I surprised my guardian Emari the next day during the afternoon practical Presence lesson... by not using the knowledge I had gained. The alien teacher automatically skipped over me when asking questions and looking for volunteers to practice, and I didn't dissuade that tendency. Emari didn't say anything to me until we were back inside her apartment.

“Ullir, why didn't you show them that you can do it now?” Emari asked.

“Because of who they are.” I said, and she looked at me with wide eyes. “Sure, I can see through the flash cards now and can catch up to them easily; but, what about the next time something comes up and I can't do it or I don't understand what they mean?”

Emari opened her mouth to say that she would help me deal with it, then she thought about what I had been through and changed her mind.

“Yeah, I'll be ridiculed and made fun of again.” I said. “I made the mistake of showing off with the pillow push and look at what happened since then.”

“Ullir, you shouldn't hide your gifts.”

“I'm not hiding them if they don't know I can do them.” I chuckled. “I'm not going to display them for everyone to see, either.”

“But...”

“I'm going to keep watching and I'm going to keep learning.” I said and showed her the datapad I had been using to take notes during class. She saw that I had written down everything that was on every flash card for every child. “I'm the one that's going to decide who I show off to.”

“Oh, Ullir.” Emari knelt in front of me and hugged me. “I wish I could help you deal with this.”

“You are, Emari.” I said and hugged her back. “More than I ever thought you could.”

After that little revelation, Emari didn't worry about me so much. She watched me as I got teased and made fun of, and she stepped in when she knew that she could without making the other guardians angry at her for interfering. She knew that I had already built emotional armor to protect myself while around the other children, which made her look forward to our alone time even more, and she let me deal with the situation in my own way.

More time passed and eventually I turned five years old. What I didn't know was that at each child's birthday, they were tested. Not in the way that the council had the first time I had arrived, thankfully. When I was taken into a small room by Emari on the morning of my birthday, I looked around and no one else was in there.

“Emari, I thought...”

“Ullir, I'll be right back.” Emari said and put me down.

“But...”

“Don't worry.” Emari said and kissed my cheek, then whispered. “I can always see you with Presence.”

I nodded and she left the room. When the door shut, the seams disappeared and I was in a completely sealed room.

“Step to the center, please.” A woman's voice said.

“Why?” I asked and looked around again. Since I always had my Detect Presence technique active all the time, I concentrated on the walls. I slowly turned in a circle and didn't jerk or show that I had detected several people behind one of the walls.

“It's the annual rite of passage.” The woman's voice said. “On the day each child becomes a year older, their skills and abilities are tested to see if they will remain with their current teacher or will move on.”

“Is my old teacher in there with you?” I asked, and she didn't respond. “It's a simple question.”

“No, she isn't.” The woman's voice said, and I felt a slight shift in the flow of Presence.

I turned my head and looked right at her though the wall. “It's not nice to lie to children.” I said calmly, and saw her startle. I had been using the technique the Wise One had clued me into for almost a whole year now, so with almost no effort I could see the woman, her separate pieces of clothing, her wrist communicator, her Light sword on her hip, and even the storage pack she had tucked into her robes. I didn't bother trying to look inside the pack, though. I turned my head slightly and looked at my old alien teacher.

“Xugloch, you have no business being here as I am tested, since your opinion will be biased.” I said and looked at the other three people in the room beside the woman who spoke. “Of course, I'm also assuming that the other three people in there with whoever spoke are unbiased and haven't prejudged me already.”

The other three people exchanged glances and looked at my old teacher.

“Why did you call her your 'old' teacher?” The woman asked.

“I won't be in her class anymore, regardless of your decision today.” I said. “I've had enough of her snide attitude and ridicule from the other kids, that no one except my guardian tried to put a stop to.”

I watched as the others talked back and forth for several minutes, then my old teacher raised her arms in defeat and left the other room.

“We sent her away.” The woman said. “She's not happy.”

“I know.” I said and walked towards the center of the room. I was sure that there was some kind of significance to the wording to 'step to the center', so instead of using my eyes, I used the flow of Presence. The highest concentration of it was about 2 feet off to the right of the very center of the room, which meant the 'room' actually included their viewing area. I walked to what I believed was the correct point and stood there, then waited.

*

“Okay, he got that right.” One of the aliens in the viewing room said. “He's clever.”

“I liked that he looked at the center of the room that he could see first, then looked for the center of the flow that normal people can't see.” A man said.

“The tests have just started.” The other alien said. “No preferences, remember?”

The man chuckled. “The kid's got balls.” He said. “I've reviewed some of his lessons and some of the security footage. They tortured that poor kid, both inside and outside of the classroom.”

