The Trials

Trial One: Determination

     Ava finds me as soon as I take a step out of my room. "How did you know that kid..." She pauses trying to remember his name.
     "Michael?" I say for her. 
     Before I can explain the speaker interrupts me, "Children, it's time for breakfast. Eat up you'll need the energy."  Like before the walls change and the hundred of us are now in a lunchroom of sorts.
     I sit down with Ava and begin to tell her everything. I tell Ava all about my childhood with Michael. I tell her how we were in the same grade and we never really talked until the third grade when we both were sent to the principal's office and we clicked. We were best friends from that moment on. No one referred to us as just Michael or Carson it was always Michael and Carson did this. Every summer we stayed at each others houses. If we weren't at my house, we were at his. Michael and I were always by each other's side, except when Michael's dad was around which wasn't often. That was the only exception. Which is why when Michael's dad invited him to Europe for the summer I wasn't surprised when Michael left. I tell Ava that Michael is a good kid, but his weakness is his father. He would do anything to make his father proud.
                           ************
    We all enter a room full of treadmills. " Everyone welcome to your first trial! Please stand on a treadmill," It takes a few minutes for every person to find their own, "When I say go you will all push the button that says go. Then you will run till you can't run any more. As you go, the speed will increase. When you are done hit the stop button and exit the room. Go!" I push go and immediately the treadmill starts. It's an easy walk for the first 5 minutes, but after about two minutes in the running a girl with prosthetic limbs walks out of the room. Slowly more and more follow the girl into the room. I am the second to last to leave the room. Ava leaves just before me.
     When I enter the room, a man haves me stand in front of a large white rectangle. A red light scans me from my head to toe. "Passed." an electronic voice says. The room the man and I are standing in has two exits. The man leads me to one and I can't help, but wonder where the other one leads.
     I open the door to find almost a fourth of the contestants gone. I find Ava huddled in the corner with the five. Ava turns around. Immediately her eyes find mine. She waves and makes her way across the room to me. "Before you ask, I'll fill you in. It was a determination test. The scanner scanned your physical health and determined the time you should have been able to run. Which is why the first girl out with the prosthetic legs is still in the trails and the second one out is not." I listen to Ava without saying a word. For some reason I can't seem to find any words to respond with.
     Ava and I walk over to where the other five are waiting unsure of what happens next. So, we find snacks that were in the room and just talk and eat until once again the familiar sound of the speaker comes on, "Congratulations! You have passed the test number one of the trials," a door opens in the corner that we are sitting in, "I think you all know the drill by now. Let the test number two of the trials begin." Our group of five walks through the door first with Jackson in the lead.