The Cubby Hole (IQ Testing Book 1) (5 page)

I gasp. “Wait, my mama’s a medical technician too. Can we both work as a medical technician in her building?”

Rincon stands and says. “No,” turns towards the wall.

A female schooler runs behind our non-camp fire huddle yelling. “One of the male schooler killed three of the baby rabbits. Then another one of the male schoolers killed two of the kittens. Then a third schooler killed one of the ducklings before they run away and swan into the water,” when a row of male teens strut behind her.

I gasp. “He’s wearing a necklace of baby duckling webbed feet over his naked chest. The blood still drips from the severed limbs. He killed all these poor little innocent ducklings,” sobbing with my tears then turn into Buffo’s chest. Buffo cuddles me so I don’t want to see the other dead baby animal parts. He rubs my back muscles, sneering at the mean male schoolers.

Marsilla gasps then says with fright. “Another one of the males killed some of the puppies. He wears a necklace of bloody puppy dog tails over his naked chest.”

Duchie laughs and grins. “Cool! I liked naked chests. There’s female schooler wearing a necklace of rabbits’ feet. That’s lucky for her. I wished I thought of that. And the shortest male has a necklace of lamb tails,” views the girl. “Your name’s Lambie. Right girly?” giggles.

Java frowns with disgust. “The crowd of juveniles is both mean and ugly. Each schooler has tosses his shirt and wears a long necklace of dead tiny baby animal furry paws or webbed feet or animal hoofs dripping with red blood over their naked chests laughing and grunting with their sick amusement,” shakes her curls.

Lamis frowns with sadness. “Awful! The female schooler wears the tiny paws of the kittens…”

I gasp then turn seeing the bloody paws. I back step from Buffo’s tender hug then dash towards the bush where the kittens were playing. I slide into the bush then halt, dropping my mouth. I sob. The grass is covered in red glittering blood over the dark green leaves looking really pretty but sickly gross. The male schooler had killed the kittens here. I reach into the bushes hunting to save one of the kittens. I’ll bring it home with me for safekeeping.

Two hands pull me from the bushes when I lean into Buffo’s chest.

“Naw!” Buffo reaches into the bush pulling out a hunting knife not covered in blood. “One of the boys left their knife here after the baby animal slaughter.”

I gasp rubbing the pink colored aching wound on my forearm from the previous knife cut when I tried to retrieve the kitten the first time. I frown with confusion studying the sharp non-bloody knife. “How did the schooler bring a knife inside the Cubby Hole? One of the belles tried to sneak inside her cellie but the me-chee stopped her sounding a noisy alarm. How could he sneak in a steel blade of death which holds the same components as the cellie materials?”

Buffo tosses the knife back into the bushes again then stands assisting Ketona into his chest, saying. “Naw, the cellie wasn’t allowed so ya didn’t cheat on the posed academic questions. Believe me! If I had my cellie I could’ve answered the questions correctly and more swiftly then my brain cells,” laughs and hugs her. “Let’s go back into the Cubby Hole and race towards the gold, sweetheart,” kisses her forehead then smiles.

We accidentally swing into Hatch and Jara.

Hatch hugs Jara, walking to us. Hatch growls and fingers the males. “I’ll teach them nasty schoolers a lesson about forest manners,” releases then stomps from Jara.

In the distance a running male schooler pulls the hunting knife from his waist band. He holds it in the air then dashes towards a second male, laughing. The second male whips out his hunting knife then duals with small blades, laughing. A third male punches the face of a fourth male. Then they fight with fists and boot toes. More males and some females punch at other body parts bleeding inside the rumble.

Duchie dashes beside Buffo. She laughs and fingers the dangerous teens. “A bloody fight with fists and knives,” winks and elbows Buffo. “Do you like to rumble too, handsome?”

Marsilla and Lamis watch the fighting in silence walking beside Rincon. Rincon studies the fighting teens then swings towards the opening inside the building. “I’ve exhausted my time here. This performance is not interesting, not entertaining and disgusting. I’m returning to my me-chee chair for answering the next set of academic questions for the advancement into the yellow color tone,” then twists into the wall disappearing.

