She had been hiding it for years. Always being smart enough to excel, but average enough to not make an impression on strangers. It was a delicate balance. Her revealing moment had to be perfect. When she was less than a year old, she was aware of the monitor sitting at the back of her neck. By the time she was a year and a half she had learned how to control her own thoughts so that the first layer, the layer she was sure they could understand in some way, never gave away her brilliance while she used the second layer to think freely.

Petra was not at all surprised when an officer of the International Fleet appeared at the door of her family's home. When the door opened, however, she was still relieved to see that it was not Colonel Hyrum Graff standing at the entrance. Yes, Petra knew who he was. She knew that he only came to Earth to recruit the absolute stand-out children. Having somebody other than Graff at the house meant that she hadn't been noticed. Not yet anyway. The officer at the door was Major Anderson. He was Graff's second in command so his presence still meant something. Petra would have to look into that as soon as he left.

Papa was the first to speak to the man. "Who are you?", he asked in common so the man would understand his words.

Mama quickly followed up with, "And what do you want here?"

Petra heard the man reply, "Your daughter sir. She is old enough to be tested and we do not want to waste time, so here we are."

"Do as you will, we both know it will happen anyway. Choose a room, we still remember the procedure." Papa didn't sound angry. He never sounded angry as far as Petra could remember, and she remembered everything that happened during her five years of life.

"Petra darling, please come meet this nice man," called Mama, "He would like to converse with you for a few moments.

Anderson couldn't help but comment on Mama's words. "You call to her as though she were older than five years. Why is that?"

At that, Mama put on her lecture face. "We do not pretend that our daughter is average. We've known from the beginning that she was born intelligent."

Petra found it was time to speak for herself. She entered the room speaking. "Isn't that why you're here, sir? To see if I am wise beyond my years? To see if I understand more than would be expected of others my same age? You're searching for the brightest stars of humanity's children and you've come to see if I am one of them."

Anderson looked bored with her words. Was it possible that he already knew everything about her? Even the one thing she fought most hard to hide? No. This was just what he had been trained to do. Show no signs of emotion towards the children he was sent to work with. "Young lady, I am here to administer a test. Nothing more, nothing less. You, however, are entitled to think whatever you want."

"I'll take your test," Petra replied as though she had a choice, "but only because I want this moronic device removed."

The Major acted as though he had not heard her.

Petra followed him into Stephan's baby room. She was somewhat disappointed in the Major for choosing such a room. If he expected her to do her best thinking in a smelly and uncomfortable environment then he clearly did not know most children. Although Petra already knew it would not phase her. But maybe, just maybe, the horrible environment was the exact reason it had been chosen. Congratulations Major Anderson, you've proven not to be a complete idiot after all.

For the next few hours, Anderson asked her a series of questions. Pointless questions that she knew were really just designed to observe a person's mental state. She answered honestly. These were not questions designed for intelligence. Her answers seemed to surprise the man. If a friend tried to take something that belonged to Petra, she would demand it back. If the item was not returned to her, or not returned in a timely manner, she would go on the offensive. She would bring the slimy weasel down until he knew to leave her alone. If he stole from her then they were clearly not friends.

Is there ever a right time to hurt somebody else? That seemed like an exceptionally stupid question to Petra. Didn't she just demonstrate that there was? Yes, she answered. If the person did something to hurt her in anyway or hurt somebody that she cared about then yes, it would be a right time to hurt somebody else. She thought about it further. If anybody got hurt in any way, shape, or form, that she knew without a doubt was undeserving of someone's ill-will, then the offender would be hurt.

Major Anderson clearly looked more puzzled than he realized, but this was fun for Petra. She was able to be honest about something for once. Even her parent's wouldn't have been given the truthful answers. He handed her a booklet. The written test. One more step. She had to analyze the questions so that she could get the perfect score for what she wanted, and what she wanted was in. Arithmetic, words, logic questions, memory work. All things that Petra enjoyed.

If you have eight balls, all equally sized, but with one heavier than the rest, how would you determine which one is heaviest while only using a scale twice. You are unable to tell which ball is heavier in any other way than the scale.

She pretended to contemplate the question for a while even though the answer was apparent to her from the second she read that she could only use the scale twice. Clearly she would have to weigh the balls in two groups of three first. Not use all eight of the balls at once like Petra knew many people would want to do. If the two groups of three were an even weight, then she would weigh two from the heavier group. If one of those two were heavier then she would have her answer. If both of the two were the same weight, then the ball left out would be the heaviest. If neither group of three were heavier then it would be one of the two balls left out of the eight and she would simply have to weigh them and see which one was heavier.

Anybody could have figured that measly question out. Well, maybe not, but those were the people Petra didn't want to be around.

This test had to be perfect otherwise she would either draw too much attention to herself or run the Fleet off of her trail forever. She finished the test quickly but she felt an eternity pass before she finished it. After her answers were scanned, it was mere moments before Anderson received her results. He contemplated for a moment before he announced, "We have one more test to conduct. We're going to need a DNA test before I leave today."

This confused Petra. There was no record of DNA testing in any of the Battle School's files. She considered refusing and telling the man to leave, but that would ruin all she had worked for and all that she had just endured. She would comply. Petra was going to do anything and everything she wanted to. This was just what she had to do to get there.

Major Anderson left without giving her any more information. She didn't know if she passed or failed. Left waiting for now. The circumstances were unusual. He should have told her before he left, given her time to say goodbye to her family or the knowledge that she would stay with her family. All she knew was that it was time to do some research.