Every day since Max got his first kiss from Amata, he would share another kiss with her in the same room it all started in. It was no secret among the kids of the Vault that the two obviously had a thing for each other, but now it was different, somehow more. They saw it in the way they looked at each other, in the way that they talked to each other, in the way they protected each other from anything and everything that dared to approach them with malice. It was the worst kept secret in the Vault, but it somehow hadn't reached her father. Perhaps he was denying the affection his daughter had for another. Maybe he was too busy running a Vault with a couple dozen people living in it. Maybe he was just a neglectful ass. Eventually, the children thought, the Overseer would find out and rip Max a new one. Max knew that day would come, but until then, he would enjoy the company of his best friend and love.
When they were around fifteen, Max started sneaking into Amata's bedroom at night, spending the hours they should be sleeping holding her and kissing her, then leaving before anyone else would wake up. Now you got to understand, most people in the Vault shared a room with their family; Max and James, for example, shared one. The Overseer, however, had one room specifically for Amata, but his room was just next door. At night, the Vault's security forces would also patrol the Vault, making sure people were obliging to their curfew, and nothing was amiss.
Yet, Max was able to do all sort of things to traverse the Vault without detection. He would get out bed and not bother to put his shoes on, knowing that his socks would provide an almost noiseless run, so long as he kept his weight balanced to not make any noticeable footfalls.
For every door he would come across, he would take out his bobby pins and a screwdriver he found in the reactor level, carefully disassemble the door's control panel and move the right wire around so that the door would allow alternate access. He would then grab the emergency override handle on the bottom of the door and pull it up enough where he can slip through, and close it behind him. This went on for a while.
Before long, it was time for the two, along with other sixteen-year old children of the Vault, to take the Generalized Occupational test, or the G.O.A.T. for short. It wasn't something Max was looking forward to.
"It's just something we all have to take," James said while doing a check-up on his son for a sudden "sickness." "I took it, the Overseer took it, and even your 'friend', Amata, is taking it. You want to go and support her, at the least, don't you?" Oh, how James knew how to get Max moving. At the time, James had just found out about Amata when he went looking for Max, and found his son snuggling up with her in that reactor level room. He promised he wouldn't tell anyone and that the pair could keep their shady relationship going on, so long as they made sure no one else could walk in on them. James knew that most other people would've reported them to the Overseer without hesitation.
Max blushed. "Yeah, whatever, dad." On James' desk, Max noticed a peculiar item, a bobblehead. It was a blonde man in a Vault suit, holding a syringe. "What's this?"
"That? It's just an old toy your mother gave me as a birthday present." Max shrugged it off and walked to class.
I mentioned earlier that there weren't that many people in the Vault, and there were even fewer kids within it. The Vault did have a school for these kids, but it was small. It consisted of a room down in the Lower levels of the Vault, down the halls from the clinic from where James lived. When Max, dawdling as much he could in the hopes of being late, finally arrived to the classroom, he saw a group huddled together around the corner from the door. Greased hair, leather jackets, cuffed pants.
The large green serpent on the back of the jackets was you needed to see to know who these punks were: the Tunnel Snakes. A year or two after Max's tenth birthday party, Butch formed a "gang" with his two friends, Wally Mack and Paul Hannon Jr, and called themselves the Tunnel Snakes. They had one goal, simple but ambitious: Tunnel Snakes ruled, and everyone needed to know it.
Butch had someone against the wall, his harms blocking her exit on either side. Other students passed by reluctant to help.
"Leave me alone, Butch," Amata told the mischievous leader of the gang.
"Come on now baby, I just want a little sugar," he replied. His lackeys snickered. "I've been itching to see if what you've got under this suit matches what I picture."
"Damn tunnel snakes, why don't you ever leave me alone?" Amata was tearing up from frustration and embarrassment.
Butch leaned in close to Amata's face, forcing her further against the wall. "No," he said "I could show you a real tunnel snake, Amata."
"Leave her alone, Butch." Butch turned around and scoffed at the kid in front of him. "If her dad, the Overseer," Max told him, putting extra emphasis on the title, "found out you three were harassing her daughter, he would throw the three of you at the Vault door and watch you get eaten up by the mutants." The gang leader rolled his eyes.
