3 A New Enemy

"Welcome to ChrisValle High School, well almost, you'll follow me to take your exam. Mrs Smith you can leave while I take your son--uh James to the exams hall", the woman in glasses said to Mary as she stood up. "With pleasure", Mary smirked replied as she rose and took her to leave. 'My mum just made a new enemy for me' James thought sadly as he strolled in the hallway. He then reached his exam hall and entered.

As he entered the exam hall, he met a man at the teacher's desk reading a magazine with his legs on the desk. He quickly adjusted his posture to welcome the bursar. "Oh Mrs Amy, I never knew you would show up here" he spoke to the woman in glasses. Mrs Amy looked at James and sighed "Neither did I" she tiredly replied. "Mr James, meet the invigilator, Mr Beckerman. He would invigilate you during the exam. Mr Beckerman responded by nodding his head. "Hello, Mr Beckerman" was what James said before Mrs Amy hastily replied, "Please take your seat in the front row, as Mr Beckerman would send you the papers to your table. Mr Beckerman, can you see me outside?". James settled down on one of the front row seats and brought out his smartphone. He then opened his Telegram app and clicked on a group page named "Computer Hardware Breakdown".

The page was all about understanding computer hardware's and its function. The participants would from time to time share their explanation and experience before and after building or fixing their Desktops or laptops.

"Do you know that big companies like HP, DELL, ASUS never knew that there were making a terrible mistake while building these storage devices? Damn! I was recently studying these things when I located a problem in the way they pattern the storage cell. These issues causes lags in system. I think I located the problem", a guy named jinx#004 posted.

James was instantly captivated. He could not believe that someone in this world would take their time to study a hard drive at such a microscopic level. He knew that the participants in this group are extraordinary, but this guy jinx#004 took it to another level. He swiped his message to reply and typed, "So what is the best way to arrange the cells, and does it speed up the computer using it or what?'.

James waited for 10 seconds before the app indicated jinx#004 was typing. "You do know that smartphones are not allowed in schools, right?" Mrs Amy thundered when she entered. James became startled by her sudden presence and placed his smartphone back in his pocket. "I'm sorry I did not know that, in my former school, we are allowed to use our…", James was speaking when Mrs Amy rudely interrupted, "Look, Mr James, you are in ChrisValle High School, not some public school you came from, so it would do me a favour if you kept that public-school mentality at home, please. Oh, and also, can you hand over your cellphone please, you will be given after the exam".

James knew why she was aggressive to him, so he chose to bear it. He handed his smartphone over to her. When Mr Beckerman entered, he brought some papers that looked like the exam papers. Then he strolled over to his desk to stamp the papers.

Though James was not a therapist, he had noticed a slight but observable change in his attitude to him.

Maybe he was overthinking things, but he had noticed that Mr Beckerman was slightly hostile towards him. He handed over the sheets to James, and as James stretched out his hands to take them, he firmly held it and stared at him, "How old are you?" he asked him.

"Ten, I'm ten years old", James replied. "Hmm ten. You do know that this exam is for the advanced class, don't you? I mean I get that you are "unique" and "special", but this exam is not like the exams you do take in your public school, you know right?", Mr Beckerman asked, air quoting the unique and special word.

Okay that was rude. He does not like it when people calls him special or unique. It made him felt lonely. He just wanted to be an ordinary boy for god sake.

James wanted to explain himself, but he already knew that Mrs Amy had poisoned his mind, so he did not bother. "Yes sir", he simply said. Mr Beckerman stared at him for a few seconds, then left the paper, "Good, you have 30 minutes" he interjected as he made his way back to his seat.

When James looked at the questions in his paper, he was surprised. He could not fathom how even a qualified teacher would answer these questions given to him. Mr Beckerman noticed his surprised face slightly satisfied. James knew these questions were quickly set given the fact that he had seen one of the math questions online. These two evil staff wanted him to fail no matter what, so they quickly googled hard questions and printed it as an "entrance exam".

Luckily James unique circumstances made him more intelligent than most people. He immediately began solving the math question in his exams. The questions may have appeared hard for most people, but to him, it was like solving one plus one.

Eight minutes later, he had already finished all the math questions and moved to English, then Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Then he had one more paper to finish, Computer Science. James loved computers to the core, so he took his time to answer each question. He might not have said it but understanding new aspects of the computer is like giving him treats. 'Hah! You think you made my life hard, but trust me, you only made my day.' He thought excitedly.

"5 minutes more to finish James, wrap it up quickly," Mr Beckerman said while reading his magazine. "Oh, Mr Beckerman, I finished ten minutes ago, I was only waiting for the thirty minutes to be up.

This time, Mr Beckerman looked up. "You finished your exam ten minutes ago?" Mr Beckerman could not hide his shock. "Yes sir. I was studying my answers for any correction. May I leave?" Mr Beckerman just sat there and stared at him for solid ten seconds. Then he smiled. "I know you thought these questions are what you think". Mr Beckerman thought James had read the questions wrong, so he could not help but pity him. 'What a beautiful kid', he sighed. He collected the sheets from James and instructed him to leave.

Back at the parking lot, his mother was at the driver seat munching on some snacks. When she saw James enter the car, she asked, "How was the exams, honey?". "It was a great mom. Please can we go home?", James tiredly replied. Mary did not bother James anymore, to his relief, and with that, she pulled out of the parking lot and headed home.