I shiver and shake from the visual violent and flashing blades. I have never seen a physical sight like this living within Colfax.

Buffo cuddles Ketona rubbing her arms. “It’s okay. Let’s go into the Cubby Hole.”

Java cuddles Hatch from the bloody show. He says. “We’re done here, honey. Let’s go back to the me-chee for some more questions and advance out of the pink zone.” They follow behind Buffo and Ketona.

Lamis frowns with confusion standing and dashing behind Rincon. “How ya know the next color tone is yellow?”

Rincon and her walk towards the open wall. He nods and says. “You must pay close attention to the me-chee with all its important instructions. The me-chee presented a color chart with an array of specific colors starting at silver then pink then yellow…”

Duchie nods, walking beside Buffo. “Then orange, then red, then green, then blue and finally the color tone of gold. I plan to reach the color tone of gold…”

“After me,” Rincon laughs stomping into the pink room of mirrors.

Pink room of mirrors.

Hatch kisses Java then escorts to her me-chee chair. He nods then slides into the opposite me-chee chair then swiftly stands. He rubs his fanny sneering. “The seat bit me.”

Rincon laughs and shakes his locks. “You are not electrically hot wired into that particular me-chee chair, Hatch. Where did you park your butthole before sliding off?”

Hatch fingers the chair behind Buffo’s, “Over yonder near the wall!”

Rincon smiles and nods. “There ya go! You must slide into your original me-chee chair. Everyone has a particular silky seat. If you can’t remember your placement then I suggest that you wait by the door until all the chairs have disappeared from the pink room. However by that time, I will have advanced most assuredly into the yellow room or beyond.”

Hatch nods scooting into his me-chair then drops down into the flooring behind Java.

I enter the room then finger my me-chee in the middle of the room when Buffo and I halt by the pink metal. I shiver from fright and shake my curls and hands, saying. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m ready to return into the Cubby Hole. I must answer another set of eight questions to pass into the next color tone. I studied my academic questions, since birth. I was ready. I was happy about Citizenship Day. Now I feel so nervous. I need to stay here and calm my nerves. I can’t focus on any academic questions right now. I feel so sad. I saw that teen get hurt and stabbed from the knife cut. He might be hurt or killed by now. My BPs are medical technicians. I’m going to be…”

“…a great medical technician too.” Buffo hugs Ketona, laughing. “It was fake and fun for a good time here inside the pink park place. That’s all. No kid got hurt from the fall of the slide or stabbed from the knife. I promise. However we can’t stay out here all day long. We gotta go back and answer and finish the questions then move along to the next color chart. Get inside the chair…”

I shuffle from Buffo, shaking my hands and curls. “I don’t know. I do really need a few more minutes to calm my nerve endings. I’m not in a smart frame of mind to attack more academic questions. I might fail then not pass into the yellow color tone…”

Rincon gently touches the elbow of Ketona smiling and nodding. “I found the exhibition horrid too. And I too had felt both sad and nervousness. However Buffo is correct. This is both fake and fun within the park place. Now to calm your shivering neurons and shaky nerves, close your eyelashes and take three deep breathes, Ketona. The extra supply of oxygen will activate hormones to release the tension inside your brain cells for the next set of questions. Then you will pass into the yellow color tone with me and Buffo,” winks at her.

I smile and close my eyelashes exhaling then inhaling. I exhale then inhale two more times. I open my eyelashes seeing the pretty flowers then handsome Rincon. He nods and smiles to me. I grin and wink at him. “Thank you! I feel much better for continuing the Cubby Hole.”

Rincon back pedals nodding and grinning. “You need both your physical and psychological wits with you for the next colors tone,” scoots into his me-chee as the fabric wraps around his body. He drops into the flooring, screaming in fright.

Buffo hugs then kisses her. “Ya feel like leaving the pink room now, darling.” She nods and smiles. He kisses her lips then emerges with a goofy grin of love. He parts and walks to his me-chee chair.

I smile and slide into the chair then get hugged again by the soft fabric like a set of warm arms of Buffo. I can’t see Buffo since he is behind me. His chair appeared later inside the pink room taking more time to answer his academic questions.

