- Hey, it’s getting late, you have to leave

I woke up to a stranger shaking me gently but insistently. Slowly opening my eyes, I realized I was still on the waiting room where Violet left me, and that I had unintentionally fallen asleep. I jumped out of my chair, scaring the person in the process, and asked impatiently:

- The trials! I need to know if I did it! Where’s the list?

I took a good look at the person who had awaken me. It was a woman no much older than me, maybe 22 or 23 years old. She had a light-grey uniform which indicated her status as an official White Police agent aspirant (unlike those of the trainees that were dark-grey) and a generic one-handed sword hung from the side of her waist.

I got embarrassed since she was not only an aspirant to agent, but really pretty too, so the only thing I managed to do was to sit straight, clear my voice and say:

- S-Sorry, I didn’t.

She let out a laugh at my obvious embarrassment and answered my question still giggling:

- It’s okay, I know the test can be very stressful and exhausting. Unfortunately, the results have been given and there’s not a list published or something, but you should have an email with your results.

- Fuck, I’m a complete moron, how could I’ve missed it – I said speaking to myself, but it seemed that it hadn’t been low enough since the girl heard it and instantly reprehended me:

-Come on, don’t be too harsh on yourself, just go home, relax and find out there if you made it. Trust me, it’ll be better in the case you didn’t.

She was right, even if I didn’t like at all the idea of not passing, it was still a possibility, and I would probably cry if it happened so home was probably the best place to find out.

So, picking up my backpack and saying goodbye to the beautiful aspirant, I started my walk back home. I checked the big clock before leaving and saw that it was almost 6 p.m. so, if the written test and physical examination took from 9 to 12 a.m., my practical test was at 3 p.m. and it ended at 3.30 p.m. (with a little 10 minutes nap thanks to agent Violets forehead), that meant I had slept more than two hours. To be fair, I was completely drained, mentally and physically, and I had earned that nap.

It seemed that even after a two our sleep I wasn’t rested enough, because once I reached home, I instantly dropped on my bed and the next thing I remember was waking up at 5 a.m. not knowing where the fuck was I. I had slept another 10 hours or so, and I finally felt good again, all the fatigue now gone.

It was still early in the morning, but after those 12 hours of almost continued sleep, there was no way I could rest again until a more normal time, so I just took a shower, did my morning routine and prepared a cup of strong coffee. I usually was more of a milk coffee, but I wanted to be well awake for the news I was about to receive.

I sat on the table with my phone now fully charged (I guess I managed to plug it in before falling asleep yesterday afternoon. Good job yesterday me!), with a mix of nerves, anxiety, excitement and fear of opening my email and find out my results.

- What if I just don’t open it? - I said to myself - If I made it, they’ll send me my badge tomorrow and then I’ll know, but if I didn’t then I can just go back to the bookstore and that’ll be it

- What should I do?

This time I didn’t ask myself, I asked my biggest, most trustworthy and loyal friend: my cat.

She was a Tortoiseshell cat named Olive. For those who don’t know shit about cats, tortoiseshell are tri-colored female cats. My mother found Olive once when taking out the trash at the bookstore and fell in love instantly. She brought her home and we all hit it off right from the beginning. I was four years old at the time so she’s been with me almost 15 years of my life. Besides my mom, she’s the person (or cat) I’ve spent more time with, and also after my mother passed, we bonded even more that ever since we helped each other through that hard time.

Of course Olive didn’t answer me, she just stood there on the table looking at me like I was a fresh piece of fish.

- Oh yeah, I forgot to feed you yesterday since I fall asleep. I’m sorry cutie. I’ll tell you what, if I passed my test, you and I are eating the biggest and juiciest steak tonight, and if I don’t then you’ll eat it while I watch as a penalty.

I know she wouldn’t understand but for some reason, her eyes seemed to be sparkling after hearing that, she rolled up on herself and fall asleep making soft purrs as I petted her.

