Scored

Chapter 2: Seven

I love my life. What a time to be alive. I love the food, the parties, the champagne. Everything's great. I'm the first to get the newest technology. I live in the biggest house in the Capital. Who wouldn't love my life?

I live with the Calloway's. I never met my parents. They tested me at birth and decided I was too great of a blessing to be left with a mediocre family that would do a mediocre job of raising me. I needed the best of the best.

Mr. Tom Calloway, my adoptive father, is the Patriarch's most trusted adviser. The Patriarch is the leader of our great country. No one knows who he is, for security reasons. Tom is sworn to secrecy, and the rest of the family knows to not press the issue. Mrs. Calloway runs a benefit group to help the Street Keepers, and even sometimes the Testing Police. They have two children, both girls. Monica and Jesse. Monica is 5 and has a curious outlook on everything. The look of drowning shock on Tom's face when she asked how babies were made a few nights ago at dinner was hilarious. Jesse is 13. She keeps to herself.

My graduation Test is in a few months, and I'm so ready for it. We take practice Tests every year, and I've gotten the same score every time. I'm not worried. Some of the kids in my year should be, though. They might get reassigned to the lows, which I think would be funny. They go around trumpeting their greatness, and it would be nice to see them knocked down a peg or two, especially since none of them can even get close to my score. No one has been able to even get close to my score for a while, and they never will. No one's ever scored 100%. It's impossible. I scored 112%.

That score is the reason I'm with the Calloways, the most important family in the Patrium. I've got great things coming for me. No one, except maybe the Patriarch, is more important than me. I'm the future of the country. I'm what will keep us stronger and safer.

I can picture it, my future. Maybe I'll go work in the bio labs, because I'm definitely smart enough, but I'd rather go into the military. Because of my score and my schooling, I'd come in as a ranking officer. I know I'll move easily up the ranks, as all the ranks have scores lower than mine. I'll spend a few years climbing the ranks, and then I'll seal my future. I'm going to be the next Patriarch.

No one really knows how the Patriarch title changes hands, just that it does. Three years ago, the Patriarch was super short, and really young. Now he's tall and got wrinkled folds in his neck. You can tell all of this from the broadcasts, except you never see anything above the chin.

Anyways, why shouldn't I be the next Patriarch? I'm already the most qualified. I'll just take some time to add to my already impressive list of accomplishments so that way no one freaks out about how young or "inexperienced" I am when I assume power. It'll be easy.