Placement Exams

Two weeks passed by in a flash and Aiden and his cousins were standing in front of a large gate waiting to enter the school. The sign on the building read 'Brighthaven Academy'. When security buzzed them through the gate, they were greeted by an elderly man with gray hair and a mustache.

"Hello there! Nice to meet you. I'm Professor Shelby and I'm in charge of assisting any and all transfer students. Follow me." The three of them followed the professor into the school and through several hallways before he stopped in front of a door. "Ms. Becca. If you will…" Professor Shelby gestured towards the door and Becca walked inside. Spencer was about to follow but was stopped by the professor. "No, no, Mr. Spencer. You're in here." He gestured towards the door on the opposite side of the hall. After that, the professor walked to the end of the hall and stopped beside another door.

"Let me guess. That one's mine?" Aiden assumed correctly.

"Right you are Mr. Aiden!" Aiden wasted no time and entered the room. There was someone already there and they looked up when they heard the door open. It was a man somewhere in his early thirties by the looks of him. He had light brown hair, green eyes, and was wearing glasses. He smiled at Aiden.

"Hello! You must be Aiden Hale. I'm Conner O'Riley, one of the school counselors. Normally one of the teachers would oversee your placement exam but I was informed that you wanted to take the finals to try and pass some classes ahead of time. Yes?"

"Yes. That's right."

"Okay then! You can go ahead and take a seat right there." He motioned to the desk in front of him. "We'll go through your class choice and see which class's finals you want to attempt and then you can take the placement test while I gather the other exam papers. Sounds good?" Aiden simply nodded and took a seat. "Alright so the language courses students can choose from include Spanish, French, German, or Arabic. Which ones are you confident in?"

"Spanish and French."

"Do you want to take the exam for both?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Mr. O'Riley set a paper down in front of Aiden along with a pen. "This is the list of elective classes. You'll be going into your final year so you'll need to pick four, two for each semester. Go ahead and fill out what you want." Aiden picked up the paper and scanned the list of classes. There were things like cooking, agriculture, art, music, and computer classes but that wasn't all. The ones he chose were CPR and First Aid Training, Dance, Psychology, and Business Law.

"Here. I'm done." Aiden handed the form back to Mr. O'Riley.

"That's a pretty wide range of classes. Are you sure you picked what you want? It'll be next to impossible to change it later."

"I'm sure."

"Okay. Then we'll move on. I'm going to need you to turn in your cellphone while you are taking the test." Aiden handed over his phone without complaint. "Thank you." Mr. O'Riley shuffled through some papers for a moment before placing some on Aiden's desk. "Okay. You've got three hours and your time starts now. I'll be back in a bit with the exams for your foreign languages so no cheating while I'm gone." With that, he left the room and Aiden began his exam.

An hour and a half later, Aiden finished double checking all his answers and set down his pen. Looking up, he saw Mr. O'Riley dozing off in the chair behind the teacher's desk.

"Mr. O'Riley?"

"H-huh what?" He was startled awake and almost fell out of the chair. "Oh. My bad. Did you need something?"

"I'm done with the test." Mr. O'Riley looked confused and checked the time.

"It hasn't even been two hours yet. Are you sure you're done?"

"Yes."

"Did you answer all the questions and double check your answers?"

"Yes." Mr. O'Riley looked skeptical.

"You know this is an important test right?"

"Still yes."

"Hah! Alright." He took the test from Aiden before placing more papers on the desk. "These are the foreign language exams. Remember that your exam score will be your final grade for the course. You have two hours, starting now." Once again, Aiden finished the papers in an hour and a half.

"Here you go." He handed the tests back to Mr. O'Riley.

"Are you…?"

"I'm sure." Mr. O'Riley sighed and took the papers.

"Alright then. With that, you're all done. You'll receive your scores as well as your class schedule before the term begins. I'll walk you to the gate." Aiden nodded and stood up. The two of them walked silently through the halls and out to the school's front gate. Spencer and Becca didn't seem to be there yet but the car Derek had sent them to the school in was still parked outside. Mr. O'Riley said his farewells and went back inside the building while Aiden went to wait in the car.

"Welcome back sir." The driver greeted him when he sat down in the passenger seat. Aiden didn't want to be any closer than necessary to his cousins so he didn't sit in the back.

It was another hour before Becca came back to the car and a half hour later, Spencer finally joined them. He grumbled and complained as he slammed the car door shut.

"Why did they even have some of those questions on the exam in the first place? They didn't make any sense!!" Becca ignored him and continued texting on her phone. The entire car ride was filled with the sound of Spencer muttering under his breath. By the time they reached the house, even Becca had had enough.

"Would you shut up already!? Why are you even worried about it in the first place? Whether the questions were different or not, an idiot like you wouldn't get a good grade anyway!"

"You're one to talk! Your score will probably be just as bad as mine!"

"Ha! Don't try to put us on the same level. There's no way I'd get the same score as someone so pathetic!" Their arguing continued all the way into the house and up the stairs. Aiden closed the door behind him and turned to see Mrs. Hudson coming up to him.

"Hello dear. How was the test? I'm sure you did well." She patted his shoulder and he smiled.

"It was fine. I'm not worried."

"That's great! As long as you did your best, then no matter what grade you get it'll be a good one. By the way, there are some snacks on the kitchen counter if you're hungry and Derek wanted me to remind you that you're all leaving at 3 am tomorrow for a 6 am flight so you should finish any packing you haven't gotten to yet."

"Okay. Thanks Mrs. Hudson."

"Anytime dear!" After that, Aiden headed back to his room to check his luggage one last time. He ended up with two suitcases and a backpack filled with everything he might need. There was still some time left before dinner when Aiden finished checking his luggage and, since he didn't have anything in particular left to do, he decided to walk around in the garden. He had just gotten to the bottom of the stairs when the front door opened. Derek had arrived home earlier than usual, no doubt because of the trip.

"Welcome back." Aiden smiled softly when greeting him. After a moment, Derek nodded.

"Mhm."

"How was your day?"

"The same as usual." Just then, Mrs. Hudson showed up and quickly took Derek's briefcase and suit jacket while scolding him.

"Honestly Derek, you could at least try to keep the conversation going on your side too. Poor Aiden, having to deal with such dry and uninteresting responses. A little small talk wouldn't kill you would it?" Before Derek could respond, Mrs. Hudson had turned to Aiden. "Dinner will take a bit longer dear but is there something else you need? A snack? A drink maybe?" Aiden shook his head.

"No, I'm fine Mrs. Hudson. I was just going to wander around the garden for a bit."

"Oh that's a lovely idea! My husband was just telling me yesterday how beautifully the flowers have bloomed this year. I know!" She pushed Derek towards Aiden. "You, go with him. It'll be good for you to learn what casual conversations are like and remember 'Mhm' is not an acceptable answer." Before either of them could say anything, Mrs. Hudson vanished. Aiden looked at Derek and almost laughed at his completely flummoxed expression.

"You don't have to go with me if you don't want to. I'm sure you can sneak past Mrs. Hudson and get upstairs."

"No, it's fine. I wouldn't mind a walk in the garden. It's been a while since I've been out there." So, thanks to Mrs. Hudson's intervention, Aiden and Derek spent the next hour peacefully walking around the garden and chatting.