"Fuck off, LeBay! I ain't scared of the goddamn Overseer. Go cry about it to your dead momma!" The three started hackling together, though Paul Junior looked a bit uneasy joining in for it.
Max looked Butch square in the face and headbutt him hard enough to send the boy falling back. There was blood on Max's forehead and Butch's mouth. Wally Mack tried helping Butch off the ground, but Max kicked him down, before giving Paul Junior a good punch across his jaw.
"Stop it! Stop fighting," Amata yelled. It was no use.
Butch got up, reached into his jacket pocket, and took out a small item. With a click, a three-inch blade swung out of its handle. Wally had a sly smile when he heard the familiar sound of Butch's "toothpick," but Paul and Amata's eyes widened. Now things were getting hairy.
"Come on," Butch taunted, chuckling a bit as he waved the knife around. "Come on and try to punch me again, tough guy." Max kept his distance, but Butch closed the gap. "Come on, you fuck."
He swung at Max with his switchblade, but he jumped back in time for it to miss. Butch tried lunging with his blade, but Max grabbed Butch's arm before the knife got close enough. He fought to keep that piece from going into him, but it was only through intervention that serious blood was kept from spilling.
"What the hell is going on here?" A large voiced boomed over the fight. The two looked over to the classroom door. It was Mr. Brotch, their Vault teacher. Before Butch could hide his knife, Max slapped it out of his hands, angering him further. The teacher picked up Butch's toothpick and examined it. "Butch, you know having a weapon in the Vault is against the rules. This is your second infraction. I'll tell you only one time: you don't want the Overseer to hear of a third." He folded Butch's switchblade and put it in his pocket. "Inside, all of you." Butch walked inside, but made sure to give Max a venomous glance before disappearing into the class. Wally Mack followed, as did Paul Junior. "Maybe go to the infirmary, have this checked out," Mr. Brotch told Paul after examining his bruised jaw.
"I'm fine," the boy grudgingly muttered.
The teacher looked back at the Max and Amata, then looked at his watch. "Five minutes before the test starts. Don't be late you two." He went inside.
Once it was clear Mr. Brotch was away from earshot, Amata started frantically looking Max over. "You're not hurt, are you? Did he nick you anywhere?"
"Amata, I'm fine. I probably hurt them more than they did me." Amata didn't find any notable injuries under the blood on his face so she conceded.
"Max, you can't go around attacking Butch like that. I appreciate it, really, I do, but he's crazy! He can seriously hurt you, and maybe you could do the same but I don't want Dad to know about you because of some stupid fight." A tear forced its way out of Amata's eye, and she held herself tight, looking away.
"Hey, hey, hey! Nothing like that's going to happen. I won't let it happen." He cupped her face lightly and looked her in the eyes.
"Promise?"
"I promise." Max lifted Amata's chin and gave her a quick kiss. She pulled away before he could give another.
"The test's going to start soon." She wiped her eyes, took a deep breath, and walked with Max into class where they both took the G.O.A.T.
Max looked at the two rows of desks around a projector, four desks in each row. Amata sat in the row to the right of the projector, which shot an image of the Vault Boy riding a goat onto the whiteboard. "G.O.A.T" said the picture. Max took the seat behind her.
Mr. Brotch handed everyone a test paper, a wooden pencil and let the class begin writing.
Max couldn't believe some of the questions asked in the test. Question 1: You are approached by a frenzied Vault scientist, who yells, "I'm going to put my quantum harmonizer in your photonic resonation chamber!" What's your response? He gave a small laugh at the quote the scientist said, and answered it by saying he would sneak away, leaving the crazy man to rant alone.
Question 4: Your grandmother invites you to tea, but you're surprised when she gives you a pistol and orders you to kill another Vault resident. What do you do? Each question was becoming more absurd than the last, and he was getting right tired of it. He decided to just get the test over with and put that he'd obey his grandmother (if he ever had one, he thought) and kill the resident.
