This is the first chapter I am writing from my PERSONAL LAPTOP!!! I have MY OWN LAPTOP!!! Either I'm going to be updating way more or letting my life fall further into disrepair as I surf YouTube...

*

This Trial is both more difficult and simpler. On one hand, I could just kill everyone in this park. They're not real. It wouldn't truly affect anything.

On the other hand, the Albinos might deduct points for doing something like that. Killing everyone wouldn't give the aliens any new information about myself or the human race - it would just be further confirmation of my insanity.

Sighing, I walk up to the picnicking family. "Hello," I say cheerily. "How are you this fine day?"

The man and woman look a little startled at my forwardness, but they both smile, friendly enough. "We're fine, thank you," the woman said, glancing at her husband.

"Just decided to get out and into the fresh air," he adds, hugging his little boy close. The child's face twists in anger as the sudden show of affection makes him release the false grass he had been pulling back.

"Why isn't there grass?" he asks, seeming very upset about this mystery. "Why is there only fake grass?"

"Hush, honey," his mother hisses, throwing me a "he's just a child, I'm sorry" look. On Earth, it isn't socially acceptable to point out the obvious lack of "true" nature. Socially, it's right up there with insulting lifestyle aspects, like wearing different clothes for one's religion or not eating certain foods. Of course, children don't know any better - they never have.

I take a closer look at the little boy. His sandy blond hair falls in a mop, the fringe almost completely covering his eyes. He keeps pushing it back and out of his face impatiently. His blue eyes are filled with anger and his small, chubby face is contorted with fury, an odd expression on such a small child.

"It's wrong," he snaps, refusing to follow his mother's orders of silence.

"It's just how things are. Hush, now," his father says, his voice growing colder.

"We should have real grass!"

His face...why is his face so familiar?

"Sweetie, there is real grass. It's just bad for us," his mother tries, a common lie told to children. I myself believed it until I was about ten.

All of a sudden, I can place who the child is. The little boy... "I know you," I blurt before I can stop myself.

The family looks up at me, the little boy squinting. "I'm sorry?" his mother asks politely, confused.

Without answering, I raise my gun, taking careful aim. Quickly, I pull the trigger.

BAM!

The woman shrieks, short and piercing. The little boy screams as well, promptly bursting into tears.

His father lies dead before me, the astroturf beneath him quickly turning scarlet red, his handsome face imploded.

The park illusion disappears and I am in an empty room, exactly like the one in the first Trial - although clean of blood.

A door opens and Maggie enters. She is smiling genuinely and widely, not her usual placid look. "Well done, Sage. How did you figure it out?"

"A decade ago, a revolutionist rose to power, though nobody knew he was a revolutionist, of course. He got the presidency for eight years and set to work starting several organizations that actively vandalized any fake nature. They were against anything artificial. When word got out of the things he was doing, somebody shot him. That little boy looked just like him, and his father looked exactly like his son as an adult."

"So why not shoot the son?"

"His parents didn't let him start receiving an education until he was eleven. He didn't even go to public school - he started learning from his father. His father, it was later discovered, abused him when he couldn't remember facts or recite passages and that sort of thing. When he got enough questions right, he was rewarded with things like pets and money - huge sums of it. Due to this severe punishment-reward system, he was an expert in law and debate by the time he was sixteen and got the presidency with an overwhelming victory. about a decade later."

"That doesn't answer the question, Sage. It has a very simple answer, and you know it."

I hesitate. "The son isn't the evil one. He just believed in a...different world than most people do. He never even resorted to violence. His father was the one who was truly evil."

Maggie laughs. "Perfect, Sage, perfect! Congratulations. You have passed the second Trial with flying colors. Absolutely phenomenal."

I try to feel pride but can't. I finished the Trial. So? For all I know, one of the others completed it before me. All that matters is winning the overall game. The outcome of one Trial doesn't matter.

"You are mostly clean, so you may return to the changing room and reenter the main ship," Maggie continues, and the door that I entered through, opens.

*

Deirdre and Xavier are already waiting in the cafeteria. "Are Jake and Nicole done?" I ask as I grab myself mac and cheese along with chocolate milk (an odd mixture, but truly delicious).

"Either they haven't finished their Trials yet or something went wrong," Xavier replied. "We just know that they're not back yet."

Deirdre is staring pensively into her chicken noodle soup. "What's up, kiddo?" I ask as I sit across from her.

"I shot everyone," she answers quietly. "I shot everyone in the Trial. I don't know if that was the right thing to do."

"It's what I wanted to do at first," I reassure her, even though it really wasn't. It had just been one of my several options. "Plus, you're 100% guaranteed to have hit the bad guy, and they might even give you extra points. Maybe there were multiple soldiers. Everyone's evil in some way, right? The instructions were vague."

I can't tell if my words are helping the child. She merely nods, her expression unreadable, and stirs her soup.

After about five more minutes, Nicole enters the cafeteria. "You have a bit of blood on your cheek," I tell her, and she rubs vigorously at her clean, porcelain skin.

"She's lying," Xavier mutters, calmly taking a bite out of his flapjacks. Nicole glares at me and sits beside him, forgoing food.

"Too good for nourishment now, are we?" I ask mockingly. Nicole closes her eyes briefly and presses her lips together, calming herself.

Jake enters the room fifteen awkward, silent minutes later. He sits next to me and bends over so his forehead is resting on the edge of the table.

I lean down to join him. It feels like we are in our own little bubble as Deirdre silently worries and Xavier and Nicole quietly talk.

"What happened?" I whisper.

"I wouldn't kill anyone."

I sigh. "Jake, that was a stupid thing to do."

"I couldn't, Sage, I couldn't." The way he says my name, so desperate and pleading as if he needs my help, makes something twinge inside of me.

"You have picked just about the worst person here to befriend," I whisper. "I don't know what to do." I remember what I used to do for my mother when she was sad. I carefully wrap my arms around Jake, burying my face in his arm. My face is not as large as his shoulder, nor do my fingertips touch as they wrap around his body. His muscles tense at first, but finally he relaxes into me, going slack.

"What happened?" I ask again, hoping for more details.

"Finally, they gave up and showed me the person I had to kill, trying to make me do it. I...I still wouldn't do it. They finally just let me go."

I groaned. "Jake..."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I know I should have just killed them, it's not like they're real people..."

"You're not like that, though. Honestly, I was a little surprised you even participated in the first Trial."

"I was, too. It wasn't as bad, though...because I was killing..."

I think back and realize that the only clones I even saw Jake kill were his own. "What," I ask angrily, "now you want to kill yourself?" I am surprised at the fury in my voice. I am surprised the Voice is letting me feel anything at all.

"No, Sage. No..." He trails off and I take a deep breath to calm myself.

"You don't sound sure."

Maggie enters the cafeteria, cutting off our argument. "Time to see the results, children."