The Test [Book One of The Test] (Watty Award Winner 2014)

Chapter One

A lot of people seem to get confused at this point, so i'm going to clear something up. Natalie Daniels is the person in the prologue. Lexi James is the person here. They are two different people. Natalie will come into the story again later though. And, in case you feel like seeing what happened to Natalie after she was taken in the prologue, there's a prequel on my account called 'The Computer' which revolves around that subject. Please enjoy :)

The Test

Chapter One 

Present Day

"Lexi." 

There's that annoying high pitched voice I missed so much.

Not.

Still, I turned around to greet it.

"Mary." I said with as much excitement I hoped was showing on my face.

She instantly wrapped me in one of her suffocating hugs and told me how much she missed me. In case you haven't caught on yet, i'm not exactly Mary's biggest fan. Well, it's not my fault my dad decided to marry the most annoying thing in the world. I mean, I don't blame him, I want him to be happy but I just wish he was still happy with my mom. 

And you know not Mary.

Mary then went from me to my twin brother, Marcus, who unlike me looked like he was actually enjoying hugging her. 

"Alright you two." I turned around to see my dad pointing at me and Marcus. Knowing he got our attention, he continued, "Who's ready for the beach?"

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The day me and Marcus turned seven, my family went to the beach and we had a picnic. We swam, made sandcastles that fell down immediately, and had an all around good time. It's actually my favorite family memory. But just because it was, doesn't mean it was all peaches and cream, in fact that's the day I broke my right arm in two places after attempting to take part in a dare to jump off the pier. Long story short, as I was about to jump my foot slipped from under me and I fell hard on the pier and hit my arm in just the right place to break it. But that was still my favorite day. Because even though I was crying and holding my arm in pain, even though I was being surrounded by strange people trying to help as the Florida sun was beating down on me, that was the last happy memory I had before my parents called it quits.

But this day at the beach will never be like that. Ever. Breaking my arm would be an improvement on this day. We drove the two hours to the beach just for the rain to make an appearance minutes later. But me, being the stubborn seventeen year old I am, I went swimming anyway only to have my dad have me get out of the water moments later when it started thundering and lightning. And then we started the long trip back home followed by Mary's marvelous story of the day the hairdresser saved her life.

Yippee

Once we finally got back home, I exited the car and entered the house without saying goodbye. My brother came in a few minutes later, followed by the sound of the car driving off to take my dad and his darling wife back to the hotel they would be staying at while they were here.

"Alexandria Ann James," my brother said. I hated it when he used my full name, it always meant he was angry with me. "I know you don't like Mary but that doesn't mean you shouldn't say goodbye to your own father." At that comment, I turned to face him. We had a lot of the same characteristics, blond hair, blue eyes, our father's nose. We even liked and agreed on many of the same things too, so why does he like Mary so much?

"Just drop it Marcus." I said, not wanting to see his look of anger anymore. "And I prefer being called Lexi, remember?" That was the last thing I said before I left the room and went to my own while pulling out my phone and texting the two people that could fix even this disaster of a day. Besides, what are best friends for, right?

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"Honey, i'm home." bellowed a loud voice from the living room followed by a irritated whine. "Nate, I was going to say that." 

They bickered like that until, finally, I entered the room after just finishing laughing my head off.

"LEXI!" Nate and Maddie screamed.

I was immediately engulfed in the biggest of hugs before they both made themselves right at home, starting a sci-fi movie marathon in my very own living room.

But that was Nate Tanner and Maddie Smith for you.

The story of how I became best friends with these two lunatics goes all the way back to kindergarten at recess when a couple of kids were picking on me. Nate came up and and tried to get them to stop by biting one of them in the arm and Maddie came and punched the other in the nose. It was a fine day in the history of parenting when that went down, note the sarcasm. But nevertheless, we've been best friends ever since.

After watching movie after movie, and eating bowl of popcorn after bowl of popcorn, Nate decided he should go home, leaving me and Maddie to laugh at our movie alone.

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Maddie, being how she is, invited herself to stay the night and that's how we got to this point, both of us sitting on my bed in my room staying up late talking and laughing even when my mom told us to go to bed an hour ago.

"Okay, we should probably go to bed now." I said, trying to make my voice sound serious but of course we only ended up laughing harder.

When we finally did start to go to bed, I could feel sleep pulling me in.

"Lexi."

"Yeah?"

"We'll always be best friends. Right?"

I thought about it. We are seventeen and we are going to be seniors once school starts back. This will be our last summer together before we go off to college. We'll go our separate ways. But I knew the answer of course. I rolled over to face her.

"Heck yeah. Think you can get rid of me that easily? Well, I got news for you girl, i'm not so easy to get rid of." I said.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

I rolled back over and fell asleep instantly.

❒❒❒❒

I saw a tree. Just one tree standing alone in a valley of black. It was short, probably my height and it wasn't like any tree I had seen before. The bark was red with spiraling orange roots that curled in my direction. The leaves were blue and pointy, more like icicles than leaves, with somewhat of a glow to them. It was so compelling. Something inside me moved me forward and I touched it sending a shock of pain through my head. More trees formed, popping up from the ground. With each new tree came new pricks of pain in my head causing me to fall from the pain. I rested my head in my hands begging for the pain to leave. I looked up to see light slowly beginning to appear to my left. It looked so reassuring and welcoming and warm. I got up and moved toward it slowly at first and then I moved faster and faster, the pain getting weaker and weaker and with it came a sort of free feeling. Free yet uncomfortable. Like flying but then suddenly falling. I kept running and I soon saw a hole in the ground. It looked dark and cold but before I even knew what was happening, I was falling down it, being swallowed up by the darkness, being chilled to the bone until the darkness surrounded me. The thing was, I welcomed it. It was strange and comforting. That's the last thing I remember before it all went dark.