Mission Mars: How to Get into the Space Program (Book 1): Make it to the On-site Testing (Part 1): (Chapter 2)
A month of school and training quickly passed. Now it was time to apply online to the on-site testing of Space Training Program. First, was the thing the general information form. On day one, we filled out an extensive form with all our information.
The next day, we carefully checked to see if we had made it to the next level. Despite the fact that 23.475% of people had been denied, we were still there. We took the math test. It was so much harder than what he had trained for, which caused me to wonder if I had passed it at all.
The next day, John wouldn't even log in to see if he had passed, so Asher had to do it for him. John was in the top 19.7987%, but he still passed and that was all that mattered. I did much better ranking in the top 15%.
On the third day, we did the science test. When I started the test, I couldn't read any of the questions. After about 30 seconds, I found out that it had defaulted to the wrong language. I was able to find the button to change the language and switch it to English. The questions were still quite difficult, but at least they made some sort of sense now. I got right to work and was able to get something done before the time was up. I was very nervous for the results, since I would have to rank in the top 20% of all the people that passed the math test. The people that had done well on the math test, likely did well on the science test. This would make it harder for me to pass the test.
When I went to train with Asher and John, John told me that he wasn't sure if he had passed. This made me really nervous, since John was the better of the two of us at science. It was getting harder and harder to survive these training sessions. We were both so nervous about finding out if we had made it. We both had very bad feelings about what could possibly happen tomorrow.
After a sleepless night, I logged on. I stared pinched myself, and tried everything to wake myself up from this bad dream. Nothing I did worked the big red letters that said "DENIED!!!" were still there. My heart sank. What should I do? Should I tell Asher? Would he be disappointed and yell at me? Did John get in? How would I take it if he got in? What if he even made it to Mars? Would he comfort me or brag? There were so many questions that I didn't know what to do. I just cried and cried until it was time to train. I decided that I should go anyway. At least to check-in with John and Asher. That is what I told myself, but I knew that what I really wanted to do was to see what John and Asher knew. I could have just asked Asher, but that wouldn't have been very fair, so I would just have to wait until training.
At John's house, I saw that John was nervous, but okay, so he must have made it thus far. That screwed up my fears that everyone had been denied just to see what would happen. Maybe, I had thought, that it would be some kind of test or something. Asher and John immediately saw how disappointed I was and figured out what happened. Surprisingly, Asher encouraged me with the fact that he didn't make it in either. I had never thought of it that way. I now realized how insensitive I had been. I had seen Asher come home from the space training program testing, but but hadn't done anything about it. I should have at least been a little kinder or something. I could have helped him with all of his chores. I never completely understood how hard it was for Asher to give up all his emotions to help us. I had never understood why Asher pushed us so hard. Now I knew, but I couldn't do anything about it. I had already failed. Somehow, Asher was able to put his emotions aside, so I should be able to as well.
Midway through training, John's mother told me that someone had called for me. It must have been very important, since no one ever bothered the three of us during our training sessions. I wonder if it was my parents. Had they found out that I had failed and were going to get me in trouble for not making it? I was their second and final son, which meant that I was their last hope to get a son in the space program. I remembered how proud they were to send Asher to the space training program testing and how disappointed they were when he didn't make it. They hadn't known what to do with him. They had been so sure that he would make it that they hadn't made any other plans. Eventually, they had assigned him to help me and John get into the space training program. I hadn't made it!!! Oh no!!! They were going to be so made at John for failing and it was all my fault. I had scored at 20.000012%, which was just outside of the passing rate. What was I going to do to handle all of the disappointment of my parents. I reluctantly picked up the phone. It was my mother. What was I going to do???
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