I’m trapped again not being able to hold my stomach with both hands or remove the leaking spittle from my lips while screaming. My me-chee chair drops along with my stomach when my heart rises into my throat. The chair and I sail backwards in the dark tunnel, screaming with both fun and fright.

The me-chee chairs stops.

A bright yellowish white light hovers above me glowing within my pink shielding. I look up into the light when my me-chee chair floats upward then anchors back into the Cubby Hole into the same spot inside the auditorium. The soft fabric seat belt unwraps from my body as I giggle and wipe the sweat from my brow.

Chapter 5

Yellow

The four walls and ceiling are yellow-tinted in color along with the solo yellow colored me-chee standing underneath the color chart. My cat suit and my me-chee chair are still pink-tinted. I scan the room noting some of the other me-chee chairs are missing displaying an empty spot upon the yellow floor.

I immediately back flash thinking of the mean and rude teens fighting with knives. I’m guessing that the empty spots of the missing me-chee chairs belong to the vile male and female schoolers who have murdered and displayed the poor innocent baby farm animal parts without a prime purpose or good sense. I wonder if the me-chee host will allow the nasty killer teens back into the Cubby Hole and participate in the remaining Citizenship Day activities or address the color tone questions again.

Duchie said that she was surprised all the schoolers passed from the color silver into the pink tone. Now I can understand her weird statement. Some of the schoolers are rude and exhibit a barbaric manner like a pack of cavemen. I am so relieved that I live in civilized and pretty Colfax, a posh city of steel and elegance.

Rincon said this was competition for the gold first place job choice. Now I understand his arrogant statement. He’s planning to beat me becoming first in the gold color tone. Well, I’m smarter than Rincon. We have always competed as schoolers, since four years old. And I have always out performed him, academically and socially. I will do that today at the Citizenship Day activities too.

Lamis said that a schooler can stay in the present color tone. Now I understand her mysterious statement. The barbaric teens killing each other inside the pink color tone probably aren’t interested in racing to the gold like me and Buffo. I giggle then view him. He waves at me through the pink shielding.

I hear the me-chee host echo inside the shielding of my me-chee chair.

The me-chee says for all the me-chee chairs. “Welcome back to the Cubby Hole, teens! I hoped you had enjoyed your fun in the sun. There is more fun to have inside the rest of the color tones. Sit back and relax! Close your eyelids! I will present the next series of academic questions for your individual answers. The time limit is still ten seconds for each posed question. To remind each schooler again for clarity of a proper verbal response, please state my answer is…then your vocal response. If you answer three-fourths or more of the academic questions correctly, you will advance to the next color of yellow. If you answer one-fourth or less, you will remain stationary inside the color tone of pink. If you incorrectly answer two-fourths of the academic questions, then you will slip back into the color of silver. The first question, what is the color tone of the me-chee inside the Cubby Hole, presently?”

I close my eyelashes having ten seconds to answer the question correctly or be penalized with an incorrect response. I exhale and inhale shaking my arms and legs from the intense moment of seeing the upsetting teen violence plus the fierce competition with my nemesis Rincon. I giggle at the first silly question then smile, saying. “My answer is…yellow.”

“What is the common tint color of the ocean waters?”

“My answer is…blue.”

“What is the product of positive 330 divided by positive 11?”

“My answer is…positive 30.”

“How many bones are in a single human hand?”

“My answer is…27.”

“What is the product of positive162 minus positive 73?”

“My answer is…positive 89.”

“Attached to the bones of the skeletal system are about 700 named muscles, what is the name of the human body’s functioning system?”

“My answer is…the muscular system.”

The thought me-chee asks. “The sum of the two roots of a quadratic equation is positive five and their product is negative six. What is the equation?”

I exhale calculating my answer properly inside my head before the ten second deadline then smile. “My answer is…x² - 5x - 6 = 0.”

The thought me-chee asks. “What is the nitrogenous base that occurs in RNA but not in DNA?”

I pause with thought working out the problem into my head then grin with happiness. “My answer is…uracil,” when I feel the heat. I blink open my eyelashes seeing my cat suit turn into the yellow color then I view Buffo.

