Y1: Prime Grade

Title: PRIME GRADE
Genre: YA Speculative Fiction
Word Count: 81,000

When a group of teenage rebels challenge the government's Faustian bargain to save humanity through population reduction, genius Delle must detox and reunite with her turncoat father to save Detroit.
As soon as I stepped behind the curtain, I fed the schematic through the grader. I rubbed my arms while I waited, gliding my fingers across the goose-bumps. Why do they keep it so cold in the Testing Center? At least I had something to do with my shaky hands.

I didn’t remember it taking so long at my other Examinations. Maybe Final Examination was different. No clue why. We’d been culled so many times you’d think all the computer had to do was look up my prior scores and spit out my grade.

A drop of sweat snaked its way down my forehead. Weird. I was sweating and freezing at the same time. The sweat burned when it got in my eye, but I didn’t blink. I kept my eyes fixed on the projection. It read “Processing.”

Then:

DELLE JACOBS
D.O.B.: JULY 28, 2058
METRO: DETROIT
FINAL GRADE: PRIME