It was strange. All her life she had felt that she was nothing special. Sure, her parents had bragged on her intelligence, but what parent didn't think their kid was a genius. She had worked hard in school to get good grades, but still flew under the radar of the other kids and teachers. She had seen how the "smart kids" were ostracized and wanted no part of that life. She was happy being seen as average. Her grades were exactly where they needed to be to get into the best schools without showing off. She knew she couldn't handle the rat race the top three percent of the class lived in. She didn't do well with extreme pressure. So, she dumbed-down her test scores and life was happy.
How was she to know that some simple on-line IQ test was a trap? It has just been a simple pop-up with funny shapes, asking which of the following answers fit the pattern. She had been bored, and none of her friends had been online to IM that evening. So, she had clicked the link and headed into what she assumed was an anonymous quiz on logical reasoning. The quiz allowed her to answer a few questions, and save out of it if she got tired and wanted to come back. She assumed it was one of those "keep your brain active" types of websites, and simply had fun. She knew no one could tell who she was from her answers, so she didn't pull her punches, and answered everything correctly.
It had been an enjoyable evening of mental exercise, and she decided to bookmark the site and come back to it at a later date. It never occurred to her that if it really were just an advertisement, that the information wouldn't be saved. She never even thought of that because her friend had called on her cell phone and she closed the pop-up window to deal with the drama de jour.
Almost a week later, she sat down to her computer to enter the information in an application for one of her prospective colleges. When she had started truly searching for colleges, she had done more research than most career services centers of post-graduate degree schools. She had stacks of statistics on entrance exams, average scores, and career placement after graduation on at least the top 50 colleges within a 200 mile radius. She wasn't really interested in the hype and prestige that some colleges had attached to their names. She was more interested in practical application. She knew where she wanted to be and had to find the best avenue to get there. Her short list was narrowed down to five colleges that could help her succeed in her chosen career field; or should she say 'fields.'
For in truth, although she was very focused and precise about how she intended to reach her goal, her actual goal was still fairly equally torn between medical research and law. She truly excelled in any medical related course and knew that she could find ways to solve medical problems, and maybe find cures to all sorts of diseases. The only problem was she was terrified of having someone else's life in her hands. What if she messed up? What if the one day she had stayed up late, and hadn't had enough caffeine, she was faced with a choice between two options, and she made the wrong choice? What if her inattentiveness cost someone their very life? What if she was researching a cure for a terrible disease and took a day off? Would that one day cost some poor suffering patient their life because she had been a day late in finding that solution?
So, the more she had researched the medical field, the more she came to realize that she might not be up to the challenge. She knew intellectually, she could handle the career. She was sure she was smart enough. What worried her were the emotional and psychological ramifications. Her friends had always warned her that she was too kind. She not only wore her heart on her sleeve, but on her whole body. So much so, that her friends had begun a rumor that she was actually empathic, and could feel another's pain. In a way it was true. Even though her life had been fairly tragedy free, she could honestly sense the feelings of those around her. Sometimes, she even equated it to being able to smell their sorrow.
This vulnerability brought her to the inevitable conclusion, that she probably could succeed in the medical field in the short-term, but long-term it would kill her soul. So, with that in mind, she had started searching for an alternative interest. Little by little, law had emerged as an interesting, fluid field of study that intrigued her. It wasn't as cut and dry as Social Studies and Civics class made it seem. It also wasn't as glamorous as all the made for TV. dramas and movies made it seem. Law was about knowing what was right, and finding the precedents to support ones arguments. If fit with her personality. As a child, when she had tried to tell her scientist father that he was wrong on a subject, her opinion was dismissed until she brought documentation to prove her point. She had developed her skill in persuasive arguing as well as researching her issues.
So, as she considered colleges, she looked first at which would help her become a lawyer, then secondly, which might offer some courses in her second passion, medicine. She had prepared all the essays that all the college applications required, as well as securing the letters of recommendation needed for some of her choices. All that was left was the actual process of applying. It was funny how some colleges had a single page application, where others expected her to produce a novelette about her entire life.
She worked on one of the longest applications. It had always been her practice to do the longest project first, so she could get it out of the way and forget about it. So, after spending an hour filling in blanks, and running back and forth between her Mom and the computer to get vital information, she felt mentally drained. Just when she was about to quit and call it a night, the pop-up reappeared about the "keep your brain active" quiz she had started a week before.
With a relieved sigh, she minimized the college application; afraid if she closed it she would lose all the entered data and have to start over. Someone really needed to fix that about Adobe™ documents. The first question where she resumed the quiz was so simple it almost didn't even seem like a question. She smiled as she clicked the obvious answer and moved on to a slightly tougher question.
Time slipped away as she focused more and more of her reasoning skills on the problems. They would get progressively harder, and then would slack off to something simple. She recognized the pattern in the back of her mind, but didn't really pay it any attention. It was like the computer programmed exercise bikes in gym class that they used on rainy days. The programs would make the riding harder as if the cyclist were riding up and down progressively larger hills.
It was long past the time her Mom had called goodnight to her and admonished her to get to bed. Even if the next day was Saturday, her friends would be over at an ungodly early hour to "hang out." She had long decided that humans were pack animals by nature and felt uncomfortable without the protection of their "herd." Yes, she knew she was weird to think these things, but she had spent too many hours people-watching not to notice these trends. She had always felt just a little bit like an outsider looking in on these strange creatures that surrounded her.
As it neared midnight, the quiz questions seemed almost unfathomable. She frowned in concentration, and pulled the chapped skin off her bottom lip. Her eyes began blurring and she had to blink quickly to clear her vision. It was only then, with a feeling like she had woken from a deep sleep, that she became aware of her surroundings again. How had so many hours gone by without her noticing it? She looked out her bedroom door at the hallway to see that the rest of the house was eerily dark and silent. The only light was a small nightlight that shown into the hallway from the bathroom.
With a brisk rubbing of her weary eyes, she laughed at herself and turned to prepare for bed. The movements were routine, and required no thought at all. She had actually slid into the sheets and turned off the lights when she realized she had left the computer on. For just a second, she thought about getting out of her comfy, warm bed and trekking across the room to shut it down. But then, sleep pulled her farther into its clutches, and she shrugged and rolled to face away from the glowing monitor. She didn't want to lose all her college application information, so she decided to just leave it on for the night. What could it hurt?
As she slept, unaware, the hard drive on her computer began to whine. The activity light on the keyboard began blinking as more and more of the available function was being used. The occasionally blinking light flickered faster and faster until it was a steady blue glow. The fan in the back of the computer cycled on to try cooling the over-heating processor within the machine.
As the screen darkened after being idle for the set amount of time, a small box appeared in the task bar nestled at the bottom of the screen. The message, "transmission in progress" appeared for barely a second. A moment later the message, "report received" flashed. A minute later, the task bar flashed, "Pathway deleted." Then the entire screen went black to be filled with the screen saver of small white dots that simulated a streaming star scene or snow falling towards the computer.