MSA

I'm A Secret Genius: Not By Choice

My name is Abigail. Two years ago, I got into a car accident that changed everything.

I was in a coma for months. When I woke up, the world had moved on without me. I had missed school, I had missed my exams, I had missed the SAT. My parents were gone, and it was just me and my little sister Sally left.

After our parents died, we had to move in with our aunt and her husband. He was not a kind man. I promised myself that as soon as I could, I would pass my SAT, get into college, get a real job, and take Sally away from there. That was my only goal.

Now, after two years of recovery, I was finally healthy enough to take the SAT. I thought it would be a normal testing room. I was wrong. I got put in the retaker room - a room full of people who had failed before, or who had missed it like me.

The proctor walked in. Her name was Mrs. Fox. She was an old lady with a small tube in her throat that made her voice squeaky. She looked at all of us and said one thing:

"My name is Mrs. Fox, and I'm only going to say this once because I don't repeat myself. If I catch anyone cheating or looking at someone else's paper, I will make sure you fail so hard my face will haunt your nightmares for the rest of your lives."

I gulped. I was already nervous. The girl next to me scoffed. She had a bandage wrapped around her head, but somehow she still looked terrifying and beautiful at the same time. Her name was Haley. When she saw me looking at her, she gave me a nasty look.

Right then, a tall, handsome boy knocked on the door. He was late. He looked about a year older than me. He said, "I'm so sorry I'm late, ma'am. Please let me in." Mrs. Fox looked him up and down and waved him in. His name was Tom. He sat right behind me.

As soon as he sat down, Haley started whispering angrily to him. I quickly realized they were boyfriend and girlfriend, but Haley had just broken up with him on the way to the test over a stupid argument. When Haley noticed me listening, she said, "Want some popcorn?"

Then Mrs. Fox started passing out the papers. A nerdy-looking girl with huge glasses suddenly freaked out. Her name was Esme. She was the youngest in the room because she had skipped grades. She was a genius.

"This section wasn't in the study guide! This is a mistake! How could you include this?" she cried.

Mrs. Fox said, "So what do you want me to do? Cry about it? Do you know how to solve it or not?"

Esme said, "Yes, I memorized the book from cover to cover. I'm just stating a fact."

Mrs. Fox said, "Well here's another fact. I can kick you out if you don't shut up. Everyone, flip your papers and start."

We all started. The questions were hard, but my biggest problem was my nerves. My hands were shaking. I kept thinking about Sally at home. I kept thinking about what would happen if I failed again. I needed to pass for her.

Five minutes into the test, I heard whispering. It was Haley. At first I thought she was talking to herself. Then I saw it - a tiny earpiece hidden under the bandage on her head. She was cheating. She was getting answers from someone outside.

She was so focused she didn't notice Mrs. Fox standing right over her. Mrs. Fox tapped her foot and held out her hand. Haley slowly took out the earpiece and put it in Mrs. Fox's palm. She looked defeated.

Then Mrs. Fox put the earpiece to her own ear. We all heard the voice on the other end yelling, "Give it back to her, you psycho old lady! She paid me for those answers!"

It was obvious Haley had paid someone to feed her answers. The person on the phone even knew Mrs. Fox, like other students had tried this before with her.

Mrs. Fox started yelling back at the person on the earpiece. She was screaming into it. Then suddenly she started coughing. Hard. She grabbed her chest. She stumbled backward. Her eyes went wide. She whispered, "I should have retired in 1998." And then she collapsed to the floor.

For a second, nobody moved. Then we all ran to her.

"Do you think she's dead?" someone said.

"You killed her, Haley!" someone else said.

Haley said, "How is that my fault? She started screaming at a stranger through an earpiece."

Esme leaned down and checked her breathing. She gasped, "Oh my god. She's dead. She's actually dead. We have to report this."

She ran to the door, but a short, muscular guy grabbed her wrist and stopped her. His name was Hunter. I had noticed him earlier. His wrist had been handcuffed to the desk, but he had somehow gotten free. He was from juvenile detention.

He said, "Well, well. When the fox is away, the mice will play. It means we move her out of the way, finish the exam together, then report it. Understood?"

I said, "But that's unethical."

Hunter stepped so close our foreheads almost touched. "Do I look like I care?"

He looked around. "Does anyone here know how to answer all the questions besides little genius here?"

No one said anything. We were all struggling. One girl said her handwriting was pretty. She was flirting with Hunter, and he winked back. Then he remembered he was supposed to be scary. He said, "Great. I was about two seconds away from making Esme disappear too, but now we actually need her."

He pointed at Tom. "Hey, skyscraper. Help me move Mrs. Fox."

Haley liked the idea and shoved Tom forward. Most of the room was starting to side with Hunter. I kept thinking about Sally. For one stupid second, I thought maybe we could just cheat, pass, and walk away.

