When it seemed all but the latest stragglers had been seated, Mayor Lucas arrived at the podium and greeted everyone with his typical cheerful demeanor. Tiberius, Theo noted to his delight, was not in attendance.
“Welcome, welcome, students of Atlantic Island!” began the Mayor. “I am so very happy to see you today. I have spoken previously of our island’s bright future, born out of the darkness of the Event. You who sit before me are the lights that provide that brightness. You are the key to our future and I have every bit of faith imaginable that you will do all of us proud as you move through the process of your education and journey forth into the world.”
“Now, we have some logistics to deal with before you can all head off to your classrooms and truly start the school year. To handle all those messy details,” he laughed, “it is my great pleasure to introduce you to Mrs. Limpua, formerly principal of a wonderful school in upstate New York and now principal of Atlantic Island Academy.”
The mayor led everyone in applauding as a thin woman with short, dark hair took the stage and shook his hand at the podium. She smiled at the crowd of children and teenagers. “Good morning students! Let’s all applaud Mayor Lucas for all the hard work he has been doing to help all of us!” Most of the students applauded. Theo noticed that baldy and his buddies were not applauding but were focused on harassing the kids in front of them.
“I think,” continued Mrs. Limpua, “that we have so much potential in this room just ready to be unleashed. Of course, we don’t know anything about you yet. We don’t know what schools you went to, what grades you earned and what courses you completed. That’s why our first order of business today is going to be to administer some diagnostic tests.” She looked down at the youngest kids. “That means we are going to see what you’ve learned. Don’t worry about doing poorly on the test. We are only trying to make sure you are at the right grade level. Some of you may be adjusted up or down. Just do your best and let us worry about the rest!”
After some more talk about the rules and regulations, Mrs. Limpua dismissed the students to their testing stations. Theo and his friends left the auditorium and followed a winding hallway. Construction crew members were painting touchup coats of what Theo guessed was a shade of peach. He realized that this hall must have been newly built and wondered why they couldn’t have built it in a straight line.
Theo and Michelle were assigned to the same testing room. He wasn’t surprised to see chairs and tables, as he had no idea where anyone would find a large number of classroom desks on the island. He took a seat next to Michelle. “Do you think this is going to be really hard?” she asked.
“I don’t see why it would be. They just want to make sure we are at the right grade level. I’m not sure if they even think all our normal subjects are that important.”
She looked stunned by this. “You think they aren’t going to let us take all the subjects?”
Theo laughed. “I don’t know! It’s not like we have to worry about getting into college. I’d guess they are prepping us for the different departments.”
Michelle frowned. “Right… no college.”
“Well, at this point it would just be so hard to pull off and I think they need as many young people working as possible. Our population is so small we can’t afford to have thousands of people sitting in classes all the time.”
“I know you’re right,” she said, “it’s just… my parents were always so crazy about college. Had to get into the best possible school, had to be top of the class… I know it doesn’t make any sense but I feel like they’d be so disappointed in me.” She turned away, tears in her eyes. “I miss them.”
“I understand,” Theo said.
A woman came around and distributed test sheets and pens. Theo was surprised to see pens instead of pencils, and then realized the government probably had been able to find many more of the former from various offices around the island. He wondered for a moment what would happen when the pens ran out.
He looked down at the test sheet. The questions covered a wide variety of topics, from grammar to math to hypothetical, “what would you do in this situation” type questions. The questions ranged from so easy Theo expected that just about everyone would get them correct to challenging, high level problems that were way above his education level. Noticeably absent were any questions about history.
Theo thought he made a good showing for himself on the test. As he checked his answers he got a feeling that the test was looking not only to judge grade levels but also to get a sense of the students’ aptitude for the many work crews on the island.
After the test Theo and Michelle went down to the cafeteria to meet their friends. Lunch at school was going to be just as bland as lunch on the job site. Theo could not wait for the farms to be up and operating. He knew the citizens of Atlantic Island were lucky to have access to so much canned and dried food, but there was something about fresh produce that was sorely lacking. He suspected too that eating all this dried stuff wasn’t so good for his health, though Theo hardly had the knowledge to back up that theory.
“Did anybody else think that was a huge waste of time?” asked Bill.
“What do you mean?” asked Ryan.
“I mean most of us already know what we want to do. Hell, most of us are already doing it. This isn’t the old world. School, college, whatever, I don’t think it matters anymore.”
“So,” said Theo, “What does matter?”
“Work,” said Bill. “Working your ass off, making a difference and getting to live, be free and enjoy fine food like these crackers I can’t get enough of.”
“Being stuck in that prison gave you this new perspective?” asked Kylee. She looked genuinely concerned.
“I guess, maybe, yeah. I think I’m just being realistic. This is our life now. When I’m working, even just lugging stones and stuff, I feel like I’m really living. What good is it going to do for me to sit in a class? Thank God I’m getting out in January.”
Theo had to admit that Bill made some valid points. “Maybe this is all part of them testing out some new ideas. Maybe they will reevaluate things after this school year?”
“So they are beta testing us?” asked Michelle.
“Something like that I guess,” said Theo. “Bill’s definitely right that without college we probably should spend the last year of school focusing on our particular trade in some way. They must not have all of that figured out yet and just want to keep us getting some kind of education. It’s all part of keeping people calm.”
“Keeping them controlled, you mean,” said Bill.
“I bet Theo will have some information for us when he starts meeting with the mayor,” said Kylee.
“Hey,” said Ryan, “speaking of information, I’ve got some cool news to report from the science committee!”
“You mean the nerd squad,” said Bill with a smirk.
Ryan laughed. “Say what you will, but I’m telling you man, we are doing some interesting work. We are presenting some stuff to the mayor next Wednesday night!”
“Okay, let’s hear it,” said Bill. “What have you got?”
“Alright. Check this out. I’m on a team that was …”
A voice yelled across the cafeteria, cutting Ryan off. “Attention please! Would the following people come join me at the front of the room immediately? Bill Mansfield, Kylee Blair, Michelle Cho, Ryan Adini and Theo Essex.”
The teens looked at each other with concern. Slowly they rose from their seats and walked to the cafeteria’s entrance where a stocky security officer waited.
“Do you know this guy?” Theo asked Kylee. She shook her head.