Disclaimer: No, I do not own the Mysterious Benedict Society. That is all Trenton Lee Stewart's. I'm only a fan.
I got the idea for this story the other day... It was fun to write and I hope you'll enjoy it! Please feel free to review.
Venna nervously stood at the doors of Monk Building, unable to build up the courage to walk inside. The thirteen year old girl anxiously twisted her single pencil and single eraser around in her fingers. The warm, mid-April breeze caught loose strands of her flaming red hair. She glanced at her clock. 12:55. At the last test, she had been told to arrive at Monk Building no later then one o'clock; though try as she might, she was unable to overcome her nervousness and walk through the heavy wood doors.
She took a tremendous breath. What did she have to worry about? The first test had been a cinch, and Venna was confident she could easily pass the second test just as she had the one prior; she was a very bright young girl. Other children began to arrive, and they passed into Monk Building as if they hadn't a care in the world.
"I can't do this!" Venna thought, and she was about to turn around and walk home when she heard a loud burst of laughter from down the street. She and the handful of children shuffling around her looked to see whose laughter this was.
What Venna saw most certainly surprised her. Walking down the sidewalk headed towards Monk Building was an unusually tall girl dressed in a most spectacular fashion. She had waist length blonde hair that fell over her shoulders like a curtain. She wore a long, lavender colored bubble skirt and ripped fish net stockings. She also had on an oversized leather bomber jacket, and large, black, spiked combat boots. Her round face was mostly covered by a wide brimmed floppy hat, but upon closer inspection Venna saw she was wearing quite a bit of bright orange lipstick. And perhaps the strangest part of the girl's outfit was the fire truck red bucket clipped onto her belt.
The odd girl was cheerfully talking with another smaller girl who looked utterly bored by the former's banter. "Watch this, Connie-Girl!" The taller girl said excitedly. She began carelessly tossing her pencil up into the air and catching it. 'Connie-Girl' rolled her eyes and walked into Monk Building.
"What on earth is she doing?" Venna thought as the strange girl continued to toss her pencil into the air.
"Oops!" The girl cried as her pencil slipped from her grasp and fell into the storm drain at her feet. She looked incredibly upset and completely hopeless upon losing her pencil, and Venna pitied her. The other children, not wanting to be late, simply passed the poor, reckless girl as she gazed longingly into the drain.
Venna walked up to her. "Do you need any help?" She asked.
The strange girl looked up, and her bright orange lips spread into a large smile. "Sure!" she said, before adding, "If you don't mind. I was just walking along when my pencil slipped from my fingers and landed in the drain. The wind must've knocked it out of my hand, or something."
Venna leaned over to get a better look into the storm drain. "Hmm..." She muttered, peering into the murkey darkness. "I might be able to get it if I had the necessary equipment... Say, what's in your bucket?" She asked.
The taller girl popped the bucket flap open. "Oh, just about anything you'd need: string, super glue, a flashlight, a swiss army knife, a slingshot..." she continued to list the various objects, pointing them out in their designated pockets and pouches.
"I might be able to retrieve your pencil then!" Venna said excitedly. She began to work, and within a few moments, she had assembled a pully operated hook and latch system. Venna carefully steered the contraption into the storm drain, latched onto the pencil, and quickly reeled it back to safety.
"Wow!" The odd girl shouted. "That was amazing! Thank you so much! What's your name?" she asked.
"Venna Packson," Venna replied, smoothing her hair. "And it was no trouble."
"I still appreciate it. My name is Kate Weatherall, by the way. But you can just call me the Great Kate Weather Machine for short." Kate then looked around, to make sure nobody was watching, and then realizing the coast was clear, she said, "Since you helped me, I have a copy of the answers for today's test. It's yours, if you want it."
Venna couldn't believe her ears. Who was this girl, and how had she gotten all the answers? Venna contemplated whether or not to accept Kate's offer. What if they were the wrong answers? But then again, they could be the right answers, and is so they would garuntee Venna a shot at those special opportunities. But finally, Venna knew she couldn't cheat. She didn't deserve special opportunites if she was a cheater. And what would her grandmother say if she found out?
