8 years later…
'Ugh, they're inserting another brain chip in you in two days,' I groan as I look at our timetable that just got slotted under our door.
'Another one? I just had one!' I hear from behind the toilet curtain. It was Minho's idea to get toilet curtains for our rooms, especially the rooms with both a boy and a girl. Newt and I were so excited when the Chancellor finally gave in.
I hear the familiar gurgling flush of the toilet Newt steps out from behind the curtain.
'How many bloody chips do they need to put in us?' Newt rolls his eyes.
He then walks across our tiny room and goes up the ladder to his bed and sits on the pillow. I climb up after him, still gripping our weekly timetable, and sit down facing him.
'Can I see that, Emmy?' He asks.
I nod and give him the small sheet of paper with all our tests and minor brain alterations written for the week on it.
'Reading tests in a couple of hours in Test Room B26,' Newt shakes his head, causing his blonde hair to flop down in front of his eyes. I laugh and push his fringe to the side.
'Why do we still need to have reading tests? We can bloody read! They know we can bloody read! We're fifteen, for God's sake!' Newt throws the timetable across the room.
'I dunno Newt,' I sigh. There are a lot of things I don't know. I don't even know my real name.
'Do you ever wonder what all this is for?' Newt asks me.
'To find a cure for the Flare,' I say. An image of my mother pops into my head. She had caught the Flare when I was a toddler and died the most gruesome death. I shove the image out of my brain.
'No, not like that. I mean… what's the point? How are all these tests and brain chips helping find a cure for the bloody Flare?'
'I don't have a clue. But surely they are relevant, I mean why else would they do them?' I tell him.
He sighs loudly.
'I think they're prepping us for something. Like, preparing us for a task,' I say. That's my theory.
'You're probably right,' Newt nods, 'and whatever that task is… Thomas and Teresa know.'
'Of course Thomas and Teresa know, they're the ones prepping us. And Aris and Rachel know too.'
'But they're also being prepped,' Newt points out.
'True.'
Thomas, Teresa, Aris and Rachel are just one big mystery. One minute they're getting brain chips put in, the next they're doing eye tests on us. And they spend so much time in that computer room…
Newt and I jump when we hear a loud knock on our door.
