Constance awoke on her fifteenth birthday to a sense of looming dread. She shivered in her nightwear as she got out of bed slowly, carefully folding the raggedy old blanket and leaving it on the table. Today’s the day, she thought. This is it. She looked around her small, barren room for a minute before getting dressed in the white collared shirt, gray blazer, and skirt worn by all the girls at The Institution, along with her pair of red glasses. She left her room to see all the Sector C students leaving theirs as well, their sullen faces looking at hers, silent acknowledgement of the date. Today was the day Constance was to be moved to the other Institute, with the other children aged 15-17 years old. She walked into the classroom and sat at a desk, foolishly hoping that The Superintendent would let her continue things as normal, as if she were still 14. The desk had the customary three-foot tall privacy dividers, and had a built-in testing screen on its surface.

The speaker buzzed, before a monotone female voice spoke. It was SAM, the Superintendent’s Assistant Monitor, the AI that kept tabs on everything that happened at The Institution.

“Student #4423, Constance Ashford, you are being asked to enter the library. Failure to comply will result in execution.”

Constance pushed her glasses onto the bridge of her nose, and started walking to the library, past Sectors A, B, and C, all of which had students leaving from their bedrooms. The students looked at Constance, nodding in realization. She continued walking, fear rising in her chest. 

I’ve heard the worst you can get is a B, Constance thought. At The Institution, students spent their days taking test after test, until they either graduated or failed. In the 10-14 unit, grades under a C were considered failing grades. 

Constance opened the heavy door to the library, to see a man who all the students knew and feared: The Superintendent. He had a striped gray suit on his broad shoulders, and towered over Constance at an estimate of 6 feet. The two looked each other in the eyes.

“I assume you know why you’re here.” The Superintendent stated in a gravelly voice.

Constance nodded quickly.

“Congratulations for making it this far,” The Superintendent continued. 

“Thanks,” Constance said quietly. 

The Superintendent pushed open the other door in the library, and Constance had to squint upon seeing the bright light of the sun. Frozen in place for a second, she felt the sun’s warm embrace on her face, turned pale from years without natural light. There weren’t any windows inside The Institution. The light inside came from testing screens and overhead lighting, but it was nothing compared to the sun. 

The Superintendent looked behind his shoulder, and Constance walked faster to keep up, looking around as she did. The space they were in was a small courtyard, with the door they had left from on one side, and a large black door on the other. The ground outside was made up of gray cobblestone, with no plant life growing anywhere. Each step she took felt heavy, and her entire body shook. The Superintendent propped open the door, closing it promptly behind Constance. Constance tried to think back to the day she arrived at the 10-14 unit, and began her school career. Five years had passed since that day. Hazy memories of life before came to mind, reminding Constance of learning, of being taught by a teacher, of reading more than the same twelve books. As she walked inside the 15-17 unit, she touched her neck, feeling the light choker uniformly worn by the students.

Constance soon reached the Classroom Sector of the building, still being led by The Superintendent. Constance’s eyes searched the room as if it were a Reading Comprehension problem. There were hallways leading to the Bedroom Sectors and dining hall, just like in the 10-14 unit, and the Classroom was filled with desks which had the same testing screens that she was used to. The desks had a smooth, clean white tabletop, built-in chairs, and tall dividers to discourage cheating. Not that no one had tried. Constance vividly remembered a time when she was ten years old and the boy two seats behind her peeked at another student’s answers. Needless to say, he was punished. 

At every seat was a student, each of which wore the same blazer that she was wearing. The girls wore skirts, and the boys wore pants, as was the norm. Everyone was sitting upright, with their feet on the floor. Everyone, that is, but one girl who had her feet kicked up on the desk. She had red streaks in her braided hair and looked to be about seventeen. Constance recognized her as Chell, a girl who Constance had a room next to in the 10-14 unit for a few years. The student’s room placements were determined by alphabetical order of last name, so Constance Ceberlane was right in front of Chelsea Cheshire.

