Anusha Goswami

Per 7

Remember

I wake up to the sound of my alarm blaring, forcing me to remove myself from my very

comfortable bed, reminding me I have class today. Fun. I drag myself out of bed, falling flat on

my face (because who needs gracefulness?). I blindly walk to the bathroom, as I am a mole

without my glasses. Youd think having the same sleep pattern would allow me to get used to

waking up. Psh, I wish. Ill probably never get used to my two hour sleep schedule. Going at my

rather slow pace, I start getting ready to leave.

JAOU HURRY UP! WELL BE LATE! my roommate, Roy, shouts. I glance at my

clock and notice class starts in five minutes.

HAVE SOME PATIENCE! IM GETTING MY SHOES ON! I sigh as I quickly

attempt walking down the stairs while putting my shoes on. This only leads to me falling face

first on top of the startled, and disappointed, Roy. He slightly chuckles to himself, which results

in a mumble of shut up from me. After quickly fixing the mess I made, we rush to class.

With gasping breaths, we walk into Mr. Smiths classroom, obviously late to his math

lecture. We sit down, pretending we were there the entire time, and listen to his lecture on

differential equations. After this horribly dull lecture, we attempt to leave class without Mr.

Smith noticing- to no avail.

Excuse me, Roy and Joau, may I talk to you for a moment? Smith says with a slightly

annoyed tone. You do realize you were five minutes late to class, dont you? This is

unacceptable, especially with Testing coming up. This behavior will be marked down in the

future, he paused sighing, Dismissed.

 As we exited we snickered at the big deal Mr. Smith made about our slight tardy. Its not

like were failing his class. We are one of his top students. The Testing will be no sweat.

Break started, so Roy and I head to our usual cafe on campus. They have the best

cupcakes, and it comes with coffee and tea. Trust me, when youre drowning in crippling student

debt like me, every penny counts (especially when it is free tea). I order both of our drinks while

Roy goes to get our table, and I realize that this is the perfect time to make reservations for the

surprise date I planned for our anniversary. I quickly make the call, and grab our drinks.

After our short coffee break, we head off to our next class but this time for world studies.

At the end of class, an announcement rang through the school, calling all student to the

auditorium for a debrief on the Testing. Together, we head to the auditorium and get situated for

a long speech.

Well, I see that everyone has successfully arrived, so lets begin. As we all know, the

Testing sorts our great student from our satisfactory ones. You will be tested on IQ, fitness, and

your general culture, race, etc. No tardies or inappropriate behavior will be tolerated during this

time. Routine searches will take place, and will be used as a method to organize students,

creating Testing groups. Group wont be allowed to communicate with each other, or there will

be severe consequences, Mr.White, our principle, continued explaining, despite the faces of

horror on each student. Starting from today till the end of Testing, students wont be allowed to

leave the campus. At that concluding statement, the face of terror turned to just plain annoyed,

and a collective groan filled the room as everyone left.

Countless times before I have attempted to surprise Roy, but each attempt ended in

failure. Its either me being terrible at keeping secrets, or Roy is just extremely good at reading
people. (The only thing that matters is that I can never surprise him.) Instead of trying to make

some elaborate story to convince him to go somewhere (Ive tried that. Tried.), I straight up ask

him. We head into the restaurant, and because of my reservation, we were able to get a table

overlooking the nicest park on campus.

Hey Jaou, you do realize I figured out you planned something when you left for an

unusually long time while getting our drinks, Roy said laughing, while sitting down.

Well, I tried, I mumble, looking down at my hands. I never fail to embarrass myself in

front of Roy, and I still dont understand why he puts up with the clumsy awkward mess that I

am. But hey, whatever floats your boat Roy. We get our menus, but barely even glance at it, as

we have read this menu over a hundred time, and we order from memory. Yes, we do do that

couple thing where we order for each other (its not that cliche is it?). After our delightful meal,

and random witty banter, we head to the bridge that runs over the small, creek.

Hey, Roy, do you remember how we first met? It was during college orientation, while

finding out our roommate assignment, and we ran directly into each other- falling into this

creek. I paused sighing, I still cant get over the fact that we hated each other. You even

offered to do my laundry, and being the idiot I am, I just walked away. Sorry about that by the

way, I was a short, angsty emo back then. Well Im still short, but thats not the point. And then

after that mishap we ended up being roommates. The more I say this outloud the more I realize

this sounds like some cliche Wattpad story, wow go us. I continued whilst Roy looks down at

me with a huge smile on his face. And when we first moved in, you brought in all of this merch

from Sherlock, and I was so confused, until you forced me to watch it, and now its our thing. I

sigh recollecting on all these memories, From then on we actually became friends, and the rest
just happened. So, before you threw out some of your merch, I saved these two. I pull two

bracelets from my pocket, and look up to see teary-eyed Roy. So um here, you have Watson,

and Ill take the one that says Sherlock, I got them engraved with our names on the inside too.

