SOMEDAY ❖ Thomas (TMR)

Before The Maze [ 3 ]

February 17th, 2022
5 years old

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EVONY KNEW SOMETHING was wrong the moment guards entered the room. Her and Thomas had just spent the entire day taking tests, and completing complicated word problems. After several failed attempts, and some successes, her teacher had told them they could be done for the day. She then left the room and locked them inside, with nothing but themselves and a couple chairs around a table.

"That last one about the train was hard." She commented, breaking the silence between the two. "Good on you for figuring it out." Thomas smiled at her, it was the first smile she'd seen from him all day.

"You did really well too." He shyly complimented back, his cheeks slowly turning a rosy pink. "On the one about the farm-it was amazing how you were able to predict how many animals would be there." Evony nervously twirled a strand of her brown hair, the compliment making her feel giddy inside.

Just then the door swung open, revealing two adults dressed in sleek white lab coats.

"Thomas. Evony." One with short brown hair greeted. Gesturing between him and the other woman he introduced themselves. "I am Mr. Janson, and this is my fellow partner Dr.Paige. We have a couple of questions we need to ask you-"

"For what." Thomas abruptly said, cutting the man off. She could tell by his tone he was exhausted from the activities of the day, and could only guess that his patience was too short.

Janson nodded approvingly at the doctor. "I like him. And don't worry, these questions are just so we can determine where you guys are academically-compared to each other that is."

Neither of them were able to get anything out before two extremely large whiteboards were shoved in their hands, along with matching black markers.

"Now," The woman started. Her blonde hair was slicked against her forehead, which made it very easy to see the controlling look she was giving the two kids. "I'm going to ask a question, and both of you are going to answer it on your boards." Evony looked over to Thomas for his approval, he just shrugged, so she ended up nodding her head in understandment.

Janson seemed to think that they were taking too long, because he eagerly clapped his hands together, walking behind the two of them.''Okay easy enough. Let's start, I don't have all day." He motioned towards his acquaintance, signaling he was ready to begin.

Evony and Thomas shared a look. No words needed to be exchanged for both of them to know what the other one was thinking. More tests. Of course there were more tests. Challenge after challenge, that was all they did. Why had she ever thought it would be something different?

Then it began.

"If seven plus seven equals x, then what would x times the square root of 289 be?"

She worked through the problem in her head, before uncapping the marker, and writing down her answer. Next to her, she saw Thomas still staring blankly at his empty board, a concentrated look on his face. After a few more moments, he too, wrote down his answer.

Jansion peered over both of their shoulders, giving a single nod. "Correct. Both of you."

The two kids beamed brightly at each other, proud of themselves, and one another. However they didn't have any longer to celebrate their success, as Doctor Paige rushed to the next problem on her sheet.

"There are five houses on a block. Each house is a different color with a different owner inside. Each owner has a preferred drink. Each owner has a different pet. With these clues, determine which person goes to each category. Here are the clues-" She then went on to list all of the clues that were supposed to help them solve the problem. Evony went right away to scribbling theories and working out the kinks on the whiteboard, her mind racing with every new possibility. She wasn't sure how long it was supposed to take for the two of them to solve it, but she sure didn't think it would be over an hour before she even figured out all five items for one house owner.