Petting her always relaxed me and helped me think, and I used this time to give myself more reasons to not open the email, but I couldn’t find anything convincing enough. So, using all of my willpower I forced myself to grab my phone and check the digital clump of zeros and ones that would determine my future.

I forgot to mention it, but the email was one of the only functions that cellphones had after the war, because the majority of pages and servers had been destroyed, taking a lot of information and resources with them. So when reconstructing the web, they decided to just reduce it to the most important and useful functions. Email, instant messages and a searching engine were the three most used and important sites, while the rest like games and personal blogs were managed by one person or a little group of them.

Well, where was I? Oh yeah, the biggest moment of my life. I opened the app on my phone and there it was, my only unread message, titled ‘Test Results’ and the remitter being ‘White Police recruitment office’

- *sigh* Well, here goes nothing – I said while closing my eyes just as I pressed the button.

The first thing I saw after opening my eyes, was the logo of the White Police: a black bordered white square with a 3 point shield in the middle, painted of a beautiful Ivor color with golden details all over the border and, standing majestic right in the middle, an also golden Phoenix, symbolizing the revival of society after the war. Behind it, three different blades crossed it, the tip of each one leaning out from one spike. The three swords as well as the points on the shield, represented the three remaining ‘continents’: Oceania’s sword was a katana, since they decided to adopt it as their symbol, and it peeked from the top right of the shield; on the opposite side, South America’s short one-handed sword crossed the shield almost perpendicular to Oceania’s katana; and in the middle, Europe’s big double-handed longsword looking almost like a pillar holding it all together.

Below the logo, the email started with a generic and standard greeting which I read over pretty quickly since there wasn’t any useful information until the end phrase. I stopped there and read it carefully:

“Below this, you’ll find your test results. The grading system goes as following:

- Excellent (E)

- Above Average (AA)

- Average (A)

- Below Average (BA)

- Unacceptable (U)

Those who pass with a general grade of AA or E will be assigned to a higher ranked agent, and they’ll be more likely to become an agent themselves much faster. On the other hand, those who pass with A or BA will get assigned a low rank agent, and they’ll have to work their way up and earn the right to become one themselves.”

“With all that said, we present you with your results. Good luck to all aspirants”

Right below this paragraph, there was my name as big as it could get, followed by a chart that read as following

“WAGNER, THEO

  Strength ---------------------------------- A

  Speed ------------------------------------- A

  Skill --------------------------------------- AA

  Resourcefulness ------------------------- E

  General Grading ------------------------ AA

Test status: PASSED.

Congratulations!”

- I did it… - that’s all I could mutter right now since the shock and mix of emotions got stuck in my throat so anything else could come out.

- I’m in… HOLY SHIT I’M IN

I stood up watching at my phone incredulous. Could it be a mistake? What if it was wrong and they got all the results mixed up? No, that wasn’t possible, it couldn’t have been wrong. The email I was reading was telling the truth, I had passed the trials (with better grades that I expected) and was now one of the five new trainees of the White Police.

I picked up Olive who was still sleeping on the table and started to dance with her as my partner, dragging her around the house as if she were a doll, until she got tired and bit me to let go of her. I put her back down and filled her food bowl with an entire can of cat food.

- Don’t eat too much because tonight we are celebrating big time

She, obviously, ignored my indications and started munching on her food like it would magically disappear if she didn’t eat fast enough. Once she was finished, she walked to my bed, jumped on it and avoiding the mess that I had left there she curled up and went back to sleep, since it was still early in the morning.

Half an hour went by while I was still looking at my phone, reading the email over and over again. After almost eight years of training, I had fulfilled my dream of entering the WP. The only thing I regretted was that my mother never got to share my dream with me, nor the happiness of accomplishing it. I got a little sad but instantly brushed it off and planned what my next steps were. I knew that my badge wouldn’t come until after 8 a.m. so I had time for a morning run and a bit of training. So I changed my clothes and left the house with only a bit of money in one of my pockets to buy some groceries on my way back.

