The knuckles of her hand were white as she clutched the handle of the grappling hook. It was her first time she had ever taken the actual physical test. Before this it had been all friendly, computer generated simulators. Now she was actually in front of the testing wall, grapple in hand, prepared to scale the 50 foot monstrosity.
Taking in a deep, shaky breath, she fired the hook up toward the top of the wall. With a dull thunk, it hit its mark, and she pulled back on the contraption to test the strength of the cord. Taking another deep breath, she jumped up toward the wall while pressing the retraction button, drawing her upward. She pushed her feet out and bounced off the wall. She jumped again, repeating the process.
Eventually, she overcame her nervousness and felt at home gliding fairly smoothly up the wall. When she reached the top, she rang the bell and let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Her instructor, Ms. Hue, called for her to repel back down, and she flicked the switch to release the cord.
She slowly made her way to the ground the same way she came up, bouncing off the wall. When she reached ground level, she was greeting with clapping and cheering. She was the first one of her class to climb the wall, and Ms. Hue seemed to be impressed. "Well done, Ms. Forester!" were her greeting words as Emily reached her instructor to take her evaluation paper.
She made her way through the students to a quiet bench on the side wall of the gym to look at her paper. Top marks. That was good for Emily, especially since she was miserable at the physical activities which, unfortunately, are many when you go to a school designed to train spies.