“You're going to pass him, aren't you?” The woman asked.

“Yep.” The man said. “The curriculum has been holding him back and he deserves a chance to prove to himself that he can do better than he has.” He smiled. “Getting us to kick out his teacher so that she can't see his skills took a lot of gall.”

“Plus, she's being judged as well.” The first alien said. “If he under-performs, it will be held against her.”

“Well, I watched all of the lessons and it was her that under-performed.” The second alien said. “When she didn't stop the other kids from pointing out his flaws was bad enough. She started to ignore him during the practical lessons instead of including him.”

“I bet he was bored out of his mind, just sitting there every afternoon.” The first alien said.

“You didn't watch all of the footage, or looked at the datapad his guardian submitted for review.” The woman said.

“I didn't feel like reading through all that schoolwork.”

The woman laughed. “You should have.”

“Why?”

“You'll see.” The woman said and concentrated on throwing her voice into the next room and hit the button to open the closet.

*

“Please take a pillow and move it across the room.” The woman's voice said, and I looked over at the closet.

“Just one pillow?” I asked.

“Yes, just one.” She responded.

“How about the middle one?” I asked and held a hand out to the stack of small square pillows. I formed a box of energy around the others and made it solid, then used what I called 'Presence Hand' to grab the center one and pulled it out of the closet and over to me. I had it hover in front of my chest about two feet above the floor.

“The corner.” I said and pushed it to the corner and stopped just before it hit the wall, then showed off a little and turned the pillow onto its side and put it right into the corner. “The other corner.” I said and pushed the pillow across the room and tucked it into the corner.

“That's fine.” The woman said.

I nodded and quickly tucked the pillow back into the closet in the center spot and absorbed the energy box.

“I assume you can juggle...” The woman started to say.

I smiled as I pulled three balls out of the closet and didn't even bother starting the juggle with my real hands like the other kids did. I only used Presence Hands and moved them in a juggle motion without actually letting them go.

*

“The most the teacher saw him do was hold two of them steady, one in each hand.” The man said. “I knew he must have been hiding his skills the whole time.”

“I don't think so.” The first alien said. “He genuinely struggled during those first few weeks and it got a lot worse with the flash card game.”

“Should we do that next?” The woman asked.

“Yes, but throw him a curve.” The second alien said. “Use the holoscreen here instead of physical cards.”

“You know he can see us, right?” The man asked, and the alien laughed.

“It's a test of how much he can see and what kind of detail.”

*

“We're moving on to the Flash Card game.” The woman said.

I looked in the closet and pulled out the deck of cards.

“Not those.” She said. “I'll look at them here on my screen and you tell me what they are.”

“Is this how you test the other kids?” I asked, and she didn't answer. “I'm not complaining.” I said and smiled. “I'm fine with harder tests.”

“All right.” The woman said. “Begin.”

“A starship. The letter A. A metal cup. The word 'green'.”

“What color is it?” The woman asked.

“Blue.”

She didn't say anything for a moment, then spoke. “Continue.”

“The sun. The letter D. Another starship. A right arrow.”

“I think that's enough.” The woman said. “Please wait a moment.”

*

“I think he's right. We need to use the advanced criteria.” The first alien said.

“He's only five.” The woman said. “We can't just...”

“Who's prejudging him now?” The man said and smiled at her.

The woman took a breath and let it out. “All right.” She said. “I'll agree to advancing up to level three; but, that's as far as I'm willing to go.”

“All right!” The man clapped his hands once. “Abulah, change the room's configuration for the acceleration test.”

“Are you crazy?” The woman asked. “You can't start him with that!”

“Ha ha! You agreed.” The man said. “Just watch this kid. He's going to surprise us all.”

*

“Prepare for room adjustment.” The woman's voice said with a sad tone.

I stayed still and felt the flow of Presence in the room shift and change, then the walls moved out on the sides to reveal a long hallway.

“Stand in the middle of the access-way.” The woman said.

I walked over to the hallway and looked at it. It was about fifty feet long and the flow of Presence increased as I approached the middle.

“Try your best to catch the projectiles... and try not to get hurt.” The woman said.

I heard a puff sound and then something sped towards me down the hallway as the flow of Presence increased to the same intensity that I felt when Emari ran with me in her arms. Since I had lots of practice with meditation and controlling the flow of Presence, when the object was about to hit my face, I used a Presence Hand to catch it. It was a bean bag about the size of my fist.

“You did it.” The woman's voice whispered in relief.

I heard another puff, and another. I waited until they were close enough and I felt the disturbance in the flow of Presence before I easily caught them. I started to smile as the puffs of sound started at a constant rate and I let the other bean bags drop to the floor and concentrated on catching everything that they threw at me.

