Chapter 5
Tam
Cynthia is waiting for me in the library lobby when I arrive.
"I booked a study room for us. Thought we could listen to the lecture again and quiz each other on dates and events after."
"Sounds like a plan."
We take the elevator up to the third floor, where the study rooms are. She makes a fist, holding the back of her hand up to the scanner, and the door slides open.
"Did you want to use the whiteboard?" she asks.
"Nah."
"Cool." Cynthia likes to write her notes by hand. She says it helps her memorize the information quicker. I'm more of a take-notes-on-my-tablet kind of guy.
She presses the erase button, and whatever weird equations the previous users had been working on disappear. Grabbing the light pen, she writes, 'History of Equality' across the top of the whiteboard screen in bright pink.
"I'll pull up the lecture," I say.
I prop my tablet up on its stand and project the holographic keyboard on the tabletop so I can take notes. A few clicks later, Mr. Giles' voice is playing on my tablet.
"In the 2020s, an increasing number of laws were passed to address racism, as well as gender and sexual identity inequalities and to protect gender and sexual identity rights. A group of scientists calling themselves ‘Scientists Against Discrimination in Society’ set out to come up with a way to scientifically measure various human traits and characteristics in an effort to be able to quantify discrimination more accurately and thereby allow for better-written laws and enable more effective enforcement to prevent discrimination against oppressed groups. In 2028, they were able to come up with the Beauty Index, which measured how attractive people are. A study was done which confirmed what many already knew—the highest-paid actors, models, and video personalities were overwhelmingly the people with the highest scores on the Beauty Index. The 2030s saw a spate of laws passed to require numerical parity in these jobs as well as wage parity so that the percentage of highest-paid actors, musicians, models, and video personalities who scored 90% or above on the attractiveness scale would be limited to the same percentage of highly attractive people in general society. This revolutionized the entertainment industry and paved the way for thousands of talented but less attractive actors, models, et cetera, to gain employment in starring roles and make higher salaries."
I try to concentrate on the lecture, but all I can think about is the reveal party invitation. This is an opportunity that might only come my way once during high school. The part of me that wants to stay safe and out of trouble is telling me to throw it away. But there's another part of me—the part that's tired of being hidden, of not being known for who I really am—that wants to go.
And I desperately want to talk to Cynthia about it.
"Buoyed by the success of the Beauty Index laws, a group called the Society Against Intelligence Discrimination in the Workplace pushed for an end to all discrimination based on intelligence. Studies showed that the majority of the highest-paid positions, as well as the positions with the most influence in many industries, went to people with higher intelligence quotients. In 2035, after years of protests and lawsuits, a law was passed to require parity for all levels of intelligence in these positions.
"Even with all of these great strides to end discrimination based on identity in the growing number of groups that individuals belonged to, however, the problems only seemed to get worse. The issue became how to properly protect people who belonged to multiple groups. How would society adequately protect the right to not be discriminated against, for instance, in the case of a white lesbian with a high intelligence quotient, who had an average attractiveness quotient, when she was being considered for a job alongside a black heterosexual of average intelligence, who was at the top of the attractiveness scale? Thus began what has been termed the Chaos Period of the Equality Movement.
“Discrimination lawsuits crippled many companies, destroying profits and harming the economy. Rather than the equality laws resulting in a decrease in identity-based hate crimes, there was a steady increase as various groups felt unfairly treated in favor of other groups. Instead of leading to a peaceful, harmonious, and tolerant society, the equality laws seemed to be producing the exact opposite.
"Finally, the SADIS group came to society's rescue once again. In 2045, they debuted the first equality suit. Not only would the suit mask almost all physically unique characteristics of an individual—thus making it nearly impossible to discriminate because everyone appeared essentially the same physically, it would introduce the equality engine—a computer placed in the helmet of the equality suit that would boost the intelligence of the average and below-average person by utilizing advanced AI programming, so that everyone would perform at the same level of intelligence. For those at the genius level, a mental governor would be applied which would not allow them to perform at their full capacity."
Cynthia is busily taking notes on the whiteboard. We're friends, but can I trust her enough to tell her about the reveal party invite? My heart is racing. I simply have to talk to someone about it. I also have to make a decision about whether or not I'm going within the next five hours.
I decide to give her a kind of test. I've brought the insert from the invitation—the one with the black tape on it that I was supposed to use later to cover my helmet camera. I'll show it to her and see how she reacts. If she acts like she doesn't know what it is, or if she acts upset in any way, I'll just have to make the decision on my own. But if she doesn't freak, then maybe she can help me sort this out.
I hit the pause button on the audio. Cynthia stops writing, turns around, and looks at me with a puzzled expression.
There's this thing people do in casual society when they don't want what they're about to do or see to be recorded by the helmet camera—and thus not broadcast to the technology company/government censors. Students use it all the time with each other. You simply cover up the camera with your hand.
I put my hand over my helmet-cam and wait. If she doesn't do the same, then this conversation is over before it begins, and we go back to studying history.
I'm relieved when she responds in kind. Her avatar's quizzical expression changes when I hold up the card with the black tape on it. She holds up a single finger to her avatar's lips and then turns quickly to her backpack, where she retrieves something I can't see and turns her back to me. When she turns back around, she has a piece of green tape covering her camera portal. She hands me a piece of the same tape, and I look down at the floor before putting it over my own camera.
When I look up, she's holding a paper notepad and pen out to me with a two-word question on it:
Reveal party?
I nod my head up and down.
"I think we need to listen to the lecture again. I think I missed some important points," she says aloud.
I hit the replay button on the viewscreen of my tablet, and Mr. Giles' voice begins speaking. She scribbles on the notepad again.
Are you going?
I don't know, I write in response. Have you ever been to one?
No, but a neighbor from back home went to one at her school, and she told me all about it.
What do you think I should do?
What do you want to do?
I stare down at the words on the page and think, the two parts of me struggling against each other—both wanting to win the day and sway me to their side of the argument. If I go and get caught, I'll be expelled from school and be in big trouble with my parents. I may even get sent to reform school. But if I pass up this opportunity, I'll probably never get invited to another reveal party.
I think I might go, I write. I can tell by the mischievous expression on Cynthia's avatar that she's excited for me. It bolsters my confidence, even though I'm still a bit scared.
Good luck, she writes, smiling. You'll have to tell me all about it!
We write back and forth for a few more minutes as I answer her questions about the invitation. When we're done, she removes the sheets we've written on from the tablet, tears them in half, and hands me one of the halves. I'm glad she thought of it. These notes can't ever be read by anyone else. I tuck my half in my backpack as we say our goodbyes.
I feel a gurgle in my stomach as I'm leaving the library and realize I need to eat, so I head over to the dining hall. When I pass a trash receptacle on the way, I stop to fish out my half of our clandestine conversation. I tear the pages in half again, tossing one half into the trash and putting the remainder back in my pack. If I'm going to be attending illegal gatherings and having secret conversations, I'm going to need to bone up on my spycraft.
