BLUE VENOM

One

I've waited for this day, but not for the same reason that most people have.

I got out of bed and slapped the alarm shut, that played happy pop songs to get me out of my stone shade silk sheets.

My room was huge and open.

The air smelled of something between mint and window cleaner.

Three long marble walls and one glas front, overlooking a simple heath garden. It was surrounded by high bamboo that acted like a fence.

A simple room but the expensive stones in here made it look heavier than it should be.

I dropped the white blanket and tiptoed barefoot to my bathroom.

It also had three walls and a glass front.

On the terrace in front of it, I could still see water glistening in my jacuzzi.

I bent over the long stone sink and let cold water rinse my rough skinned face. In the morning I always felt like a crab, full of crust and sand.

In the full wall mirror before me, I saw tired grey eyes and streaky dark hair. The water disappeared in an invisible slit behind the stone of the basin. I would enter test day squeaky clean.

I stepped into the glass wall that separated the shower area from the rest of the room and stared up into the skylight. A waterfall of scorching hot water fell out from around it. But through the window, I could see the bleak grey morning sky and while I rubbed my whole body in peach blossom scented shampoo, I pressed my eyes shut and waited for the world to stop. But it didn't.

The day was still here. It was a meaningless day and yet it was the most portant day in everybodies life. The first time to get tested. A big red X and in every teens calendar.

Most would take this as an opportunity to brag about how not scared they were. Some will cry and some will try to dodge the test. Others will come out of the unit and throw up. Surely, everyone will throw a party like they had their sweet sixteenth all over again and they will eat ridiculous amounts of fast food and come hung over to school. But it won't really change anything for anyone.

It's just a mandatory thing that we had to go through with in order for the world to function. According to the government.

I sneezed when I came out of the shower. I never managed to not regulate the smart heating system in my rooms to the point that I wasn't either too hot or too cold.

Maybe taking an ice bath in my jacuzzi at mid night hadn't been such a great idea after all but I've had this weird itching ever since the thoughts about the test were no longer something I could push aside.
It's just a stupid precaution, I reminded myself. Calm down.

It's not like anything ever happened. I didn't know why people made such a fuss about it.

I got dressed and walked down the floating stairs to the huge open living area that overlooked more of the Heath garden. My father was already gone, of course. He was a top tier lawyer and I barely even saw his face, except during holidays and that's when he had his practiced and perfectionized let's-win-this-case-smile on, like celebrations between our family where another case to get over with. But my mother sat at the long walnut table, heir whitish blond hair in a loose updo, her white silk morning robe around her shoulders. Her pajama pants had a coffee stain that she didn't mind while sipping out of her cup. My brother Aron was spooning his cereal, tousled dark head hanging over the screen of his phone. Never emerging, like he was on one of his dives during swim practice. Only one that made me smile was my nine year old sister Kenzie, who sat at the table and played with the pink chocolate balls on her pancake.