After we moved Mrs. Fox, I knelt beside her. That's when I noticed her chest was still moving up and down. She was breathing. She was alive. I was about to tell everyone when she suddenly squeezed my hand. I looked at her in shock. She shook her head and put her finger to her lips, telling me to be quiet.

She was alive, but she didn't want anyone to know. Why?

Hunter called my name and we all gathered around Esme. She had her arms crossed like a stubborn child. She said, "Cheating is illegal, unethical, and statistically one of the dumbest group decisions you could make in a room with a corpse."

We begged her. People offered her bribes.

One girl said, "I have 300,000 followers on i********:. I can mention you and you'll be famous."

One boy said, "I do stand-up at a coffee shop. I can get you free coffee for a year."

Another said, "My uncle is rich and will pay for your education."

Then it was my turn. I said, "Um, I have a McDonald's coupon for free small fries, but only if you buy a burger."

Someone laughed, "Wow, people are poor like this in real life?"

But Esme's face softened for a second when she looked at me.

Hunter got angry. He grabbed charger cords from a backpack to try to tie Esme up, but they were too short. He looked at Tom and asked if he had anything useful. Tom said, "I have compression socks." He took off one of the longest, ugliest socks I had ever seen. The whole room gagged when he took it off.

Hunter flipped it inside out and tiny folded papers fell out. The room went silent. Haley smiled and said, "Wow, at least I used my actual head to cheat. You used your sweaty feet."

I picked up a paper. It said, "The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell." It was 11th-grade biology. Useless for the SAT. Tom said, "It felt important, okay?"

Just then, a boy watching through the window in the door screamed, "The principal is coming!"

I had an idea. We all ran back to our seats. Tom and I propped Mrs. Fox up in her chair. I put my hand inside her jacket to move her arm and Tom stood behind her holding her head up. I whispered, "I'm sorry," into her ear.

The principal looked through the window. "Everything okay in here, Mrs. Fox?" Tom made Mrs. Fox nod and I gave a thumbs up with her hand. The principal said, "You alright? You look beat. That tube giving you trouble? Want me to call the nurse?" Tom shook Mrs. Fox's head no. The principal said, "Well, I'm a phone call away," and left.

That's when we remembered Mrs. Fox had a phone and we could use it to look up answers. Tom searched her pockets and found an ancient Nokia phone. Useless.

Tom remembered Haley's cheat guy. "Haley, give me the number of the guy you hired." Haley said she didn't remember. Tom said, "Check your hands, your ankles, the bottom of your shoes, all the places you hide guys' numbers from me." Haley got mad and said, "Why don't we tell everyone how you're a failed comedian and I'm the one who pays for everything?"

They started fighting. I noticed a number written on Haley's leg under her knee sock. I pulled her sock down and there it was. The number we needed. But the last digit had rubbed off. So we had to call over and over, changing the last digit each time. On the seventh try, a little kid answered and whispered, "Mommy, I peed in the drawer again." Then the Nokia died.

Haley then saw Esme sneaking to the door. She was about to open it when a pocket knife flew across the room and stabbed into the door right next to her hand. Hunter had thrown it. He said, "Next one lands closer."

Esme was terrified. Hunter looked at me and said, "You, coupon girl. You seem rational. Take little Einstein to the corner. You have three minutes to convince her. If you fail, I handle it my way."

I took Esme to the back. I said, "I know cheating is bad, but sometimes people do the wrong thing for the right reason."

Esme said, "What good reason is there for lazy idiots to pass easily while I studied my butt off? And by the way, I know you, Abigail. You're the girl who was in a coma after the car accident."

My stomach dropped.

She said, "I know because I'm interested in car accidents and tragic events. I followed your case. I know you're not less smart than me. You might be smarter. So why are you acting like this?"

I said, "Because I know you know about my family. I'm stressed. I can't think. I need to pass for Sally. She was in your class once. Please, Essie."

She teared up and said, "I'm sorry, Abigail. I can't help you. You're the genius one here. Figure it out."

I had never hated being called a genius more than that moment.

Hunter then made everyone sit in a circle like group therapy. He made everyone share why they needed to pass. Haley talked about her concealer. Esme talked about how her parents treated her like a tool to achieve their dreams, not like a daughter. Hunter said he was sent to juvie for small robberies and had been digging an escape tunnel with a spoon and his two friends might kill each other. Tom insulted his logic and they almost fought.

I couldn't take it anymore. I said, "I have to pee, aggressively, right now."

Hunter said he was coming with me because he didn't trust me. I told him people would recognize him in his prison clothes and he should send Tom instead, because Tom's dad said he would kick him out if he didn't pass. Hunter agreed.

Tom and I had to switch clothes to disguise ourselves. We put desks around us for cover. I looked ridiculous in his oversized clothes and he looked hilarious in mine. Someone said it was the first time Tom made anyone laugh without trying.

We snuck to the girls' bathroom but all stalls were clogged, so we had to go to the boys' bathroom. We looked like the weirdest girls alive. Tom squeezed into a stall with me and begged me for answers. He said he brought his paper. He confessed everything.