He lies inside his me-chee still lingering in the pretty color of pink. His eyelids are closed with his hands over his stomach like he is sleeping and relaxed.

I giggle then drop into the dark hole again. The chair flings me towards the lighted tunnel, when I hold my breath for the quick windy trip. My chair lands along the side wall as I see my red face in the mirrored reflection. I giggle, scanning the room then frown with puzzlement. I see Rincon inside his me-chee chair, inhaling and exhaling from the scary ride. He beat me into the yellow room by answering all the questions before me. I am the second me-chee chair to land inside the new room.

The fabric unwraps. I jump from the chair stomping towards him feeling both intrigue and annoyance. I say. “Did you answer all eight questions? Or did you answer only six to get the 75 percent for a meager passing score,” exhaling with a fighting fury.

He chuckles sliding out of the chair, straightening his cat suit. He views Ketona grinning. “I answered all eight perfectly then dropped swiftly into the darkness before you, my darling,” he winks at her, nodding and saying. “I can see that we will be jockeying for first and second landing spots after completely each color tone. I hope there’s a reward for a perfect score as well for the number of first landing spots. So far, we are even, darling,” he walks from her then touches the yellow wall.

The wall disintegrates then opens revealing a grass park with tall trees, low green bushes, colorful wildflowers, bright sunshine, blue sky, and a wooden walking pathway. You can hear the birds singing and the frogs croaking inside the woodlands park.

I exhale following Rincon out the opening. I don’t know when Buffo and his me-chee will land inside the yellow room. He looked like he was having a tough go with the rest of the academic questions. I scan the landscape, saying with annoyance. “Another park place theme show! I don’t understand why I didn’t drop after answering the six questions out of eight which is a 75 percent passing score. Do you, Rincon?” I gallop and walk with him.

Rincon chuckles and walks down the wooden pathway passing the tall trees, low plant bushes, pretty wildflowers. He stays on the wood for both protection and safety from the dark thick forest on each side of the trail. He says. “This is a competition for the bestest job in Colfax which only goes to the perfect schooler, me. If everyone’s chair dropped after the correct sixth question then everyone would be vying for the choicest job,” he smiles then slaps the wooden table holding a single wide brown object. “I would like to sit here and eat whatever is inside the mysterious picnic basket. All this IQ thinking is making my body hungry. I can enjoy my meal watching the ducks waddle around the pond, before finally accepting my chosen job as a medical technician,” slides into the bench, opening the flaps of the basket.

I view the table, the pond and the skyline. I smile and say. “Wow! This is a great place. And I get my chosen job and lunch too,” giggles. I stand on the opposite side of the picnic table away from Rincon. I’m saving a place for Buffo. I view the room seeing more kids gallop from the opening, not Buffo.

Rincon opens the basket then removes the items one at a time.  I help him spread and layout the tablecloth, the plates and eating utensils.

He says. “I always listen to the me-chee instructions and you seem to only concentrate on Buffo,” laughs then clears his throat. “The primary reason a me-chee chair does not fall after the correctly answered sixth question out of eight tallies, if you say an incorrect answer than you stay put inside the current color tone.”

I gasp holding the plate, view him. “That’s correct. I forget about both the two-fourths and one-fourth rulings quoted by the me-chee host. If I had missed one question out of eight then I would pass into the yellow tone with 87.5 percent correction rate. If I had missed two questions out of eight I would have still passed to yellow with 75 percent correctness rate. If I had missed three questions out of eight I would have achieved a 62.5 percent correctness rate. Then I would have stayed in the pink…”

Buffo waves and shouts, smiling. He stops at the edge of the bench presenting a bouquet of wildflower. “Flowers for you and food for me, I’m starving,” slides then bumps into Ketona, laughing and acting goofy. She sniffs the flowers placing them at her side as he helps her unload the food boxes. “Fried chicken. Potato chips,” he chuckles. “If someone kills then dumps me into the duck pond then I’m going to bloat then float right back up as some ugly fugly murdered evidence. So don’t bother entertaining that wicked idea, ya’ll,” he chews the chips and chuckles.

