Aaron Zakhrov entered the cavernous exam hall with his backpack and seated himself at his assigned desk.
The exam hall was massive, with a high vaulted ceiling, granite stone walls and large frosted glass windows set in pointed arches, that gave the hall a striking resemblance to the nave of a Gothic cathedral. Sunlight streamed through the massive windows, bathing the hall in a diffused and ethereal white light.
Students in their mid-teens looked curiously at Aaron, but otherwise didn't try to engage him in conversation. A tall, red-haired Irish-American woman in a jet-black skirt-suit that showcased both her physical attractiveness, and her aura of stern authority, with a large silver crucifix necklace hanging from her neck, entered the hall with a stack of booklets.
"Welcome to St. Ignatius Academy's entrance exam. I am Catherine Davis the vice-principal" she said in a loud, authoritative voice that reverberated around the massive hall. "You will have three and a half hours to finish this exam, I will warn you only once. Cheating and copying will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Any violators will be removed and blacklisted from taking the test again" she said sternly, her brown eyes scanning the entire hall of nervous faces. Her stern brown eyes met Aaron's cold and calculating blue eyes. She blinked in surprise that a young boy like him would have such an intense stare, let alone be in this hall. Quickly recovering, she handed out the test booklets.
Aaron opened his booklet and calmly studied the questions. The test was divided into several sections: physics, chemistry, math, biology, computer science, English and catechism. Each section was allotted a half-hour of time to answer the questions.
At the sound of the clanging starting bell, Aaron picked up his fountain pen and started to work on the test.
He decided to answer the computer science section first, since it was the one he was most confident in answering right. The questions he encountered, seemed trivial and almost annoying. "Seriously! Who asks such a banal question on why HTML is not a programming language?" He thought derisively to himself, as he powered through the various questions on computer hardware, networking and general purpose programming. With the computer science section answered, Aaron turned to the math section. This one proved challenging with its questions on algebra, geometry, pure arithmetic and commercial arithmetic.
Catherine patrolled briskly around the hall, the silence broken by the soft scratching and rustling of paper and the sharp clicking of her heels as she walked and observed the students writing their answers, her senses alert for any attempts at copying or cheating.She paused at Aaron's desk, observing him with a sense of intrigue. He wrote slowly with his left hand, curling his arm and wrist over the exam booklet. His handwriting was cursive with a steep slant, his left-handedness making him push rather than pull the pen-nib across the paper. Catherine watched mesmerized by the young boy's unique style and manner.
"A fountain pen, cursive writing, left-handedness and correct if abridged answers. This must be Zakhrov, the new prodigy Fr. Abel mentioned. It's amazing that he is using such a challenging style! Most left-handed students stick to block writing and use gel or ball-point pens." Observed Catherine to herself, admiring Aaron's steeply slanting, cursive script.
"Something the matter miss? You've been watching me for a while now" asked Aaron in a cold whisper startling Catherine out of her musing.
"N-nothing, carry on" she whispered back and resumed her patrol, silently cursing herself for getting carried away in her scrutinizing.
Aaron watched Catherine resume her patrol, he wasn't sure what it was, but something about her stride, elegant black skirt-suit and clicking heels fascinated him. Pushing his fascination aside, he resumed his focus on a particularly challenging compound interest problem.
"I so despise commercial arithmetic!" he thought savagely to himself, while taking comfort in the surprisingly soothing clicking sound of Catherine's heels.
As Aaron finished answering the last of the catechism questions, the bell rang again. "Time's up! Pens down!" barked Catherine.
There was a shuffling and banging as students packed away their stationary and left the exam hall. Aaron quietly packed his things and left the hall, returning to the school entrance hall where his parents were anxiously waiting for him.
"How did it go?" asked Ivan worriedly as Aaron approached them. He and Annette had just seen a couple of girls leave the exam hall in tears. "The core science subjects were quite challenging, the computer science section was almost too simple and the English and catechism sections were simple enough I suppose" said Aaron in his usual clipped tone.
"Well you'd give MIT students a run for their money with those programming skills of yours" chuckled Ivan, eliciting a rare smile from Aaron.
"How was the English dear?" asked Annette, relieved that Aaron was still capable of smiling, and that he wasn't intimidated by the exam.
"They asked the most rudimentary of concepts in grammar and comprehension, Mother" answered Aaron as they left the school and Ivan unlocked the family's black BMW M5.
"Well this calls for a treat, how about we go to Tuscany Cove?" asked Ivan as he started the car, its turbocharged V8 engine rumbling to life.
"That sounds wonderful dear", said Annette, her hands tightening on her seatbelt, and her smile growing strained. "I hate this vile, loud, polluting car so much! I wish Ivan would get rid of this horrible example of toxic masculinity!" she thought furiously to herself.
"I adore the sound of this V8 engine. Father worked really hard to afford this car. Mother's disapproval of it seems a little silly and excessive" thought Aaron somberly to himself as he caressed the black leather of the back seat, reveling in the car engine's throaty rumble, and observing the traffic flick past as Ivan accelerated.