*

“Add in a single shot from the rear cannon.” The man said to the alien at the controls.

“No!” The woman exclaimed and tried to stop them. “You can't do that!”

The man grabbed her hand. “I just want to see if he's smart enough to choose.”

“I didn't agree to level four!” The woman spat at him.

“They're just bean bags.”

“He's only a child!”

“Is he?” The second alien asked.

*

The bean bags were coming at such a fast rate that I couldn't hear individual puffs anymore. I had to really concentrate to catch them and release them every split second to keep up with the pace, and I started to sweat as my internal Presence drained away like water down the drain.

I felt a disturbance in the flow of Presence behind me and knew they were going to shoot me in the back. “Cowards!” I yelled and formed a box of energy around myself and made it solid with Presence. The bean bags hit it and fell to the floor. “Is that how you killed my parents? Did you shoot them in the back, too?”

“You've taken it too far!” The woman's voice said angrily and she hit the button to clear the viewing window on my side. I had assumed that she wasn't talking to me, and saw the proof as she gestured at the slightly cowering man beside her. “He was just starting to trust us, you ignorant fool!” She nearly yelled. “You've undone a whole year of hard work in only a second!”

“Not really.” I said and they all turned to look at me. “All he did was remind me how awful you people are.”

“Ullir, please.” The woman said, and I thought I recognized her. “Don't let this idiot's actions color your perception of us.”

“You do realize that you are the one that's in the minority, right?” I asked and smiled at her. “You're the one that stands out from the rest.”

The woman wasn't sure how to respond to that.

“Like my guardian, people that actually care about how others feel are pretty rare.” I said and looked at the man and the two aliens. “Everyone else is like them.”

No one said anything, so I crossed my arms and glared at them.

“Are there any other tests that I need to do?” I asked. “Go ahead and drop something on me next. Is there a pit trap under me that I need to hover over?” I looked at their faces and knew at least my guess of the trap was accurate. “If you won't answer that, can you tell me if I passed?”

The woman sighed. “We need to deliberate to determine...”

“Ha.” I absorbed the box of energy from around me. “I know what that means.” I said and turned away from them, then walked over to the door. “It's not automatic?” I asked and concentrated on the panel on the other side of the door and hit the release button. The door opened and I stepped out of the room.

“Ullir!” Emari ran over to me and picked me up to hug me close.

“It didn't take as long as I thought it would for them to try and hurt me.” I said.

Emari gasped and looked into the room, and saw four guilty faces look back at her through the viewing window. “I hope you're ashamed of yourselves!” She said loudly and several people walking by in the hallway looked at us.

“The woman's okay.” I said.

Emari shook her head. “She's the one that told me not to take you to the weekly assembly after that first time.”

“I thought I recognized her.” I said and looked at her. “There's still no time set for a debate, right?” She didn't respond, so I put my arms around Emari's neck to hold on. “Let's go home.”

“Right away.” Emari said and covered us in Presence, then ran as fast as she could.

It took almost a week before the council sent for us, and we dressed in the best outfits that we had. We took our time and walked there instead of running, and the large stone doors were already open. We went inside to the council chamber and stood there in front of them.

“Congratulations, Ullir.” The fluffy puff ball alien said. “You have moved from the first level of training to the third.”

“That's it? I passed level four of the acceleration test and you're only skipping me ahead one level?” I asked, and I saw shock on some of the faces. “You really are assholes, aren't you?”

“We believe that putting a five year old in with the seven year old children will be difficult enough.” The scaly alien said. “Putting you in with eight and nine year old children would be too difficult for you.”

“Despite the evidence you have, and even after I've visited The Wise One?” I asked, and I definitely saw shock on their faces. “What you 'believe' means less than nothing to me.” I said. “But, since I'm only five and can't successfully fight your arrogance and stupidity, I guess I just have to do my penance and go to school with the children while I wait for my chance to escape this place.”

“You're not being held here against your will.” The fluffy puff ball alien said. “We're only concerned about your well-being.”

“Uh huh.” I said. “Say, can you do that invasive compulsion thing to my head again? I've been feeling rebellious and I haven't knelt and praised the goddess in a while.”

Several of the aliens were definitely shocked to hear me say that.

“That's right, you smug bastards.” I laughed. “I'm only five and I'm telling you to your faces that you're hypocrites.” I said. “The next time you want to see me for something, send a holomessage instead and don't bother asking me to come for a visit. Something stinks in here and I can't stand the smell.”

Emari turned us around and walked out of the chamber. No one spoke or tried to stop us.