Rincon chuckles and chews. “Buffolo can learn,” when Ketona kicks Rincon under the table with her cowgirl boot for insulting her dream man. Rincon feels it then laughs and winks at her.

Java, Hatch, Lamis, Marsilla, and Duchie join the table.

Hatch smiles, saying. “Food, I’m starving,” reaches and grabs food, sitting and eating as Java scoots beside him.

Marsilla sips on the drink, scanning the mountains, the sky, the pond and the grass. “I’m full from eating all the nature nuts, pears and apples. I’ll pass. Where are we located geographically?”

Lamis scans the landscape. “I would say that we’re south of Burrville between the crop fields and the mountains inside the valley.”

Java says. “Why are there two walls of reflecting mirrors inside each landing pad or landing room or landing area?”

Rincon says. “Prehistoric cavemen were fascinated with selfie reflections from glittering lake ponds and small rain water puddles but it was the Egyptains who created the looking glass from bronze, tin or silver minerals. The reflection of light is an important property of mirrors and is quantified by the ration between the amount of light reflected from the surface…”

“…coupled with the face of Jara. The mirrors are for you to see your pretty face and sexy body, Jara,” Hatch winks and hugs his girl when the others chuckle.

Rincon frowns with annoyance. “That is not the only purpose…”

Marsilla nods. “It fits our purpose now.”

Lamis asks. “What time is it?”

Rincon views the skyline. “Based on the position of the solar sun it is between nine-thirty and ten o’clock.”

I gasp. “We’ll been playing inside the Cubby Hole for almost two hours. We started at eight this morning. And we’re only posed at the second color tone. Ya know there are six colors with four more left,” chewing and shaking my curls.

Duchie chews. “It will go faster, since the questions will get harder and the time of ten seconds will lap faster also.”

Marsilla frowns with confusion at Duchie. “How do you know that information? As a matter of fact the questions have numbered eight with a maximum duration of two minutes and thirteen seconds. I have answered all the questions at hundred percent at a steady speedy rate of 4.6 seconds.”

Buffo swallows then burps. “Two minutes and thirteen seconds, it seems like an eternal too me,” elbows with Hatch, grinning.

Lamis laughs with the others. “How did ya figure out your personal steady speedy rate of 4.6 seconds?”

Marsilla smiles. “The me-chee required precisely eight seconds to ask this particular long winded question with his mechanical rhythm. ‘The sum of the two roots of a quadratic equation is five and their product is negative six. What is the equation?’ I addressed the solution within 5.6 seconds dropping my average down from 3.2 seconds to 4.6 seconds.”

Rincon chuckles with arrogance. “Ha! I calculated each correct answer at a speedier rate of 2.4 seconds which was clearly demonstrated today. I landed the first me-chee chair for the second color tone of yellow.”

I frown with annoyance. “Ha! I calculated all the correct eight answers faster than 2.4 seconds than Rincon when I landed first my me-chee chair on the first color tone of pink,” nods and giggles.

“Second place now,” chuckles Rincon.

I frown with annoyance. “First place next, buddy,” nodding and smiling my perfect grin. Buffo hugs and kisses my forehead with love and support, nodding and smiling too.

Duchie fingers Marsilla. “Is she-bot really programmed?”

Hatch chews then swallows. “How did you figure out the maximum duration time of the asked eight questions is five minutes and thirty-three seconds?”

Rincon nods. “Marsilla is correct. Each question time allotment is ten seconds. Eight questions times ten seconds is a total of 80 seconds. The me-chee speaks one question at an average rate of six seconds. Six seconds times eight questions is a total of 48 seconds. When you add 80 seconds plus 48 seconds the product is 128 seconds. When you divide 128 seconds into the time standard of 60 seconds then the product is two minutes and eight seconds…”

Duchie laughs. “A matching pair, a she-bot and a he-bot, when they married and mate they produce a me-chee. Now we all know the sexual procedure, folks,” laughs with the others.

“Ouch!” Jara frowns with fury then lifts her leg onto the bench. “Dang, an ant bit it nasty fangs into my foot.”

Rincon says. “You’re supposed to assemble in the matching boots with your silver cat suit which would have protected your naked feet against Mother Nature’s crawling critters, Jara.”