p style="text-align: center;"Chapter one/p
p style="text-align: center;"The Aptitude Test/p
p style="text-align: left;"I cannot control my thoughts. They are suffocating me, drowning me. I am so nervous, today was the day of my test, and I am scared out of my mind. Everybody says it's no big deal, and that it's supposed to tell us what we already know. I am Candor but, by tomorrow evening I could be something else. I will be something else. There is only one thing that I'm sure of at the moment, and that is that I am not staying. No matter what the aptitude test says I must leave. I cannot tell the truth every day for the rest of my life. I especially cannot go through this initiation. I would be under the truth serum. I wouldn't be able to lie my way through life anymore. My secrets would be gone forever./p
p style="text-align: left;""Brooke! Over here!" My best friend Hazel called me to sit with her. It was such a huge relief to finally talk to her again. I wasn't allowed to see her, because she had been grounded for the past week. Some kids thought she had lied to them, and told her parents. Her parents were true Candor people, and without even asking her what happened they grounded her. /p
p style="text-align: left;""Hi!" I said, trying to hide the fact that I was sweating buckets. "Are you nervous?" I asked the second that I sat down./p
p style="text-align: left;""Well Duh! Listen," she said. "I need to tell you something. I am- I just- It's not like-" She stuttered./p
p style="text-align: left;""It's okay," I said, while trying to sound reassuring. "Just tell me."/p
p style="text-align: left;"She sighed, "I'm not staying in Candor, I just can't." She frowned./p
p style="text-align: left;""And you think I am? Come on! I thought you knew me. I can't handle this place any more than you can." She looked relieved./p
p style="text-align: left;""Can you promise me something?" She asked?/p
p style="text-align: left;"I was confused "Yeah, what?"/p
p style="text-align: left;""Can you promise me that we won't forget each other? If we go to different factions? I'm just afraid I'll lose you."/p
p style="text-align: left;""I don't want to lose you either." There were tears in my eyes, as I remembered Rachel. She was my best friend before I met Hazel. We used to be next door to each other, but then she moved. She made friends with her new neighbor, and before I knew it, she had stopped visiting and calling, so that she had more time to call her new friend. Eventually we stopped talking entirely. It was a long slow painful process as she was ripped away from me by this stranger. I started to be more independent. More like myself. That was how I met Hazel. She had gone through worse than me. Her best friend had some sickness that neither of us could pronounce, and died. When I was with her I felt like I could be more like me. I felt like she was a part of me that was impossible to let go of. Like I couldn't live without her./p
p style="text-align: left;"They called people in one at a time. She went before I did. It felt like days before she came out. When she did she looked better. Still nervous, but better. I counted the number of people that went in after Hazel, but before me. Every 5 minutes one kid came out and another one went in. One... Two... Three... There were sixteen people in between me and Hazel. One boy fainted when his name was called. It took another 5 minutes to get him to take the test. That means that It was an hour and 25 minutes that me and Hazel waited. We didn't say anything. Then my name was called. "Good luck!" She said. I nodded back./p
p style="text-align: left;"I walked into the dark room where an Amity man greeted me. "Hello, I'm George." He had dark skin, and short black hair. He was very large and had big muscles. I compared him to me. I had pale skin, and long brown hair. I was very short and skinny with almost no muscle at all. I sat down it the large chair, that was hooked to a machine. I was so busy taking in all the small details of the room that I almost didn't see him try to hand me the glass. It looked like it was water./p
p style="text-align: left;""What is it?" I asked quickly. He didn't answer. "What is it?" I repeated./p
p style="text-align: left;""You're supposed to drink it." I swallowed it all at once. We waited, and waited, and waited. He fiddled with the machine. He had a very confused look on his face. He went into the room that was conjoined with the one I was in. I waited ten minutes. When he came back he fiddled with the machine and left again. When he finally came back again he said. "You are Candor." /p
p style="text-align: left;""No, that can't be right." I protested. "Please can we try again?" He sighed./p
p style="text-align: left;""They don't know what you are. You resisted the serum. You are everything." /p
p style="text-align: left;""No, please just give me an answer!" I panicked./p
p style="text-align: left;""You will be fine, but you musn't tell anyone. This hasn't ever happened before." I was shaking even more than I was when I had entered. I took a deep breath. As I was walking out he said, "Just be careful what you choose tomorrow." /p
p style="text-align: left;"I walked out and almost left without Hazel. All I could think was: emWhat am I? What am I? What am I? /em/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p style="text-align: center;"The Aptitude Test/p