Wow, Roy sighs and laughs. I love you, he whispers and pulls me into a tight

embrace. Before saying anything else, I see armed officials, wearing school ID badges

approaching us out of the corner of my eye.

Excuse me, we are looking for Roy Hayes. This is Testing business; he was chosen for

Testing Group 1. He will not be able to see anyone else after this point, and if he refuses to come

he will be taken by force, or face worse consequences, one of the officials explained, without

any sign of emotion. Roy, slowly turned around to face them with a solemn face, in a somewhat

why now expression, and then turned back to look at me.

Well, I guess I have to go, but when this Testing shit is over Ill see you, he sighed.

Ciao for now, Jaou, he said with one last laugh, before the officials impatiently grabbed his

arm and forced him to leave. I wasnt able to give anything but a weak smile in return, and I

walk back to my now silent dorm. I flop into my bed without changing or getting ready for bed,

and I force myself to sleep.

I wake up to the preset alarm Roy set up for me, and I go to wake him up, as he is always

the one to wake me up, but I stop myself right before opening his room door. I head to the

classrooms where The Testing was taking place, and the room wasnt very interesting (to be

totally honest, it kinda looked like a hospital). There were no posters and no color in the entire

room. The staff members organized us into groups and each group was led to an even smaller

room. The metal desks lined up perfectly spaced, were each topped with a name tag and a giant
packet. Imagine your biggest test and multiply that by 100, because, yeah, that booklet could be a

novel. We all searched our name tags, and I found mine next to someone named Jerome Lee.

Curiously, I took a quick glance around and realize everyone in this room was Asian and male. I

dismiss it as a coincidence and I open up the large booklet once the time started, prepared for

unsolvable math equations, but to my surprise the questions in the booklet only referred to

physical appearances. There were questions on height, gender, hair color, eye color, and even

sexuality (gotta embrace my homosexuality), but no academic questions. The booklet took less

than an hour to complete, as no actual thinking was involved, and I left the room slightly

confused.

Once I exited, a staff member awaited right in front of the door, and lead me to another

smaller room. A doctor was sitting in the center of the room, and motioned for me to sit on the

bed. On the wall there was a line of colored tubes, and placed on the table next to me there was a

tray with needles attached to one of the colored tubes. Yea, you may call me a wimp, but I hate

needles. I mean, why would anyone want a sharp metal piece stab your layers of skin and draw

out blood? The doctor approaches me, takes my blood pressure, and without a warning, injects

me with the needle. After nearly passing out from fear, I leave the room into another area filled

with treadmills, and other exercise machines. As someone whose workout consists of walking up

the stairs and getting out of bed, I knew I would probably fail this portion of the test. Other

students have already begun running, and I walked towards another staff member stationed by

the desk in the gym. They attach little suction cups with wires hooked up to it around my body,

and they gave me a list of machines to exercise on. Lets just say, I was out of breath after
running for three minutes on the treadmill. Day one of testing was done, and I was slightly

disappointed that I wasnt able to showcase something that I actually have a talent for.

The next day of testing consisted of being lead to never-ending rooms once again, but this

time we got tested on IQ. I saw no needle, no asylum looking rooms, just a normal desk, in a

normal classroom, with a booklet with actual academic questions.The test itself was difficult, but

manageable. Many questions were extremely specific, which were not appreciated, but hopefully

my guessing skills wont fail me. Day two of testing was over fairly quickly, and I feel that I

may actually have a chance of a good Test score, compared to the mess of an exercise section I

had to go through yesterday.

The next few days were normal school days, boring lectures, and the only difference- no

Roy. I didnt have my partner in crime to go to the cafe, or complain about lectures with. At

one point I even ordered his usual drink at the cafe, until it was too late and I overpaid for a drink

that I dont even like. Trust me, when you are drowning in student debt like me, every penny

counts. I havent seen Roy in over a month now, and I keep staring at my Sherlock bracelet,

waiting for him to just appear in front of me, but he wont.

After a long break from testing, another IQ test was conducted throughout the campus.

The test was slightly difficult than before, with more specific questions- again not appreciated.

This pattern of a long break and then another test repeated for another three months, until finally

all the students were called to the amphitheatre to be organized into groups of pass and fail.

Everyone, slightly nervous, as none of us were told what would happen if we failed, and

going by how strict they were towards this, failing did not seem like a good idea.
 Good morning students and staff, today marks the final day of Testing. I am sure all of

you are excited to see how well you may have done, but before we begin with who passed and

who failed, I would like to explain each step of the Testing and why it was done. Test 1 was

separating you into testing groups. Each person was separated from someone close to them, and

then separated into smaller groups consisting of the same race and gender. Those who werent of

minority in any aspect, gained leverage over the rest. IQ Testing commenced soon after, testing

your basic academic level. A new test was made each month to check for any improvement in

our students. Many of you passed this with flying colors, but if you failed in athletics, and/or you

were not of the favored gender, race, sexuality, etc. you may not have passed. If some of the

aspects are fixable, you will be put in a separate group, and soon after you will be placed with

those who passed. The rest of you guys have sadly failed, and will be taken someplace else for

further consequences, explained the principle, Mr. White. At that note, he began listing off

students that had fixable aspects, whatever that meant. I listened in hoping that I would at least

be in this group, as the consequences he mentioned for the failures didnt seem favorable to me.