He said Haley made him hide cheat notes in his socks. He said he paid for her 300,000 fake followers with his early inheritance. He said he gave her everything and she still humiliated him. He said he stayed because he thought she was pregnant and he didn't want to be the kind of guy who leaves when things get hard. He said he had been working long shifts to save money in case his dad kicked him out. He wasn't lazy. He was trapped.

For a second I stared at him. I took his paper and started writing an answer. But my hand stopped. It was a poem, The Road Not Taken, about choosing between two paths. The question asked what the roads represented. And I realized I wasn't just choosing answers. I was choosing who I wanted to become.

Tom left the stall to give me space and we went back to the room together.

When we got back, Hunter was holding a guy who was flirting with Haley. The guy broke free and ran out the door yelling, "I'm reporting all of you, you losers!"

Haley pointed at the window. "This is only the second floor and there's a lawn below. Let's jump and run away together, Hunter." Hunter grabbed her hands like they were going to escape, but Tom stepped in front of her and said, "Are you insane? What about the baby?"

Haley said, "What baby? You believed that? I only said I was pregnant so you'd stay long enough to help me pass, but you're useless."

Tom looked crushed, then smirked. "Then go ahead, jump. And I hope one day someone makes you feel as small as you made me feel."

Haley got angry and turned on me. "This is literally your fault. If you weren't freaking out every five seconds, we'd be done by now." She lunged at me to shove me, but Esme jumped in front of me and Haley slammed into her instead. Esme fell. I asked if she was okay. She said, "I'm fine, but wow, for someone with fake followers, you're really committed to having real enemies."

Haley marched to the window with one leg over the ledge.

Then we heard a squeaky voice behind us. "What do you idiots think you're doing?"

We turned around. Mrs. Fox was standing there, completely fine. Everyone screamed. I just looked at her. She looked away like she hadn't just played dead for two hours. Everyone ran back to their seats. Even Hunter handcuffed himself to the desk again.

Someone said, "Oh my god, you're alive."

Mrs. Fox said, "Why wouldn't I be? I was resting my eyes for one minute and this is how you kids act."

She pointed at Haley. "You. Earpiece, fake pregnancy, window escape. Disqualified."

Haley said, "That feels personal."

Mrs. Fox said, "It is." She picked up the phone. "Security, room 214. I've got a cheater trying to escape through the window."

Then she pointed at Hunter. "And you, juvenile detention boy, back to wherever they lost you from."

Hunter said, "You can't prove anything." Mrs. Fox pointed at the pocket knife still in the door. "I saw that thing in your sleeve when you walked in. I was waiting to see if you were stupid enough to use it. Congratulations."

Security came. One took Haley out while she screamed like a reality show contestant. The other took Hunter. Haley said, "Don't worry, babe, I'll wait for you." Hunter said, "Please don't." Hunter yelled, "This isn't over. I know all your faces." Tom said, "Good luck with the spoon." Hunter said, "Low blow, skyscraper."

A few minutes later, the principal came back with the boy who ran to report us. The boy's eyes popped when he saw Mrs. Fox alive. He said, "I swear, she was dead when I left." Mrs. Fox said, "Why does everyone keep saying that? I'm clearly not done suffering." The principal was furious and told the boy to sit down for making a false report.

Mrs. Fox said, "Everyone, you have thirty minutes left." Then she pulled out an iPhone and started playing on it. We all stared. She had a smartphone this whole time? We had wasted ten minutes with a dead Nokia.

I looked at Tom, then Esme, and we shared a quiet laugh.

Five minutes passed and I still couldn't solve anything. Then the door burst open. It was Sally. The principal ran behind her. Sally looked exhausted and her eyes were puffy from crying. I knew our aunt's husband had hurt her again. She said, "Please Abby, pass this exam. Let's start a new life."

I started to tear up. Tom gave me an encouraging smile. Esme nodded like she knew I could do it. I picked up my pencil and for the first time all day, the questions started to make sense. So I started writing.

When the exam was over, I had answered every question. Esme looked ecstatic too. Tom said he answered a few and had his fingers crossed.

Mrs. Fox collected our papers. When she got to mine, she stopped and whispered, "I knew your mother. She was my student a long time ago. Brightest girl I ever taught. I also knew about the accident and Sally and that husband."

I said, "How did you know?"

She said, "I'm old and I live in a small town. I know everything. I've been doing this job for forty years. I know what a smart kid looks like when she's drowning in her own head. So I gave you something else to focus on."

That was either the kindest or the most unhinged thing anyone had ever done for me. I said, "Thank you, Mrs. Fox." She looked around to make sure no one heard, then gave me the tiniest warm smile. I didn't even know her face could do that.

She said, "Now everybody get out. I need my noon nap. Feels like I haven't slept in a week."

I handed her my paper, took Sally's hand, and we walked out with the biggest smiles. For the first time in a long time, the future actually felt possible.