p style="text-align: left;"I cannot control my thoughts. They are suffocating me, drowning me. I am so nervous, today was the day of my test, and I am scared out of my mind. Everybody says it's no big deal, and that it's supposed to tell us what we already know. I am Candor but, by tomorrow evening I could be something else. I will be something else. There is only one thing that I'm sure of at the moment, and that is that I am not staying. No matter what the aptitude test says I must leave. I cannot tell the truth every day for the rest of my life. I especially cannot go through this initiation. I would be under the truth serum. I wouldn't be able to lie my way through life anymore. My secrets would be gone forever./p
p style="text-align: left;""Brooke! Over here!" My best friend Hazel called me to sit with her. It was such a huge relief to finally talk to her again. I wasn't allowed to see her, because she had been grounded for the past week. Some kids thought she had lied to them, and told her parents. Her parents were true Candor people, and without even asking her what happened they grounded her. /p
p style="text-align: left;""Hi!" I said, trying to hide the fact that I was sweating buckets. "Are you nervous?" I asked the second that I sat down./p
p style="text-align: left;""Well Duh! Listen," she said. "I need to tell you something. I am- I just- It's not like-" She stuttered./p
p style="text-align: left;""It's okay," I said, while trying to sound reassuring. "Just tell me."/p
p style="text-align: left;"She sighed, "I'm not staying in Candor, I just can't." She frowned./p
p style="text-align: left;""And you think I am? Come on! I thought you knew me. I can't handle this place any more than you can." She looked relieved./p
p style="text-align: left;""Can you promise me something?" She asked?/p
p style="text-align: left;"I was confused "Yeah, what?"/p
p style="text-align: left;""Can you promise me that we won't forget each other? If we go to different factions? I'm just afraid I'll lose you."/p
p style="text-align: left;""I don't want to lose you either." There were tears in my eyes, as I remembered Rachel. She was my best friend before I met Hazel. We used to be next door to each other, but then she moved. She made friends with her new neighbor, and before I knew it, she had stopped visiting and calling, so that she had more time to call her new friend. Eventually we stopped talking entirely. It was a long slow painful process as she was ripped away from me by this stranger. I started to be more independent. More like myself. That was how I met Hazel. She had gone through worse than me. Her best friend had some sickness that neither of us could pronounce, and died. When I was with her I felt like I could be more like me. I felt like she was a part of me that was impossible to let go of. Like I couldn't live without her./p
p style="text-align: left;"They called people in one at a time. She went before I did. It felt like days before she came out. When she did she looked better. Still nervous, but better. I counted the number of people that went in after Hazel, but before me. Every 5 minutes one kid came out and another one went in. One... Two... Three... There were sixteen people in between me and Hazel. One boy fainted when his name was called. It took another 5 minutes to get him to take the test. That means that It was an hour and 25 minutes that me and Hazel waited. We didn't say anything. Then my name was called. "Good luck!" She said. I nodded back./p
p style="text-align: left;"I walked into the dark room where an Amity man greeted me. "Hello, I'm George." He had dark skin, and short black hair. He was very large and had big muscles. I compared him to me. I had pale skin, and long brown hair. I was very short and skinny with almost no muscle at all. I sat down it the large chair, that was hooked to a machine. I was so busy taking in all the small details of the room that I almost didn't see him try to hand me the glass. It looked like it was water./p
p style="text-align: left;""What is it?" I asked quickly. He didn't answer. "What is it?" I repeated./p
p style="text-align: left;""You're supposed to drink it." I swallowed it all at once. We waited, and waited, and waited. He fiddled with the machine. He had a very confused look on his face. He went into the room that was conjoined with the one I was in. I waited ten minutes. When he came back he fiddled with the machine and left again. When he finally came back again he said. "You are Candor." /p
p style="text-align: left;""No, that can't be right." I protested. "Please can we try again?" He sighed./p
p style="text-align: left;""They don't know what you are. You resisted the serum. You are everything." /p
p style="text-align: left;""No, please just give me an answer!" I panicked./p
p style="text-align: left;""You will be fine, but you musn't tell anyone. This hasn't ever happened before." I was shaking even more than I was when I had entered. I took a deep breath. As I was walking out he said, "Just be careful what you choose tomorrow." /p
p style="text-align: left;"I walked out and almost left without Hazel. All I could think was: emWhat am I? What am I? What am I? /em/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