Today was March 2^nd which meant we had a couples of weeks before spring started, so the air was still pretty cold in the mornings, but nothing than a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie couldn’t withstand. The city was still dark since the sun usually started peeking from behind the buildings and the clouds at around 7.30 or 8 in the morning, so the only spots of light were the couple of lampposts on the corners of the street. Since my house was a bit on the outside part of the city, we didn’t have lights enough to illuminate every centimeter of the streets, but the nearer you got to the city center, the more lights and cleaner streets you would see.

I started jogging on the opposite direction of the HQs to a park that was a couple of streets away from my house, where I usually did my stretching, running and exercises.

The streets were basically empty since the day usually started between 7 and 8 in the morning, so in less than 5 minutes I was at the park already stretching.

I started running at around 6.30 and when I finished the sunlight was starting to shower the treetops, so I estimated that I’ve been in the park for one hour or so, which was good enough.

I went back home, this time taking a bit more of time since there were many more cars on the street so I couldn’t just go around running like I did in the morning, and also because I stopped at the grocery store to buy that beautifully stake that I had promised to Olive.

So, I got home by five or ten past eight, took another shower since I usually sweated a lot while training and as soon as I came out, the doorbell rang. I put on the first shirt and pants I found lying around and ran to the door. When I opened it, there was a mailman with a brown envelope that had the WP logo on it.

- I’ve got a package for Theo? Is that you?

- Yeah, that’s me

- Sorry kid, but I need an adult to receive it.

- I’m eighteen
- Oh really? Do you have an ID?

- Of course I do, let me go get it.

I ran inside again, closing the door on the guy since I didn’t want him peeking my house, and after looking for a good five minutes, I finally found my ID inside the pocket a the jacket I’d used last time I got out (before the trials that is)

Running one last time to the door, I opened it and handled the ID to the mailman

- Here it is

- Oh, guess you weren’t lying

- Why would I lie to receive a package?

- I don’t know, is just protocol, sorry kid

- Yeah I get it, don’t worry

- There you go, this is yours – He said finally giving me the envelope. – Just sign here please and I’ll be going –

I borrowed his pen, quickly scribbled my sign on a receipt and handled everything back to him before sprinting my way inside the house, thanking him as if he had graded my test because of the excitement I was feeling.

Almost tripping two or three times with myself and a chair, I sat on the couch followed by Olive who jumped on the back of it, standing above my head as if wanting to see what I was doing, and opened very carefully the envelope in case there was something like and identification or something that could’ve been broken.

Inside the brown hard paper rectangle were 2 things: a note and my badge. I read the note that said what I already knew about the badge that came with it and the uniform and sword waiting for me at the HQs that same day.

I discarded it since it had no purpose anymore and took the first look at my badge. It was a piece of metal of about 8cm tall and 4 cm wide in the shape of the WP’s logo with my name and rank written on it, so right now it said:

“NAME: Wagener, Theo

  RANK: Trainee”

I kept looking at it, examining and reading it once, twice, three times and so until I’d basically memorized every millimeter on it, and then put it down on the coffee table in front of the couch.

The note also said that I should go to the HQs between 10 and 10.30 to try on the uniform to see if there were any mistakes or any details to change, grab my sword and get my agent assigned. This last part was the one I was more worried about, since depending on what kind of person I got, my time as a trainee could be incredibly useful and productive, or a complete waste of time.

I wondered about who I’d get assigned to, but in the end all I could do was wait until they tell me. So, I used the spare time I had left before leaving to clean and tidy up the house that was pretty messy since I’d spent the last couple of weeks training and nothing else.

Once the clock hit 9.30 in the morning I had barely finished all the housework, so I got dressed with my usual workout clothes, without a hoodie this time since I was going to get my uniform, grabbed my backpack which I knew I wouldn’t be able to take with me all the time but I at least could use it to take the bladeless handle with me, gave Olive a goodbye kiss, which she hated but I did anyways every day, and took off for the first day of my journey to become an official White Police agent.