Page 45 of The Commons

The wind from his departure blows my hair back, and I long for more time with him, but I try to shake it off. I have to focus on my test and try to incorporate what he said—forget the rules. For a split-second, I am lost, trying to forget him. I cannot figure out what he meant by that, so I proceed to my test.

I enter and see about thirty or so empty spaces. Patron Suzandrick points toward one. I approach it and look down to see an underground hole that is probably thirty feet deep, knowing my instructor’s love for three’s. I can hardly see much, but there seems to be mud on the inside. She comes toward me and before I can say anything, she pushes me in!

Thud… I land on the mud, my face smashed in clay. I spit out sand particles that stick to my tongue. In the same moment, I begin to feel tingling in my hands and feet. An intense thirst overpowers me, and I suddenly feel dizzy. A vapor of hot air is flooding my way and clouding my vision. I look all around me, trying to find the chemical equations I am supposed to solve, but I see nothing.

I remember what Pesh said, forget all the rules. I gulp, and it hits me!

Oh my goodness, I am in a chemical equation. I have to solve myself. But how?

The ground beneath me starts to sink and red-colored water floods in. I think I know what’s going on. That’s supposed to depict a volcanic eruption.

Grabbing the wall, I try to avoid the pit forming in the middle of the mud. The earth above me begins to sink and the wall that I am holding onto starts to shift, going under. I realize it is going to sink, like a subduction zone, but I deduce that an asteroid or meteorite metaphor of some sort is coming next, so I jump forward into the water. This will be my only way of escaping suffocation or possibly being crushed to death.

I hold my breath underwater, and I see huge chunks of different colored rocks being thrown into the water. I don’t know what that means. I try to think of the next step: how does a diamond get shiny? It has to be polished.

I pick up one of the rocks, a blue one, and it feels like hard plastic. Noticing a glass-like capsule on the inside, I take it and throw it, but nothing happens. I swim to a red one, and I try to break it in two with my hands. It cracks and begins to shine. I swim in a rush to the other rocks and begin to crack every one of them to induce the chemical to light up. The entire water begins to glow, and I can see the bottom a little better.

Able to see clearly now, I look to see I’m not alone. There’s Zavish in the water surging forward, solving an equation. His hands move as though solving a puzzle. It’s probably a chemical equation. Suddenly, a rock surges toward him, banging into his head and knocking him out. I rush toward him. God, I escaped that.

I grab him and shake him in my arms desperately. “Zavish! Please wake up! Please!” Water foams into my mouth and I press my lips shut, lest I drown.

He is unresponsive. He couldn’t be dead, could he? Oh my God.

Oh no! I notice a multitude of rocks falling into the water. Crap! I propel myself away, trying to keep them from blocking my path.

I swim down as deeply as I can to escape the falling rocks. That’s when I see a circle-shaped door. I pull it, but it doesn’t open. The falling rocks intensify, and one hits my leg. I scream underwater, hurt, struggling with the door. It doesn’t pull, so I try to push.

Argh! It pushes me farther away, to the surface!

I struggle to breathe, treading water again. That’s when it hit me! There’s pressure pushing me backwards toward the end, like a test tube with bubbles underneath. The door is not a door. It is an opening, and I am in a backward test tube. And if this is true, then it should be open. But it seems closed. I touch it and feel a physical door, yet my mind tells me to do the irrational thing, dive in headfirst into the door like an open test tube. Struggling to overcome the crowding rocks while fighting for breath, I decide to go with my instincts. I crash my head straight into the door.

Crash… it opens, and I fall into a room with what looks like doctors and Patron Suzandrick watching a screen of students who are still in the pit. I see Zavish on the side of a bed being resuscitated by a nurse. God, I hope he is still alive. Before I can look, Suzandrick jumps up and turns to me with wide eyes, almost in shock. I gasp for air and stare at her, drenched and terrified.

“How did you do that?”

“Do what?” I can hardly speak, so tired.

“Figure out it was a lie, that the two tests were combined together to make one, find the virtually deceiving door and dive head in for it, all of that! How?”

My spit tastes sour, but I swallow it instantly, yuck! maintaining a straight face to feign truth. “I just remembered what you said in class. We are the diamond, and we will come out shiny. Or we will not come out at all.” That took way too much strength for me to quote her.

She stares at me with darting, devil-like eyes. Fear flutters in my stomach, but I keep my head up to suppress the shiver sprinting through me.

“Well, you don’t need medical treatment like the rest, so get out! Now!”

I start to leave, but her words stop me.

“And by the way, Shantavia, good job. I’m impressed. I don’t usually give out scores on the spot. But you might have just scored a C. But then again, if no one else scores a C, then it’s a fail in my book.”

I stare at her, silent and lost for words. “Thank you,” I spit out.

I walk out of the door breathing heavily. I sigh in relief. At least that’s over.

In a rush, I take off my sweater and stuff it into a drying locker on the side. I quickly scan my thumbprint, sending it to my dorm. Then I enter the drying station nearby and a gust of air surges toward me. I barely wait five seconds before leaving the station. That’s dry enough.

God! I don’t even know how I just figured that test out. At this point, I honestly don’t care if I pass or fail. All I care about is that I’ve come out of that test unharmed. They lied to us in every way. The rules were wrong, just like Pesh hinted. I wish I had access to his mind, to acquire all the information he has about The Commons.

I walk into the hallway, but my mind can’t help but wonder if these tests have something to do with my sister’s disappearance.