The Superintendent walked up to Chell wordlessly and pushed her feet off the desk. Chell rolled her eyes, but said nothing. 

“Students,” The Superintendent said, walking back to the front of the classroom. “This is Constance. As you can imagine, she turned fifteen on this day,” he pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket, before reluctantly sighing. “Chell. It’s your turn to mentor. Teach her the rules, and don’t get into any funny business.”

“Roger that, John,” Chell said, while mock-saluting.

“Chelsea,” The Superintendent said firmly, “You will address me as ‘The Superintendent’. Remember what I can do to you. Let this serve as a reminder to every student that I am your superior. There will be no disobeying your Superintendent.”

Chell rolled her eyes but quieted down.

“If that’s all,” The Superintendent began, “I will be leaving now. Good luck to all of you. Testing will commence in five minutes.”

Everyone remained silent.

Constance sat down at a desk in the front of the room, looking at the blank

testing screen. It was the same as the testing screens in the 10-14 unit, simply a tablet on the desk with a timer, counting down the seconds until the test opened up on the screen. Constance continued to breathe heavily. What will the new questions be like? 

It wasn’t long until she found out. The screens all glowed bright white, and SAM spoke.

“The test will open on your screens in five, four, three, two, one. Good luck students, and remember the consequences of failure.”

…

The tests contained language arts, writing mechanics, mathmatics, grammar, verbal reasoning and quantitative reasoning, just like in the 10-14 unit. The only difference was that the questions were all a lot harder. Constance struggled to tackle some of the math questions, and she even had to guess the answers to a couple. After the tests, all students were supposed to study inside the library. Constance was no different. She sped to the library, excited to find new books. She had voraciously read everything inside the 10-14 library in a matter of months. It wasn’t hard, because there were only twelve varieties of books; Language Arts One and Two, Mathmatics One and Two, Verbal Reasoning One and Two, and so on. They were told that this was to ensure that they only studied things that would be on the tests.

Upon entering the 15-17 unit library, Constance was unpleasantly surprised. The many large shelves contained the same books as the 10-14 unit, but at levels 3 and 4. Her mouth eyes grew wide in shock, and her mouth formed a pout as her brow grew furrowed.

“It’s… The same?” She said out loud, mainly to herself. One of the boys in the library nodded. He had shaggy blond hair that made it impossible for Constance to determine his age. “We’re only supposed to study the material covered on the tests.”

Constance looked at the ground and sighed, before walking over to the Language Arts shelf. She took out the level 3 book, and left for her room. The library didn’t have much in the way of seating, and the gray carpeted floor did not look appealing. After wandering for a little, Constance noticed that the layout was almost exactly the same as that in the 10-14 unit, with its 3 bedroom sectors, long hallways with uncarpeted floors, and testing room in the center of the building, so Constance had little trouble finding her bedroom. Inside, it looked very similar to her old room, the only difference being that there was a brand new, plastic-wrapped blanket lying folded on the bed. The bed itself was small with a metal frame, and along with the bed there was a table and chair made of the same metal as the bedframe, a black carpet, and no lock on the door. She sat at the table and started to read, her nerves finally quieting. Another two years of this academic prison. I might just make it out alive.

…

At dinner, Constance sat next to Chell. The dining hall had silver metal tables, and a chair for every student, just like what Constance was familiar with. The meal of the day was Caesar Salad, with genetically modified lettuce and no cheese. 

“How was your first day, Constance?” Chell asked as soon as Constance sat down. 

“The tests weren’t that hard. I’m sure I aced most of them,” Constance said. “But how sure can you be, right?”

Chell nodded. “The only real confirmation you get is when you wake up alive the next morning.”

Constance’s eyes widened.

“Hey, isn’t it the same in the 10-14 unit?” Chell added, picking up on Constance’s surprised expression.

“Yeah, but I just… wanted to be sure,” Constance said, her voice shaking.

You see, at The Institution, the consequences of failure were high. If you didn’t get a pasing grade, you would be executed.