Question 7: Oh, no! You've been exposed to radiation, and a mutated hand has grown out of your stomach! What's the best course of treatment? The test question had a picture of a Vault Boy near radioactive waste barrels, with a long, snake-like arm growing out of his stomach. Max shuddered at the thought of horrific mutation, and put that he'd blow his brains out. An arm was the least horrific thing he could think of growing with radiation; surely, other, more obscure deformities, would make themselves hidden within him.
Soon came Max's favorite question by the end of the test. Question 10: Who is indisputably the most important person in Vault 101: He who shelters us from the harshness of the atomic wasteland, and to whom we owe everything we have, including our lives? Max remembered what Mr. Brotch said earlier in the week: "You don't want to know what happens to people who 'fail' the G.O.A.T. so take it seriously!" The thought made him wonder if any of the four identical answers had any difference to them. Perhaps choosing the first showed some quality or trait not seen in people who chose the third; or maybe choosing the fourth was worse than choosing the second. The question worried Max, but he shoved the doubt and fear in his mind and finished the test.
Max quickly skimmed his answer choices and got up to turn it in to Mr. Brotch, who was sitting at his desk. "I thought number ten was hard. I didn't know whether it was The Overseer or The Overseer. I wish I studied for that question, you know?" Mr. Brotch rolled his eyes and took Max's G.O.A.T.
By the end of the week, all the exams had been scored, and everyone was assigned the life-long duties they'd start once they turned eighteen. A position in the Supervisory Track was given to Amata. Teaching was in Susie Mack's future. Christine Kendall was going into maintenance. Wally Mack didn't bother checking his position, and when Mr. Brotch asked him if he wasn't curious, Mack said he wasn't.
"It's easy to cheat the system and get what you want," he told the teacher as he turned in the exam. "I don't need to check, because I chose what I wanted from the beginning." Mack then gave everyone in the class a smirk and left to wait for the rest of his gang outside.
Mr. Brotch rolled his eyes at the would-be sleuth, but after checking his exam was indeed surprised. "That son of a bitch did it."
As for Butch? When Butch turned in his test, Mr. Brotch took it with excitement and said, "Well, well. I've been waiting for this day for a long time, Mr. DeLoria. Let me savor this moment for a moment." Butch didn't wait a moment, nor considered it. Instead he immediately cried out in shock. Hairdresser, the chart read. His face turned red as he looked around the class, at Mr. Brotch who had a semi-satisfied smile on his face, at Christine Kendall who was covering her giggle with her hand.
"I'm- I'm not a hairdresser," Butch yelled out at her and the class. "I'm a - I'm a hairstylist!" Max let out a loud chuckle as Butch stormed out of the class.
Max went up to the announcement board in the class and looked for his name carefully, tracing a finger down along the rows until he found his name, and gulped as he looked over to see his position. Shift Supervisor. Max sighed with heavy relief. He didn't want a job in the waste disposal, nor one in the engineering tract, nor even one alongside his father in the clinic.
Instead, Max was given the responsibility to ensure everyone was doing their jobs at the right times. He'd follow in the current supervisor's footsteps for a few years, but in time, he'd be the one doing the rounds. It may seem boring, but for Max, it was everything he needed to eventually be who he was out here in the wasteland. He got a taste of every task in the Vault, from technician, to physician, to security and the lack of. It enabled him to find that he really liked repairing things, which came in real handy when his toy BB gun broke, for example.
"Congratulations," Amata would tell him that night. "I hope you don't become too lenient on me just because it's me."
Max laughed softly. "I don't intend to. In fact, I'll make sure to give you double the amount of write-ups I give others." He gave her a kiss after she gave him a playful scowl.
"I'm serious," she continued. "It's one thing to protect me at school, but it's a whole different thing when it comes to everyone's contribution in the Vault."
He held her tight in his arms as they lay in her bed. In a whisper, he finally said: "Well, it's a good thing we have two years of this, then." He looked at her and planted another kiss on her lips, and another on her cheek, and another on her neck.
"Better make it count," she giggled.
She pulled him in close and kissed him back, wrapping her arms around him as they got ready to spend the little amount of time they could together that night.