Prologue
I rub my eyes and sit up. Where am I? The floor feels hard and intimidating, and when I sit up the surroundings feel much the same. I seem to be in some kind of barn, or lofty building. But that's not the strangest thing. There's nothing. No sound, no props, nothing. Only me and the barn.
By now I've established that I'm in a hayloft of what seems to be an ordinary horse barn. I slowly climb down the steel ladder and alight onto the ground with a slight thud. There aren't any windows, but there are doors. Walking quickly I throw my weight against the cold doors. They open slowly, no creaking, groaning, or squeaking. I shield my face from the warm sun and step out into the world.
Chapter One
The day started seemingly ordinary. Nothing was amiss as I grabbed my backpack, yelled "bye" to my mom, slammed the front door, and ran to the bus stop. Nothing seemed strange either, as I rode the bus to school and headed toward my homeroom. But here's where things started to get interesting. My name was written on the whiteboard in blue dry-erase marker with another half-dozen names of fellow seventh graders. My homeroom teacher clapped her hands and made the announcement. The selected few who were specially chosen were to report to the science lab at one o'clock, no exceptions.
One o'clock rolled around, and by the bell rang, the seven of us were gathered in the lab, waiting. Six other faces I had seen nearly every day for the past eight years.
Molly, the soccer player, funny, with bright red hair. Meg, never categorized, but well liked by everyone. Jenna, the basketball-playing math genius. Sam, the boy I had liked since fifth grade. Adam, popular, but nice. And John, quiet, reserved, but got along with everybody.
I knew all of them, as I always will. We were bunched in small groups. Me with Meg, Molly, and Jenna; Adam and Sam; and John sitting alone silently. We all jumped when a door opened behind us, but far from relaxed when all our teachers walked in, followed by the principle. Thought raced through my head. Were we in trouble? Had I done something wrong?
But we were only smiled at and told no, nothing was wrong. After a few minutes of small talk mainly consisting of the teachers, the door opened again, and yet another person entered the room.
"Allow me to introduce Dr. Markivitz, an award winning scientist whom we are honored to have with us today. She is writing a research paper on an experiment new to the world of science. The only problem is that the experiment hasn't been performed yet. That's where you come in," said the principal gesturing at the seven of us.
It sounded exciting, being the subject of an experiment for an award winning scientist, but I had the feeling I was missing something. Something the teachers weren't telling us, something that they didn't want to tell us. Or couldn't.
Dr. Markivitz stepped forward with an eager smile. She looked just like the stereotypical scientist; with her hair pulled into a low bun, a white lab coat, and glasses to top it all off. "Welcome all of you, "she said to us. "You were all hand-picked for your abilities that will help make this experiment work smoothly and seemingly effortless. This is a great honor and I've been looking forward to working with all of you."
A twenty minute lecture began on being the "subject" of the experiment. How the subject should act, talk, even walk. I'm about to doze off when my foot starts to go numb, and I shake it to feel that tingly pins and needles sensation. Finally, the speech ends with a "I hope you realize what good you're doing for the scientific community" and all that junk.
If I had known then what I knew now, would things have been different? There was no way of telling. My balance with life as it was now, was about to be shattered. And I had no way of knowing it.