to a series of harnesses hanging on one wall, then returned with one in hand. "Now, if you would be so kind as to strip so we can put the wing harness on you."
Thrax was rather uncomfortable as he unzipped the orange jumpsuit and stepped out of it. But as the guard had said, no-one moved to touch his exposed privates. Once the harness was on him, and the guards made sure that it would keep his wings from opening, but was not so tight as to cut off his breathing or inhibited his other limbs, they put him to the tests. Thrax tried to keep himself calm, as he felt himself getting slightly aroused from being nude around these older guards.
Thrax had to run a mile on the track, with a total time 6:55.56. He had to do pull-ups, doing 55 in a minute. Push-ups were another test where he did 48 in sixty seconds. There were crunches, which he did 73 in sixty seconds. He did a shuttle run, with a total time of 90 seconds. Thrax also had to be able to touch his toes. The last test of the day was a swim test, were he had to swim for ten laps: he finished in 7:58.85.
When he got out of the pool, the guards looked at his test scores as he dried himself off with a towel that had been sitting at the edge of the pool. They were checking the scores of the PQ test, as well as the IQ test since it had been scored and given to them during the physical testing, against a sheet of paper that had the standard scores of all the different placements. The guards must have finished because the one that had never spoken grabbed the orange jumpsuit as the guard that had talked went over to Thrax.
"Congratulations Thrax." the guard said, "You have scored into the best possible section of the school that one can get into."
"Really?" Thrax wondered what the guard meant by "best."
"Yes, now if you'll allow me to undo the harness, you can get dressed."
Thrax spread his arms and the guard went behind him to find the fastenings of the harness. He felt a small prick when the guard touched him, and he grew dizzy. Then he saw everything through a tunnel - he swayed, the guard caught him - and all the world went black.