Name after name, I was still waiting to hear my name, but it never came. At the last second, one

recognizable name was mentioned. Roy Hayes. I immediately jumped up to try and get a glimpse

of Roy, but my shortness prevented me from seeing above the head of the person in front of me.

Curse my short genes. Next they moved on to calling students who passed. My heart pounding, I

hoped and prayed that my name would be called. Names were being called, but Jaou Lin was

never called. My heart dropped, and I took a look around to see every other student that failed

was either female, not white, and not straight.

 All of the students that were to be fixed were taken into the same building where the

blood tests were taken for the Testing, and those who passed were to return to their normal

classes. But we failed. I knew we were to face something worse, but we were told to just return

to class as well. Seems that I worried for nothing. Maybe the worst that would happen is that I

dont get a job or something, which would be tragic, but I guess I could live with that. The slow

realization creeped up on me- I get to live with Roy again. I finally get to see him now that all

this crap is done. No more blood tests, or giant booklets, I just get to spend some quality time

with my Roy. I rush back to my dorm, and wait for Roy to return from the doctor place.

Many minutes passed, and I continued to wait in front of the door for Roy to arrive, but

minutes turned into hours, and I start to worry he wont ever come back. Near the brink of sleep,

I jolt awake to the sound of the door opening, and I wake up to see Roy, looking pale with dark

circles under his eyes. His hands were shaking and in his hands were a bottle of pills. His dirty

blonde hair was a tangled mess and his eyes appeared red, from what seems like the after effect

of crying. I run up to him worried, ready to give him a hug, but he flinches and backs away from

me.

Who are you? he whispers, with clear confusion and worry in his watery eyes.

Your boyfriend? Jaou? Roy are you okay? What are those pills? Roy???? I reply,

slightly hurt, but more concerned.

I...I dont have boyfriend? Im straight? And these pills are from my doctor? I have been

taking them for over a month. What... what are you doing in my room? he whimpers with a

shaky voice.
 But, dont you remember me? I Im your boyfriend? We dated for three years? How

can you not remember? I cried.

Coming to the conclusion of what as going on here, I stopped pestering him to remember

me, knowing that doing so would only make the situation worse. I quietly nodded and smiled,

lead him to his room, and whispered, Im just your roommate, no big deal. Sorry, I thought you

were someone else. Goodnight. In a state of shock, I walked back into my room, and was left in

awe. Was that what they meant by fix? Why would they give those pills? Just to change who

someone loves? That night, I cried myself to sleep, thinking that the time on the bridge before he

was taken, was the last time I would ever see Roy.

Many months went by, and still not punishment was cast out for failing the test. Roy soon

moved out of the dorm, and I lived alone wishing to just leave this wretched place, but we still

werent allowed to leave. By the end of the fourth month, everyone who failed was called to the

amphitheatre for the last time. But this time it was different. In front of the stage lined a row of

men with masks, holding giant rifles. I take a closer look and one of the men, to see familiar

eyes lock into mine. Roy.

Well, as you all already know, you have failed the test. Unlucky as you may be, you just

might have a better time away from this world. Your loved ones no longer remember you, and

their last test is to cut off any ties they may still rekindle if any more time is spend with you. Im

truly sorry you are forced to go through with this, but it is for your loved one's own good. But

congratulations, you are officially done with Testing. Mr. Whites voice rang loud and clear in

each students ear.

 The look of pure terror was seen on every students face, and in return the familiar

masked figures approached each of their corresponding student with no remorse. As Roy came

closer to me, I gave him one last smile with a tear rolling down my eye, and took off the

Sherlock bracelet I had and placed it on the ground next to me. I jump at this first gunshot in the

distance, and a few pleas for help were heard throughout the crowd.

I step up to face Roy and mouth a quick, I love you, as I feel the bullet pierce through

my chest. At least I didnt have to die from the hands of society, and I didnt have to face the

fixing that many others have gone through. I glance up at Roy, and his face slowly filled with

recognition and terror.

JAOU WAIT NO, he screamed. The screams of many of the other masked figures rang

through the otherwise silent lawn, as realization struck all of them. He held me close to his chest,

and grasped the bracelet on the ground, with tears streaming down his face. The last thing I heard

before dying was Mr. White applauding and shouting for others to take the dead bodies away.

My life may have come to an end, but the only thought killing me was how Roy would have to

face a fate worse than mine. As I slowly drift into the abyss of death, I think about all the time I

spent with Roy. From the moment we met, crashing into each other and falling into the fountain.

To the time where we cried about Sherlocks fake death, when we just began dating. To the last

time I saw the true him, on the same bridge we met. If only we were able to share one last laugh,

before the world ruined our love for good. Society stripped away the one thing needed most in

life: love.