My left hand rests confidently on the keyboard, as I wait for the instruction to start the project. My right hand, hovering over the mouse. One tiny wriggle and my project would appear. This is the time I have been preparing for my entire life! The time of the choosing. I hear my teacher take a breath. "You have 2 hours to complete Project 9. Begin." As soon as she said those words, my hand moved the mouse. The screen popped up with the software we are using. Visual Studio 2015. I install the course I need. Typing the first line of code necessary, my fingers moving hesitantly at first, but then picking up speed as I type. Tortoise.Show();. I delete that comment line: //Show the turtle. Then I run the program, checking that it works. It does. Then the next comment instructions are: //Comment what this does. I type in a comment: //This command makes the tortoise appear, otherwise the play screen would just blink then disappear. I hear footsteps behind me, coming up. My teacher, Ms. Grinder. "Well done." she compliments me. I continue working.
After 1 hour, I have 45 lines of code. Ms. Grinder comes around, for the 4th time. Her eyes nearly pop out of her head when she sees how much I have achieved.
"Well done!" she exclaims. I shrug.
"Is this amount of work normal?" I inquire.
"This, this is better than I expected!" she replies. Wow. It is hard to get one compliment from her, let alone two! I think.
"Thank you! This is the normal amount of work I get done in 1 hour."
"OK." Ms. Grinder says. "You may continue. I have to see the others." I watch, dumbfounded, as she walks away. I'm sure that she turned away too quickly. My god! How can people not do this amount of work, so quickly. I mean, professional software developers can do this amount of work in half the time! This is standard! If one can't get this much in that time, how will they ever manage to get things done by the deadlines! I mentally shrug and continue writing my code.
"OK, class." Ms. Grinder exclaimed. "That is 2 hours. TIME'S UP!" I immediately take my hands from the keyboard, as does everyone else in the room. Well, except for one person. The room is deathly quiet, as Ms. Grinder takes a deep breath. "MR GEORGE FOLLOWER!" she shrieks. "LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS AS WELL AS YOUR LAST NAME SUGGESTS. TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF THE KEYBOARD!" George starts, hands shaking from the shock of being found cheating. I try to look sympathetic, but this is hard, for inside, my mind's face was smirking like nobody's business. He is soo going to be eliminated!
YOU ARE READING
Into the Software
Science FictionWhen a Selection begins in Gizelle, a new hope dawns for the city. After the war 50 years previous, Joseph Hester is a promising student but is his secret enough to disqualify him?