Kate extended her hand and opened her fingers to reveal a folded piece of paper. Venna, tempted as she was, shook her head. "No, thank you," she said politely.
"Are you sure?" Kate tempted her. "I hear the test is very tough."
Venna still declined, more confident now.
"Okay," Kate said with a shrug. She turned around and began to walk into Monk Building. "Well, I don't want to be late. Good luck, Venna!" she said before entering the heavy wooden doors. Venna took one last deep breath, and followed Kate into the building.
~::~
Venna walked into the testing room at exactly 12:59. There was one seat left, in front of Kate. Venna scrambled towards it and sat down just as the test administrator, a tallish man who looked to be in his mid-20s with average brown hair and average brown eyes and an average amount of freckles scattered across his face, entered the room. He looked to be around the same age as the administrator of the previous test, a skinny, anxious man with roung, wire-rimmed spectacles and a perfectly bald head.
"My name," the young administrator said. "Is Mr. Muldoon, and you will address me as so. There is to be absolutely no talking. If you are caught talking, you will be assumed of cheating. If you are caught cheating, you will be escorted out of the building at once. Any questions?"
None of the children made a peep, except for Kate who yawned loudly and stretched her arms. Mr. Muldoon began listing off the directions for taking what he described to be an extremely difficult test. "Any questions?" he asked. "No? Very well. You may begin the test as soon as you recieve it." He began to pass out the tests, and Venna watched in horror the other children's reactions. The first young girl fainted, the boy after her turned a sickly shade of green and ran out of the room. The third girl to recieve the test quite literally fell out of her chair. When Venna finally recieved a test copy, she was terrified to see the horrors it held.
And oh, how horrible it was.
Upon reading the first question, all hope of special opportunites flew from Venna's mind. The majority of the words in the questions she had not a clue how to even pronounce, let alone understand. Venna's eyes welled with tears of frusteration as she read question one over, and over, and over again.
And then the strangest thing began to happen. The more she read the question, the clearer the answer became. She she continued to read, it was as if her insticts were telling her, "B! Just pick B!" Venna didn't know whether to trust the feeling or not; although, her grandfather had always told her to follow her instict, and in this case it was the only thing she had to go by. Venna went through the rest of the test, reading the questions and choosing her answers based on her gut feeling.
Venna was nearly halfway through the test when Kate rose, and skipped up to the front of the room to turn in her test. The other children looked at her with an expression of bitter jelousy and wild bewilderment. "Of course she finished so quickly!" Venna thought. "She had all the answers!" She watched to see if the instructor would be suspicious of her cheating. Mr. Muldoon, however, showed no signs of suspicion. In fact, when she dashed up to hand it to him, he looked rather amused.
As Kate passed Venna on the way back to her desk, she winked, and ropped a tiny slip of paper, the test answers, onto Venna's desk, just inches away from her fingers. Venna eyed the slip of paper, and then glanced at the clock. She only had fifteen minutes to take the test, and she was only on question eighteen! She'd never get finished at this rate!
She contemplated this for a moment, and then lightly brushed the answers off her desk and onto the floor. She didn't deserve special opportunities if she got they by cheating.
In the last quarter of the test, Venna worked wildly to get it completed. She racked her brain, reading the questions over and over until the answers came to her. At last, just as Venna had marked her last answer, Mr. Muldoon called time. Her fellow children in the room moaned in despair, having not come close to completing the test.
The children stacked the tests onto the brown eyed instructor's desk, most of them weeping bitterly. The room was completely silent as Mr. Muldoon graded their tests, except for Kate who yawned boredly and flipped her bucket lid open and shut.
"I will now read the names of the children who will advance to the third stage." Third stage? The administrator cleared his throat. "Venna Packson!" he called, and Venna lit up. "And that is all."
The other children cried out in despair as they shuffled out of the room. "Congrats!" Kate called to Venna. She seemed incredibly cheerful, despite having failed the test, and Venna couldn't help but wonder if she had sabatoged herself. "And good luck," Kate said. "You'll need it!"