My Other Life
I've been in this place for a while now. The doctors keep telling me I’m going to be okay, and everything is going to be alright. I don’t believe a word they’re saying. Twilight said it would be impossible for the doctors here to know how to treat me, because I have an illness that requires unicorn magic. I decided that I’m going to write a story about my life, and how it was forever changed. Maybe someday, when I am long gone, my story will be found, and the world will know what happened to me.
* * * *
Today was just a normal day for me. My mom woke me up, and I got ready for school. You know, the usual. But today was a very special day for me. Today my mom was going to have me take something called an IQ test. I’m not really sure what it is, but I guess it’s supposed to tell you how smart you are. We are supposed to go after school today.
School was really boring like it always is. My teacher Mr. Smith was having us memorize our times tables again. We spent almost two whole hours on just flash cards, and using something called Math Facts in a Flash. That’s something like flash cards, but it’s something on the computer, and it does addition, subtraction, division, and all kinds of other math! I think I have all my multiplication memorized up to 12.
Recess wasn't really much, although I did have a lot of fun playing dodge ball again. We went back inside, and did some Language Arts. It was just reading some story about someone named Gloria Estefan. It was boring, but at least we did something. After that, we went to lunch. I played some more dodge ball, but quickly got bored. I ended up just leaving the game, when I noticed there were a couple people all looking at something on the ground. I walked over to them, and saw that it was a shiny neon green rock that seemed to be stuck in the ground.
“Hey Cloudy,” Melissa, a girl from my class called to me. “Look at this weird rock in the ground.”
“Yeah,” Johnny chimed in. “No one can get it out, no matter how hard they try.”
“Wait, you mean like pull it out?” I asked, unsure of what he meant.
“Yeah, because it looks really cool, so whoever pulls it out of the ground gets to keep it!”
“Cool, can I try?”
“Sure, just wrap your fingers around it, and pull.”
I curled my fingers around the rock, and to my surprise, it easily came out of the ground! I showed off the small, palm-sized rock to my friends, but the bell rang, so everyone started walking back to class. I put the rock into my pocket, and followed suit.
The rest of the day we spent doing some Social Studies. We learned about fossils, and how they get made after a million years of being in the ground. I couldn’t have been happier when school was finally over, and I could finally go home. But then I remembered the test, and I was saddened, for I now had to go take it.
My mom picked me up from the front of the school, and we went off to have me take the test.
“Hey mom, how long is the test going to take?” I asked her, wanting to know.
She smiled to me as she answered my question. “Well, it’s supposed to take about three or four hours. Don’t worry though, after you finish we can go to eat anywhere you want.”
“Thanks mom!” I was content knowing we would get to eat anywhere I wanted to afterwards, but I still didn’t get why it would take us so long. If this test was so long, then why couldn’t I take it an hour a day, or something along those lines?
We went the rest of the way talking about how school was for me, and how work was for mom. Mom had had a decent day, so she was in a normal mood.
When we got to the place where I was going to take the test, I thought it looked a little weird. It was a large building, and there didn’t seem to be many people around the outside. I looked around the building, and saw a sign on one. I believe the sign, “Stanford.” Either way, we ended up stopping here and getting off.
My mom and I walked through the parking lot, and there just seemed to be an air about the place. It was almost as if the whole area was just screaming with authority.
We went into the first building, and there was this lady at the front desk, Beatrice was her name I believe.
“Hello, we’re here about my son Cloudys IQ test. Do you know which building we have to go to?”
Beatrice answered my mom with a polite, but somewhat dreary tone of voice. “Well, this is the building for those tests! Just check in right here and Doctor Rosenberg will be with you shortly.”
Beatrice had my mom fill out some paperwork, and then we ended up waiting in the lobby again for about ten more minutes. My mom just checked Facebook the whole time, whilst I mainly thought about the test. What would it be like? Would it be like the test they made me take for G.A.T.E., with the shapes and colours? I continued to think about this until the doctor showed up.
“Hello, I am Dr. Rosenberg. I will be giving your child the IQ test, so please follow me into the back room.” He finished, motioning for us to follow him. We followed him into some sort of room, and he had me sit down at a table.
“I was just wondering Dr. Rosenberg, but am I allowed to be in the room while Cloudy takes the test?” My mother asked, unsure of whether or not she was allowed to.
“Yes, so long as you aren’t disturbing us, or interfering with the test in any way,” he replied to her. “Okay now, Cloudy. I am going to show you some pictures, and I would like to tell you what you see. Don’t worry, there is no wrong answer.”
“Wait, so all I have to do is tell you what I see in the picture?” I asked, not sure of whether or not this was a real test.
“Yes, that is exactly what you are doing for this part of the test. Don’t worry though. There are other things we will have you begin doing after.”
He pulled out his clipboard, and showed me a couple of pictures. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be seeing animals or what, but I kept on seeing words and numbers in the pictures. He wrote down what I was seeing, and after a while we went on to another part.
We did a lot of things during that test. He would say a word, and I would say the first thing that popped into my mind. He’d show me a shape, and I would tell him what shape it was. Two pictures would be shown to me, and I would have to tell him as many differences that I saw in a short amount of time. Just simple things like that.
When Dr. Rosenberg finished up the test, he looked at the results oddly. “Ms. Serrano, may I speak to you in private for a moment?”
“Oh, well um, alright then.” My mom answered him, obviously confused by this. “Cloudy, just wait out at the front for a moment, okay?”
“Okay mom!” I said, glad to be done with the test.
I walked out of the room, and headed towards the waiting room again. I waited there for a few minutes, all the time wondering what Dr. Rosenberg could be talking to my mom about. When my mom came out with him, however, she looked slightly stressed out, and in a bad mood.
“Cloudy, I found out something important happened. We need to stay with the people here for a while. Don’t worry; I’m going to be here too. We’ll have to stay in a room, though.”
“But why do we have to stay here mom?” I didn’t understand. Why would mom have us stay here, when we have our own home?”
“It’s just really important that we stay here right now, okay? Don’t worry though, it’s just going to be for a few days at the most. The doctors here just want to do a few more tests on you.”
“I have to do more tests!?!?” I exclaimed incredulously. “But the last one was super boring, and it took forever. Do we really have to?”
“Don’t worry about it, Cloudy. You’ll be fine. Come on, we’re heading to our room now.”
“Wait, can’t we go home and get our stuff?”
“Oh, I’ll just go tomorrow and get it for us. Just come along, and we can get some ice cream once we find our room.”
“Okay, mom.”
We spent about twenty more minutes getting our room, and becoming organized in it. It was really small, but it came with a T.V., and two beds, which meant I would at least get to watch some Television tonight. We ate a late dinner, and then finally got some ice cream after. Mom took me to buy some pajamas for the night, and then we went back to our room. I got dressed for bed, and then watched T.V. until 9 o’clock.
“Good night, mom.” I said, kissing her on the cheek.
“Good night Cloudy. Have sweet dreams.” She kissed me on the cheek too, and then I crawled into my bed. I was about to fall asleep when I remembered the rock from earlier in the day. I quickly got up and grabbed it out of my pants. My mom wanted to know what I was doing, but I said I was just checking something.
I got back into bed, and felt the rock with my hands. It was so smooth, and didn’t have any prominent edges on it. I put the rock under my pillow, so I would know where it was in the morning, and drifted off to sleep. Little did I know this was where all my trouble would start.